Odell Beckham Jr. left ‘speechless’ as ESPN apologizes for racist fantasy football segment
ESPN has apologized for a “racist” fantasy football segment that many people said was too similar to a slave auction.
The segment featured players being sold off to a crowd of mostly white people, and while there were a few white players involved, the image of mostly black players being sold to the white crowd was too much like a slave auction for many people to stomach.
One of the players, Odell Beckham Jr., was “sold” for $34, and when the skit was brought to Beckham’s attention, he said that he was left simply “speechless” by the whole thing.
ESPN has since put out an explanation and apology.
— KKK leader is ‘glad that girl died’ during Charlottesville protest —Â
https://twitter.com/rjasonscales/status/897243556041170944
“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,” ESPN told USA TODAY Sports. “Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”
It is true that in fantasy sports, players are drafted to a fantasy team. In some cases, the draft stage is played like an auction, with the fantasy sport player starting out with a limited amount of money to spend on “drafting” the players.
However, given the political and social climate lately, to say that this sketch was a bad idea is nothing short of an understatement.
Speechless. https://t.co/CddZ917y4u
— Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) August 15, 2017
