NBC Sports’ Mike Florio called out the NFL Friday for finding no wrongdoing by the San Francisco 49ers in their handling of Christian McCaffrey’s injury designation.
McCaffrey, of course, surprisingly missed the team’s win Monday night against the New York Jets, after being listed as “questionable” with an Achilles/calf injury. However, after the game, running back Jordan Mason, who starred in CMC’s absence, accidentally revealed he had been told Friday he would get the start.
That, of course, would seem to indicate a clear violation of the NFL’s Injury Report Policy. If the 49ers strongly suspected McCaffrey would miss the game, or definitely knew he would be out, he should have been downgraded to “doubtful” or “out” before the inactive list was released for Monday’s game.
So the NFL conducted an investigation into the issue, which cleared the 49ers of any wrongdoing. That conclusion led Florio to wonder just how hard the NFL actually investigated the matter.
“If they found no evidence, they weren’t looking very hard. Which is no surprise,” Florio wrote on NBCSports.com. “The league has no interest in exposing this type of misconduct by teams, not in a world of widespread legalized gambling. If the NFL had whacked the 49ers, the murmurs from those who were screwed (via prop bets and/or fantasy football) by the 49ers’ concealment of McCaffrey’s status would have become a full-blown uproar.
“No, the league has no interest in exposing anything that undermines the integrity of the broad range of wagers that are made on its product. That’s the quickest way to have Congress inserting probes into places where those being probed don’t want probes to probe.”
The fact the NFL dropped the results Friday, the day organizations release information they want to be overlooked (hence the term “Friday News Dump”) made the situation look worse.
So did the fact that The Athletic reported earlier this week a league source said there was no indication the NFL was investigating the matter.
So to recap: The NFL did not immediately label this investigation a priority, then “investigated” it in the space of about 72 hours, only to release the results at the best possible time to hide them. Nothing to see here, folks, let’s move along.
The NFL’s huge TV numbers are, like it or not, heavily driven by interest from gamblers, not just the traditional heavy hitters at the sportsbooks, but now millions more who place online prop bets. Then there are the countless fans who play fantasy football. All these people need reliable injury information. Social media lit up Monday night with fantasy players angry about McCaffrey’s inactive status.
Florio concluded by saying the NFL has too much invested in that relationship with sportsbooks to admit that it, or its teams, are not policing matters to ensure everyone has accurate information.
“No, the NFL gains nothing by finding that the 49ers did anything wrong,” Florio wrote. “Even though the circumstantial evidence and basic common sense strongly suggests they did.
“Keep that in mind whenever the issue investigates one of its teams. The end result is precisely as reliable as the annual audit of Henhouse Industries conducted by the accounting firm of Fox & Coyote, PLLC.”
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.