Timeline of Mason learning he's starting compared to injury report | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

let's go there because I've been waiting for my little rant about how last night was handled and this isn't a criticism of the 49ers as much as is an indictment of the NFL's injury reporting system and in an age of legalized gambling where you can bet to win straight up money line you can bet with the spread you can do over unders and you can do that whole universe of prop bets Christian mcaffrey over under 78 and half rushing yards 0. five touchdowns all those different little permutations where they'll take your money they'll take your money on anything you want to bet on because the house is going to win over time they know that that's why it's so popular the house is going to win give us your money if they were going to lose they wouldn't even be in the business they're in the business because they win and they make money that's how it works so the way that this is allowed to happen Christian McCaffrey's got the calf injury that we knew about and then I should have this is where my Spidey sent have taken over on Thursday of last week when we're scurrying around to get ready for the the Chiefs Ravens game while also dodging lightning bolts at Arrowhead Stadium when it comes out that mcaffrey has calf and achilles that was the first red flag calf and achilles well Achilles well it's the same general area Achilles Achilles can be a little more of a problem as we learned last year on the opening Monday night of the season so he's limited on Thursday he's limited on Friday he's limited on Saturday because for the Monday night game you get the final injury report on Saturday and they apply the questionable label how everybody's questionable no how how rare is it that someone's doubtful and when they're doubtful they might as well be out like yeah they should have at least put doubtful on mcaffrey because after the game last night Lisa saers gets Jordan Mason and says when didd you find out you were starting he said Friday Friday night something like that oops what whoa wait a minute Friday wait a minute we still had another day of injury we still haven't put the label on chran mcaffrey so he's told on Friday get ready you're starting and that's what he said that's what he said Kyle shann said I never told him that okay I don't care that's what he said I don't expect when the cat is out of the bag I don't expect the 49ers to acknowledge it that is what he said on national TV I was told Friday or Friday night I was starting and on Saturday they put questionable on mcaffrey Devin that's a here's why that's a problem in 2018 when the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for state-by-state legalized gambling the NFL had two choices one we continue to hate gambling we continue to oppose gambling we don't want our teams to be involved in any way shape or form we encourage our fans to stay away from it The House Always Wins we shun it no matter how many states it's legal in we shun it or we can make a little money off of this we can have all these Partnerships and the one thing Devon that they won't talk about how many owners exercise their their prerogative to own up to 5% of a company that has a sports book operation we know rkk has had a piece of DraftKings for a long time we know that it's been publicly reported Jerry Jones piece of DraftKings how many owners have a piece of these companies that are the house so the problem is if you're going to be that embedded with gambling you can't have a system that has a bunch of people whether you're in a for money fantasy football league and you had the first overall pick and you took Christian mcaffrey you got prop bets on Christian m Cy you can't have that turd land in the punch bowl an hour before kickoff it can't happen that way when the team knew three days before that that guy wasn't playing you would know better than me is there can you be punish for how you put a guy how a guy shows up on the injury report like if they find out let's say CH Chris mcaffrey on Friday and Saturday all he did was go through warm-ups and that's why he was limited can like does that have to be reported as doubtful or are you always okay as long as you put some kind of designation that he might be out well I think in a lot of these cases Devon they could if they really wanted to unleash the hounds the way that some teams I'm not going to mention any specific teams that might play at Gillette Stadium but some teams if they ever run questionable slightly well but but my point is they come after you guys for certain things that we've you know talked about in past years where they they activate the full weight of the NFL investigative process on certain teams like the Patriots but for the most part I think they don't like to investigate they don't like to go down rabbit holes because they don't want to have to let the world see yeah we got some stuff going on that pun intended is questionable so I I think they could I don't think they will I asked the league after Jordan Mason said what he said and again Kyle Shannon said well I never told him that well hey somebody did and then when Jordan Mason had his press availability he's like I that's why I don't like talking to the media yeah oh I might accidentally say something I shouldn't say that just so happens to be the truth and I I credit him for telling the truth if that I why why would we doubt him when he accidentally told the truth when he probably shouldn't have said Friday so I I think the league could but I don't think they will because they don't want it to become a thing they don't want us to be talking about it they don't want more people to be talking about it I was surprised last night in the postgame coverage they weren't making a bigger deal about this but hey I mean I'm not trying to be critical here we've got DraftKings relationship but we're not the house like ESPN is everywhere you look it's ESPN bet they're the house too so there's a point where they're going to stop they're not going to they're not going to shine too much of a light on what happened but I I that's the first when when because the whole time I'm thinking they knew mcaffrey wasn't playing they they they they kept it under wraps they knew he wasn't playing they got Jordan Mason ready and the Jets had no idea until the rest of us did and that's a real strategic Advantage but the whole time I'm thinking they knew they knew and when that came out of Jordan Mason's mouth it's like yeah they they they knew and they kept it quiet and it's all fair in the confines of trying to win the game but because of all these tentacles and connections to gambling that's where I think a greater obligation arises to let the rest of the world know what's going on and that's where I always like whenever I used to see these things I would read one of your articles or something like that I'm like who cares because being a player I'm thinking about hey there's always a guy going through something and we get