The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into ESPN NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller, confirming to Awful Announcing in a statement that it has “an open investigation into this issue.”
Our Ben Koo and Brendon Kleen have spent the past week documenting a pattern of complaints tied to Miller’s fantasy football leagues, paid scouting lessons, and other charitable experiences going back nearly a decade. Koo and Kleen spoke to at least seven people who described paying entry fees for charity fantasy leagues Miller ran as commissioner, sometimes with buy-ins as high as $500, only to find him unreachable when it came time to collect winnings or confirm where the charitable portion of the money had gone.
Since publication, Awful Announcing has heard from over 40 more individuals with similar stories, many of whom have sent evidence supporting their accounts. According to the fantasy football platform Sleeper, the account associated with Miller was the commissioner of 91 fantasy leagues during the 2025 season alone.
Since the publication of our article, nearly a dozen more people have come forward with similar stories.
The number of impacted individuals is shocking until you realize that Miller was commissioner of over 90 fantasy football leagues last season.https://t.co/mxahC7a1xV pic.twitter.com/CGuHrpf3Ya
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 1, 2026
Miller was critically injured in a car accident in Missouri earlier this month, an accident that resulted in the amputation of his left arm. His family launched a GoFundMe to cover medical costs, which quickly drew donations from sports media figures including Pat McAfee, Mina Kimes, and Adam Schefter. But the fundraiser also drew renewed attention to a Reddit thread cataloging the payment complaints of participants in Miller’s fantasy football leagues.
Multiple individuals told Koo and Kleen that they received overdue payments only after the thread gained traction and after ESPN employees had reportedly been contacted about the issue, raising questions about the timing of those repayments relative to the network’s own awareness of the situation. Awful Announcing has received evidence that Miller did make payments owed in both the days before and after the accident and the subsequent GoFundMe effort.
Much of the scrutiny of Miller centers on the framing of these leagues and other ventures as being tied to his charitable efforts. Miller has said his 417 Foundation started in 2013, inspired by his mother’s work with low-income preschoolers in Joplin. Public incorporation records instead show the foundation wasn’t formally established in Missouri until December 2018, and it received a cease-and-desist notice about a year later. The foundation has never filed a Form 990 with the IRS, its website is no longer active, and its social media account stopped posting in 2021, even though Miller continued advertising 417 Foundation fantasy leagues as recently as May 2022. In recent years, Miller has described his charitable efforts as being tied to a new nonprofit.
ESPN did not comment when Koo and Kleen asked about the GoFundMe, the surrounding allegations, or Miller’s future at the network. Miller, when contacted directly by Awful Announcing, asked that questions be sent to him by email as he continues his recovery, and AA held its original story a day to give him the chance to respond, though nothing came back before publication.
ESPN again declined to comment for this story.
Despite weeks of accusations circulating on social media, local and national outlets have largely stayed away from the story, including since our own findings were published yesterday. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is now soliciting complaints directly from anyone with relevant information, including those who are not Missouri residents. A consumer complaint can be filed online or by phone through the Consumer Protection team at 800-392-8222.
“The Missouri Attorney General’s Office encourages consumers who believe they have been misled to contact us,” the office said in a statement to USA Today Sports. “Attorney General [Catherine] Hanaway takes consumer protection very seriously, and we will work diligently to uncover the facts.”
Ben Ferree and Ben Koo contributed to this article.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.