ESPN lands in hot water for Fantasy Football skit auctioning off black NFL players

So, New York Giants star Odell Beckham didn’t take kindly to being “sold” in an NFL auction for $34.

After ESPN aired an online auction for its 28-hours of Fantasy Football marathon, Beckham was asked his response -- a black man being sold to a white man on national TV, just a few days after the incidents in Charlottesville, VA, where a 32-year-old woman was killed and nearly 20 injured after a car rammed into some counter-protesters in town along with a group of white nationalists who led a rally there.

Beckham’s answer was appropriate.

ESPN caught a lot of heat on social media Tuesday for the segments. Auction drafts are common, but seeing one like this, with the auctioneer holding a photo of the black players, attached to popsicle sticks, while selling them to a predominately white crowd was just...startling.

First let’s show you a bit more of what aired.

Here’s some of the reaction, first from outspoken New York Daily News columnist Shaun King

On Tuesday, ESPN made a statement to USA Today, apologizing for the segments.

"Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football,” it read, “and ESPN’s segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse slate of top professional football players. Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 7:26 PM with the headline "ESPN lands in hot water for Fantasy Football skit auctioning off black NFL players."