ESPN Apologizes for Fantasy Football Auction — Here's Why

ESPN apologized Tuesday for a fantasy football auction segment, which critics on social media said resembled a slave auction. 

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As part of its multichannel multiplatform, "Fantasy Football Marathon," the sports channel had fantasy competitors bidding for NFL players of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

While white players, like New England quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski, were part of the draft, the footage of an auctioneer "selling" New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to what appeared to be an assemblage of mostly white bidders led to criticism online. 

"Speechless," said Beckham, who fetched US$34 in the ESPN auction, in response to a question about it.

Controversy over the auction comes after white nationalists led a rally in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend, where a 32-year-old woman died and nearly 20 people were injured when a car rammed into a group of counter protesters.

ESPN, which prides itself on "inclusion and sensitivity," explained their intent and apologized after the piece had run.

"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 said in a statement Tuesday. "Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize."

ESPN’s segment was a television representation of a fantasy football drafting system that is widely used in leagues all over the country. More than 57 million people played fantasy football in 2015, with millions of dollars spent on the leagues.

"Certainly, a situation like this calls into question whether ESPN has enough people in leadership positions who would instinctively understand and make note of the potential reaction to this segment,"  Matthew Zimmerman, an assistant professor of sport studies at Mississippi State University, told USA Today.