ESPN had to apologize for a segment they did during their Fantasy Sports Marathon. They held a draft via an auction to select NFL players to teams. Things quickly went left when Alan Wheeler, the auctioneer, held a photo of the player on a stick and began to take bids. It was reminiscent of a slave auction.
Odell Beckham Jr. who was sold for $34 dollars responded to the segment on Twitter by simply stating "Speechless."
ESPN responded to the criticism by stating that "Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football, 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."
It's safe to assume that they will think of something else next year.