League Says Jamaal Charles Ad On NFL.com Was A Mistake

We posted a short blurb on the advertisement above NFL.com was using to promote their fantasy football leagues. Frankly, it seemed to be in poor taste at a time when the NFL is preaching player safety.

An NFL spokesman agrees as they're now saying it was a mistake by the fantasy football marketing arm of their operation and it never should have been posted in the first place. They have since removed the ad.

It was only up for an hour or so but, in today's media world, that may as well be a lifetime. Here are a few links of what folks were saying about it:

Deadspin: Jamaal Charles takes a ride on the fantasy meat wagon

There's an ad on the front page of NFL.comnow. It shows Jamaal Charles being carted off with a torn ACL, near tears. His health, shot. His livelihood, threatened (only about 35 percent of his contract is guaranteed money). The Chiefs' season, shot.

To that, the NFL says: sorry if you had him on your fake football team.

KC Chiefs Blog: NFL.com promotes fantasy football with an injured Jamaal Charles

I'm not sure who sat in a meeting and thought this was a good idea, but hopefully those people are paying for that decision now.  Not surprisingly, the picture was quickly passed around and the reaction was universally negative, forcing the NFL.com team to quickly remove the photo.  In its place is a shot of Wes Welker catching the ball, promoting "Retroactive Scoring".

There's nothing wrong with trying something edgy, but this is just in bad taste.

BSO: NFL.com ad starring Jamaal Charles: Fair or foul?

Yes, Jamaal Charles being hurt effected a lot of fantasy teams, but more importantly he has lost season and the Chiefs lost a valuable player.

Seems a bit insensitive by NFL.com to run an ad like this, to get more sign ups for their fantasy leagues. What is your take?