The NFL has a responsibility to its fans to examine the San Francisco 49ers for possible cheating before their Week 1 game against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football.
Running back Jordan Mason, the 49ers’ star of Monday’s victory, spilled the beans on his head coach perhaps trying to gain an advantage against the New York Jets defense. Mason dominated on the ground, carrying 28 times for 147 yards and a touchdown.
During his post-game interview with Lisa Salters, Mason told ESPN reporter Lisa Salters that the 49ers had informed him that he will start running back on Friday.
On Friday, Christian McCaffery was classified as dubious.
On Friday’s injury report, head coach Kyle Shanahan listed Christian McCaffrey as questionable for the Jets game. If the 49ers understood McCaffrey’s chances of participating were limited, they should have considered him doubtful. If he had a 0% probability of playing, he should have been eliminated.
Mason’s comment appears to shed light on Shanahan’s attempt to gain an advantage over the Jets by having their coaching staff plan for McCaffrey while the 49ers had no plans to start or use the star running back.
Shanahan disputed that he decided to start Mason before Monday night. Shanahan stated that “God” must have informed someone that McCaffrey would not play against the Jets because he was unaware of McCaffrey’s status on Friday.
“I never told Jordan he was going to start,” Shanahan said, responding to a reporter’s query after Monday night’s game. “I told him he needed to be really prepared. However, it is possible that Bobby [Turner] or someone else was attempting to boost his confidence. But I knew he would have to play a lot. “I told him it wasn’t going to be like usual.”
A spokeswoman for the NFL told The Athletic on Tuesday that the league had no plans to investigate the suspected cheating controversy.
The league looked into a similar issue last year, when Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson missed the majority of the team’s October game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to a headache. Robinson stated after the game that he had not been feeling well the day before, but the Falcons did not include his ailment on the injury report.
The league penalized the Falcons and their owner, Arthur Smith.
The league must investigate the suspected offense. Because if the 49ers knew McCaffrey wouldn’t play but still considered him questionable, they would have illegally altered how the Jets prepared for the game.
Sports bettors were likely to be interested in McCaffrey’s game status. The more the league gets involved in gambling, and the more owners are allowed to get involved in sports gambling, the more murky these types of mistakes get.
