Christian McCaffrey has caused shockwaves in the league and this time, he wasn’t even on the field. The reason why he wasn’t on the field wasn’t the real issue. The issue was that the San Francisco 49ers reportedly knew about issues related to his calf and chose to withhold it until 90 minutes before the kickoff. Imagine how irked the footballs might have been.

To make things worse, Jordan Mason was caught lacking when the media asked him about McCaffrey’s absence and said that he was told Friday that he would start against the Jets. People want the NFL to probe the 49ers for mishandling the critical innformation and one of the prominent people to speak up about it was Mike Florio of NBC.

“After Jordan Mason said what he said, again, Kyle Shanahan said, ‘I never told him that,’ well, hey Kyle, somebody did. And then when Jordan Mason had his press availability, he’s like, ‘that’s why I don’t like talking to the media, yeah, I might accidentally say something I shouldn’t say that just to happens to be the truth.’ And I credit him for telling the truth,” Florio said on NFL on NBC on YouTube.

This didn’t just affect the football fans, but also those who participate in fantasy football and had money tied up in a sportsbook. Since monetary gains from fantasy sports are legal now, withholding information of such a key injury could not only anger the fans, but also hamper the team’s relationship with the league, the fantasy football companies and the NFL too.

An astonishing fact about fantasy football is that NFL stands to make about $2.3 billion a year by collaboration with sportsbook giants like Caesars, FanDuel and DraftKings, per American Gaming Association. Hence NFL is also getting a major chunk of revenue from all the transactions. In the world of sports, you can bank on most absurd things and football is no different. So, hiding McCaffrey’s injury is a huge deal, especially when the fans have their over-under’s and spreads already in place. What happens those millions of dollars at stake?

This situation sounds very familiar with that of Joe Burrow. In week 11 of last season, Joe Burrow suffered a major setback after Ravens‘ Jadeveon Clowney hit him, resulting in a ligament tear of Burrow’s wrist. Really? Was it Clowney who really did that or was it because the Bengals hid a pre-existing condition that Burrow had? The internet caught the Cinci team lacking when they uploaded a video of Burrow arriving in Baltimore with his wrist in wraps. Does that mean he was forced to play?

The shady thing about the whole situation is that the Bengals deleted that video from their social media later. What’s even rousing is the fact that Burrow went out on what looked like a non-contact injury. Zac Taylor, the Bengals head coach, shrugged it off by saying “Not that I’m aware of,” when asked about the QBs pre-existing conditions. Michael Hurley of CBS covered the news and had an interesting take on the debacle.

“Officially, the NFL requires teams to report injuries so that teams are on a level playing field in terms of strategy. Unofficially, the NFL requires teams to report injuries so that the betting world knows how to approach the game,” wrote Hurley in the column.

Let’s talk about McCaffrey’s injury a bit and what Jordan Mason said about getting the starting job in the season opener against the New York Jets.

The San Francisco 49ers accidentally slip up

CMC was a limited participant in the practices leading up to the season opener against the Jets. He had been on the injury reserve before the game due to issues with his calf and Achilles. But Christian McCaffrey being on the IR is not the problem here. The problem is the wrong designation of his status when it’s supposed to be a public knowledge.

In the post-game presser, Lisa Salters of ESPN asked Mason of the time he got to know that he had the starting job. Mason, who had a career best game with 147 rushing yards and a touchdown said, “Maybe Friday, Friday night. Something like that.” At that point, it was hard to ignore what the Niners running back had said and put two and two together. The Bay Area team won 32-19, but they had a lot of uncomfortable question waiting outside the football field.

When the media pressed the RB some more, he denied commenting further. “That question right there …” Mason said haltingly. “That’s why I don’t like really talking to the media because you say one thing wrong and then … I don’t know. Just skip that question.” Kyle Shanahan knew he had to circumvent the situation. So, he had some answers of his own.

The Niners head coach implored that McCaffrey wasn’t just suffering from a calf injury, but also mentioned how “the Achilles has tendinitis, and that stuff comes and goes.” But here’s the real kicker—Shanahan believes that if it were playoff level stakes, McCaffrey would have participated, just like he did in the playoff game against the Packers last season. McCaffrey suffered a calf injury in week 17, stayed out in week 18, but returned in the playoff game.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, what do you think about the whole situation? Were the Niners too late to inform America of this unmissable information? Will the NFL take action against the San Francisco 49ers? Let us know what you think in the comments.