The San Francisco 49ers continue to come under fire for potentially cheating with information the league requires them to release to the public on injuries. A sportsbook in Las Vegas is publicly calling on the NFL to investigate the 49ers for how they listed Christian McCaffrey’s injury status in Week 1.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan listed McCaffrey as questionable to play the New York Jets with a calf/Achilles injury. Following the 49ers win on Monday night, running back Jordan Mason said the 49ers had made him aware on Friday that he would be the starting running back against the Jets.
Mason corrected his statement in a later press conference, and Shanahan denied telling Mason he’d be the starting running back on Monday night. But the 49ers have a questionable past with the injury report, including how they handled Dre Greenlaw’s Achilles injury during February’s Super Bowl.
Should the San Francisco 49ers be investigated for potentially cheating?
Via Gilberto Monzano with Sports Illustrated, Jay Kornegay, operator of the Westgate Superbook, called for the league to investigate whether the 49ers withheld McCraffrey’s true game designation from the public.
“There needs to be an investigation,” said Korneygay. “The trainers know [about Mason’s start], his teammates know. There’s a number of people that know that and it spreads very quickly, especially in a situation like that.
“Being an operator, that’s very concerning that it’s not announced publicly. It was tight-lipped within the organization, but it could be his agent for goodness sake [who shares the information]. It could be his agent’s sister for all we know.
The betting market changed off the injury report
The 49ers’ decision to start Mason changed betting lines. Per the SI report, Westgate had to rush to change the odds on Mason scoring the first touchdown of the game Monday night. The odds of Mason scoring the first touchdown changed from 30-1 odds (before McCaffrey was officially ruled out) to 6-1.
The league has looked into the issue before, They punished the Atlanta Falcons for not being forthcoming on Bijan Robinson’s headache in Week 7 last year.
The league is heading into dangerous territory
The league doesn’t plan to investigate the 49ers for potentially cheating (the 49ers would gain an advantage by having personnel information over the opposing coaching staff) on the injury report.
The information on injury reports has always been somewhat sketchy. Coaches don’t like to give out information they don’t have to.
But the NFL is now wading into sketchy waters in the sports gambling market.
The league needs to regulate the injury report so teams cannot cheat, and the public has the same information about the betting market that owners of the team, who can own a stake in a sports betting company, do.
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