One of many NFL’s official slogan goes like this: “Soccer is household.”
And, at occasions, the NFL has to guard the household.
That’s the easiest way to clarify the league’s assertion, dumped into the late Friday afternoon information cycle, concerning the 49ers’ mishandling of working again Christian McCaffrey’s harm standing for Week 1.
To summarize, the 49ers listed McCaffrey as questionable on Saturday with a calf and Achilles harm. He was by no means downgraded. On Monday, ninety minutes earlier than kickoff, his identify appeared on the checklist of inactive gamers.
After working again Jordan Mason let the cat out of the bag following his 28-carry efficiency rather than McCaffrey, PFT requested the league concerning the state of affairs. The remark was, “No remark.”
Right here’s at present’s remark from the league: “We appeared into the 49ers’ reporting of the taking part in standing of Christian McCaffrey for the group’s Monday evening recreation towards the New York Jets. We have now discovered no proof of a violation of the league’s Harm Report Coverage on this matter.”
In the event that they discovered no proof, they weren’t wanting very exhausting. Which is not any shock. The league has little interest in exposing this sort of misconduct by groups, not in a world of widespread legalized playing. If the NFL had whacked the 49ers, the murmurs from those that had been screwed (by way of prop bets and/or fantasy soccer) by the 49ers’ concealment of McCaffrey’s standing would have change into a full-blown uproar.
No, the league has little interest in exposing something that undermines the integrity of the broad vary of wagers which can be made on its product. That’s the quickest strategy to have Congress inserting probes into locations the place these being probed don’t need probes to probe.
In some unspecified time in the future between Saturday and Monday, the 49ers knew McCaffrey’s anticipated availability was lower than 50-50. He didn’t spontaneously slip from the 51-99 p.c vary (which is the that means of “questionable”) to zero p.c within the second the 49ers had been compiling their checklist of inactive gamers. (As Mason tells it, the 49ers knew about it earlier than Saturday.) He ought to have been downgraded, to uncertain or out, sooner or later earlier than the inactive gamers had been recognized.
By whacking the 49ers for this, the NFL would have invited a whacking of its personal. The league’s sports activities ebook companions may need needed to refund bets, which could have prompted them to ask the league to foot the invoice. And the way may anybody even start to unring the bell concerning the mess that the 49ers’ obvious ruse created for fantasy soccer?
No, the NFL beneficial properties nothing by discovering that the 49ers did something improper. Despite the fact that the circumstantial proof and primary widespread sense strongly suggests they did.
Maintain that in thoughts each time the difficulty investigates considered one of its groups. The tip result’s exactly as dependable because the annual audit of Henhouse Industries carried out by the accounting agency of Fox & Coyote, PLLC.