the backup ready and the backup's ready to go and maybe the Friday or Saturday practice the backup gets more of the first team reps because now it seems like Christian mcaffrey can't go so Mason's getting more rep to me that's normal now on the other side I'm sitting there waiting for my daughter last night to finished cheer practice and me and my my oldest son were sitting out there watching the the third graders tackle football practice and the guy next to me gets on the phone he was like Chris mcaffry is inactive I was like Chris mcaffrey isn't inactive they would have like I would have saw that come up he was doubtful or something and I go on my phone he's inactive and then a guy in my fantasy league he's playing against somebody who has Christian mcaffrey he drops a player and he picks up Mason just to sit him on the bench to make sure that he can't get him and like as soon as that happens it transpired so fast my other friend got in the group chat and said man I was I took a nap I come back and chrisan mcaffry is inactive and I see the impact of that and I'm still the guy who as a a former player I'm like it's all about the game but you have to understand the business and the element of that of how much money is a loss by so many different people when it comes to these things so I think it is important to just pay attention to him and see how it it works out and I agree with you I don't think the league digs too deep into this because I think what happened in San Francisco is a very normal thing a guy's questionable we're just doing our job as a team to make sure somebody's ready we might have told him on Friday shoot we might have told him on Thursday but it doesn't mean that we didn't Hope Christian mcaffry came back and would be able to start or maybe we thought he would start at Chris mcaffry would still play like all of those things come up in meetings or are discussed so um I I do think the way that the 49ers did it if I was a coach I would have handled it the same way but I understand how that impacts so many other things first of all who cares is a very common reaction to most of the stuff we write which is still better than don't waste your time reading that crap which Aaron Rogers said eight years ago but it's the system that allows it that's what my concern is the NFL has created and maintained a system that allows that kind of game and ship it rewards it that's why the the Patriots would have 40 guys questionable I remember some of those injury reports like everybody's questionable all those years before you were in New England Tom Brady right shoulder probable back when probable was one of the CU they saw him walking around in the locker room with ice on his shoulder after throwing 40 passes in a game hey what's wrong with his shoulder why isn't he on the injury report it's like screww it let's just put him on every single week then if that's what you want we'll put him on every single week is probable with the right shoulder so yeah from the perspective of all the different people out there who are affected by this because of the fact that the NFL went straight into bed with gambling if they had said we want nothing to do with y none of our owners can hold a piece of a Sportsbook company we will take no gambling money we are going to completely and totally distance oursel from it that's different but when you make it one of your major revenue streams and you let the owners own up to 5% of the house that's where it becomes a problem and hey Devon here's one of the reasons why I always point this out we're just one Scandal away from Congress going up everyone's ass with a microscope pardon the expr to find out what happened and who did this and who did that and maybe we need an agency that has oversight of the NFL and nobody wants that they got to take care of their they got to take care of their backyard or somebody else is going to take care of it for them and I keep waiting because I know it's coming there's going to be some major like Tim Don style thing that calls into question the Integrity of everything and that's why when something like this happens we can't just ignore it we got to say hey we got to clean this up cuz I'm sure there were a lot of people last night who like if you had Christian mcaffry and all your other players have played who you going to drop to get Jordan Mason you're going to drop Christian mcaffry to get Jordan Mason I don't think so yeah it's so true and I agre I think that is the biggest thing it's an issue let the minds that come together come together and find a way to correct this to make it right and explain it to everyone I bet you if they bring all the owners and then they say this is why it's important that will come down to the head coaches and to the team right away because again those players all those they don't see the 5% in DraftKings they like they don't see that that Revenue share like yes it comes back overall under the bigger pot but the owners who are in there like that is their Investments that's the things that they're into that they get to do so again I think most of the time all of this start all of this stuff starts at the top you go in there start at the top it will always trickle down to everybody else because when the bottom line gets impacted you're going to make sure your employees because at the end of the day that's everybody else is and all of those facilities their employees to the owners of these teams they will make sure they all on the right path they will make sure they do it right because if not they get fined or the issue comes to the owner and to the organization not to the coach or to the player hey Devin I may need to get a little refresher on the rules here but I'm 99.9% sure players can't buy any shares in DraftKings or fanduel's parent company flutter you can't hold stock you can't can't have ownership Equity you can't you know you see LeBron James doing NFL betting commercials cuz the players can't you're at the Super Bowl the 49ers and the Chiefs you can't stop you have to like walk like I did from the wrong spot to the right spot the other night when you're in a casino get right through there you can't stop don't pause you're I mean so all the rules that apply to the players and oh the the owners can own up to 5% and I asked the League last year well can we get a list of which owners own which oh no no comment no comment no comment yeah they don't want us talking about it because they don't want people to realize there's a problem here because the obligation and this is the last thing I'm going to say about it the obligation for the league to get their together on this is enhanced when owners are allowed to be the house that's the fundamental problem and if they're not going to tell us which owners own a piece of the house that makes it all seem even more shady frankly somebody's going to get a phone call today and it's probably going to be me shady and just it's just there's something about it that doesn't sit well hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk