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EAGLES RUNNING BACK Lesean McCoy went on radio in Philadelphia yesterday and told yet another damaging story about the NFL’s replacement refs. Here’s what he said (via CBS Philly):
“They’re like fans, kind of though. I’ll be honest, they’re like fans. One of the refs was talking about his fantasy team, like ‘McCoy, come on, I need you for my fantasy [team],’ ahhh, what?!”
If true, this allegation is a huge deal. While fantasy football isn’t popularly thought of as gambling, many fantasy leagues have a buy-in or some monetary element to make sure people don’t neglect their teams.
Needless to say, an NFL ref officiating a game in which he has some sort of financial stake is a big conflict of interest. McCoy went on to describe how the replacement refs can be influenced by star players: “During the game, they made like a bad call or something, the ref, and I see Ray Lewis like pump his chest up, trying to scare him. Don’t you know [the ref] started stuttering? I’m like ‘what’s this?!’”
Week two has been a disaster for replacement refs. In addition to a litany of bad calls, one ref was removed from a game for being an enormous Saints fan, and last night’s Monday Night Football game was a four-hour disaster.
This fantasy football thing is probably the worst anecdote yet though.
