ESPN doubles down on bizarre Jed York report after 49ers owner's suspension
· Yahoo Sports
ESPN is sticking by their bizarre report that 49ers owner Jed York was in Australia during the 49ers' Week 1 International Game against the Rams, despite the question marks that local beat writers raised in the aftermath.
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Two weeks ago - well ahead of the early slate of NFL games on that Sunday - ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the team's principal owner was in the land down under for that season-opening matchup, but didn't attend the game. At the time of the report, it had been nearly one month since Ohio police arrested York during a prostitution sting, and was awaiting league punishment. This caused some Niners reporters to raise their eyebrows, including San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami, who shared that the 49ers people he spoke with did not see York in Australia.
But the Worldwide Leader is standing by its reporting. In their write-up of York's six-game suspension, they included Schefter's reporting that specified the owner was actually in Melbourne during the game.
"Sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter in September that York was in Melbourne, Australia, for the Niners' opener against the Los Angeles Rams but did not attend the game," reporter Nick Wagoner wrote.
This, of course, paints York's trip to Australia in a different light. The owner likely wasn't, as The Athletic's Matt Barrows quipped on a podcast, "in Perth, or...snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef." Instead, he was quite close by to the team he reportedly wanted to avoid distracting.
The debate over whether Schefter's report is true holds a lot more weight than it did two weeks ago. The NFL said that York's six-game suspension includes games that have already happened because he was away from the team at the time. But just how far away was he? Melbourne as a city is more than just the stadium the Niners played in, but it's certainly a lot closer than, say, the United States, where the majority of Niners fans were for the game.
The concern here comes from just how stringent the NFL's suspension policy is for an owner's suspension. Not only can they not be at games, or be present in any organizational facilities - they're also not allowed to serve as a representative for the team in any capacity at any club or league event. These stipulations were applied to both Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and the late Colts owner Jim Irsay. If York was in Melbourne, he would've had to make himself practically invisible in the moments before, during and after the game.
Six weeks after the arrest, the situation only continues to get weirder.
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This article originally published at ESPN doubles down on bizarre Jed York report after 49ers owner's suspension.