ESPN offered an apology on Tuesday; Odell Beckham Jr. had no words to offer.
The Worldwide Leader apologized for airing a skit the previous day, on ESPN2, in which predominantly white fantasy football players participated in an auction to buy several fantasy stars, including Beckham, who is black.
An auction draft — in which fantasy players pay imaginary money for fantasy-purpose ownership of players on sports teams — is commonplace; rendering that world into reality, in which a group of white men raise paddles to purchase a black athlete, had racial undertones that had many people — including Beckham — slamming ESPN for being tone-deaf.
“Speechless” was all Beckham could muster on Twitter, when former Giants defensive tackle Dominique Hamilton shared the video with him.
While ESPN’s “Fantasy Sports Marathon” showed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski, both white, being sold as well, the clip in which Beckham was auctioned went viral.
“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,” the network said in a statement to USA Today Sports. “Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”
In the bit, Beckham — the Giants star, who is represented by his face on a stick that the auctioneer holds in the air — was auctioned off to a group of white people, the winner eventually rising with a big smile. The entirety of the sketch lasted less than 30 seconds, but the optics of the scene enraged many, including Kevin Durant who took a shot at ESPN Tuesday night.
“Bum ass espn running out of ideas….” the Warriors star wrote on Twitter, attached to a photo of the auctioneer holding up Beckham’s face.