A sketch ESPN created to promote fantasy football produced some major backlash Tuesday, forcing the company to eventually apologize (albeit in a limited way), and leading to later criticism from the likes of Giants’ receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and others. This was done as part of their returning fantasy football marathon, but it didn’t get the expected result. Here’s the sketch, which featured a live “auction” with fantasy football experts holding up paddles to bid on different players:
ESPN definitely has some explaining to do with this one. Yikes. All my group chats are buzzing about this. pic.twitter.com/5PAQuPgiv9
— Jessie (One ??) (@JMKTV) August 15, 2017
This took a lot of criticism, especially for its seeming similarity to historical slave auctions:
I don't think the intent was anything racial (their journalism & hires speak for itself) but the optics are not great. Bad mistake. https://t.co/kbRdGJbs3D
— Jessie (One ??) (@JMKTV) August 15, 2017
Dear @ESPN,
Apologize now for doing a sketch where you auctioned a Black man off to the highest bidder. pic.twitter.com/D8SC1cjhBU
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 15, 2017
Really @espn?
An all white auction bidding on Black athletes?
Save your crappy prewrittern pr excuse; I'm disgusted ??#BoycottESPN pic.twitter.com/myGKRoxJDK— EmmanTheMann (@EPierre_Libra93) August 15, 2017
So @espn who's idea was it to auction off football players ?? U guys might wanna address this optic sooner than later
— OldMan Ebro (@oldmanebro) August 15, 2017
I can't get a FT media job but there's someone at ESPN who's like "black athlete auction sketch? sounds risky better get an all-white crowd" https://t.co/oOr9FcdCw7
— Mike Tunison (@xmasape) August 15, 2017
Here’s the statement ESPN sent to BlackSportsOnline’s Robert Littal and others after this took major criticism:
“Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football, and ESPN’s segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse slate of top professional football players. Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”
That’s a pretty halfhearted apology, though, and it’s notable that ESPN was put on further blast by Beckham after a follower tweeted this sketch at him:
Ummm @OBJ_3 what's sup with this racist sketch. https://t.co/KBj3m1sa4h
— Dominique Hamilton (@Underrated_Dom) August 15, 2017
Speechless. https://t.co/CddZ917y4u
— Odell Beckham Jr (@OBJ_3) August 15, 2017
It’s understandable how ESPN came up with this concept; as their statement notes, auction drafts are a thing in fantasy football. But it’s also very understandable why this took backlash, and why the optics of a bunch of people who were mostly white men explicitly bidding on a black athlete in an in-person auction didn’t look great to the wider world. This didn’t accomplish what ESPN intended, and for that alone, it should have been more carefully considered.
[Jessie Karangu on Twitter]