NFL Fan loses $1 million at Draft Kings after stat change

[Ian]

Man...this is a bummer:



The league is notorious for this stuff. They even do it weeks later in some cases, making it very hard to keep up with but obviously this guy is most definitely disappointed.

 

[Sciz]

Yeah, it's crazy how big of an impact such a small decision can have. It swung my work league fantasy matchup in my favor so I'm now that much closer to getting $10 for making the playoffs.

 

[Jlaff]

Would it have been too hard for Florio to have posted a gif of the play?

 

[JayNM]

"Listed as a sack at the time, the official scorer changed the designation upon noticing that receivers appeared to be blocking."

appeared to be blocking in the whole 1 to 3 seconds the play mustve went on

F. Just... F

 

[brdmaverick]

Kind of weird that someone goes back and studies these plays.

I mean, I could somewhat understand if there was a 'player challenge process' like in baseball where a guy would request a review of a stat. But that definitely didn't happen in this case. I can't imagine someone on the offense being like 'no, that wasn't a sack. Take another look it was just a tackle for a loss.'

 

[brdmaverick]

But yeah, tough tough break for THAT guy

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

The Cop in me would check the stat guys phone for calls from Draftkings.

a lot easier to pay the stat guy a few thousand. This is the problem with the league getting in bed with these companies. It’s so easy to fix this. Instead of a million the guy win a little over $3,000. Which is good for Draftkings and their major investor, the NFL.

plus you are playing against computers. These fantasy sports are all’s scam! It’s like online poker, I remember ten years ago telling a buddy, I’m sure there is some kid somewhere who can see everyone’s cards, and sure enough there was!

and Facebook, don’t get me started. I’ll just end with “get off my lawn”!

 

[Ian]

Kind of weird that someone goes back and studies these plays.

I mean, I could somewhat understand if there was a 'player challenge process' like in baseball where a guy would request a review of a stat. But that definitely didn't happen in this case. I can't imagine someone on the offense being like 'no, that wasn't a sack. Take another look it was just a tackle for a loss.'

Here's a good example. If you go back to the Denver game they lost in the AFC Championship game during the 2015/16 postseason, everyone probably remembers how tough they were on Brady, with the Broncos' defense being credited with 20 QB hits in that frustrating loss. That was the big discussion following that game, aside from Gronk's other-worldly 4th QTR performance. Oddly enough, at some point, the league later revised it to 17. So I guess they do have people who sit there and look at that stuff even well after the fact...it's pretty crazy. I never thought about it affecting something like this though...I would be losing my mind if it was me.

 

[XLIX]

I cannot imagine the depths of despair I would sink to if I thought I won a cool mil, only to lose it the next day.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

The Cop in me would check the stat guys phone for calls from Draftkings.

a lot easier to pay the stat guy a few thousand. This is the problem with the league getting in bed with these companies. It’s so easy to fix this. Instead of a million the guy win a little over $3,000. Which is good for Draftkings and their major investor, the NFL.

plus you are playing against computers. These fantasy sports are all’s scam! It’s like online poker, I remember ten years ago telling a buddy, I’m sure there is some kid somewhere who can see everyone’s cards, and sure enough there was!

and Facebook, don’t get me started. I’ll just end with “get off my lawn”!

Whoa. I totally believe this. If Tim Donoughy is real which he is, I totally believe a $10k under the table payment to the stat guy to save 1 million bucks.

.

 

[XLIX]

Whoa. I totally believe this. If Tim Donoughy is real which he is, I totally believe a $10k under the table payment to the stat guy to save 1 million bucks.

.

The company still paid out the million, only it was split among 5 other players. So they didn’t save anything.

 

[XLIX]

Go to the 10:30 mark, but you’d need some other angle to see all the WRs downfield.

 

[Joey007]

I made my fantasy playoffs one time and ended up missing due to a stat correction that ended up in me losing.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

The company still paid out the million, only it was split among 5 other players. So they didn’t save anything.

Ok. Thanks. So really sucks for that guy

 

[Koma]

Go to the 10:30 mark, but you’d need some other angle to see all the WRs downfield.

Thanks for posting that. It would be helpful to see what the receivers were doing on that play. Given the situation in the game (3rd and 9, Rams up by 2 scores, 3 minutes to go in the game, Bears with only 1 TO remaining), I can see how a designed QB run would make sense to keep the clock running. On the other hand, I don't think it would be out of character for a Sean McVay offense to throw in that situation. Also, if it was a pass play, I think Goff would have tucked the ball away and tried to run once he realized there was a defender right on him and he no time to throw. Unless someone from the Rams was able to tell me that a running play was called in that situation, I'd have stuck with the original ruling of a sack.

There are probably other examples of this, but I grew skeptical of the official scorers when Manning set the recording for passing yards in a season (along with the TD pass record) in 2013. There was a play where Manning threw a backwards pass, but the scorers opted to have it count as a completion instead of a running play. Manning ended up setting the yardage record by 1 yard. The reason this stuck with me is that, 2 years earlier, Brady and Gronk hooked up for a short TD that was initially ruled a TD pass, but was later ruled to be a lateral and a rushing TD. Technically, it was probably the right call and Gronk still ended up setting the record for TD receptions by a TE that season. Seeing a similar play by Manning being ruled a pass made me think that, sometimes, these scorers might allow themselves to be influenced by the circumstances or players involved.

 

[brdmaverick]

I cannot imagine the depths of despair I would sink to if I thought I won a cool mil, only to lose it the next day.

Agreed. Like how do you recover from that.....and on something so trivial?!?!?!

I mean, that would drive me nuts.

After all, a ref could rule a play a completion and later see that it actually hit the ground...…...no matter how obvious it is you can not change that stat call.

So you can't change that, but they care to change something like a forward pass TD to a rush TD if they see it was actually a lateral. I'm pretty sure this happened to Brady (in his early days in Buffalo). He had a pass TD taken away b/c officials later ruled it was a lateral to Kevin Faulk and not a forward pass. Let me see if I can dig that up.

 

[brdmaverick]

The reason this stuck with me is that, 2 years earlier, Brady and Gronk hooked up for a short TD that was initially ruled a TD pass, but was later ruled to be a lateral and a rushing TD.

I remember that play well. It was 2011 vs Indy. I was facing my brother in fantasy football. I had Gronk and he had Brady. He had the upper hand b/c he was gloating that any Gronk TD would be a TD for him, too (since he had Brady).

Well, lo and behold, Gronk has his only rush TD of his career!