When Reds outfielder Tommy Pham slapped Giants outfielder Joc Pederson in the face before the San Francisco-Cincinnati game last Friday, it resulted from a disagreement between the two in a fantasy football league from a year ago.
When reporters asked 49ers running back Jeff Wilson Jr about being the player at the center of the wild incident on Wednesday, he had a smile on his face, saying it was a “crazy” situation.
“Robbie [Gould] was the first person that told me about it,” Wilson said. “I guess I was just honored to be in the conversation. Shout out to Joc for having me on the team and taking one for the team.”
Pham earned a three-game suspension for slapping Pederson over injured reserve rules for a league that both players were a part of. A day after the incident, Pederson explained the situation saying Pham accused him of cheating by placing a player on IR and replacing him with a fantasy football free agent. To Pederson’s understanding, the player had been put on IR, making the move legal. Pham disagreed, despite allegedly performing a similar swap within his own fantasy football team.
Pham also claimed that Pederson “disrespected” the Padres in a group text, which prompted Pederson to show the media the specific text he sent.
For Pham to slap Pederson about Wilson, who recorded only 79 rushing yards, two touchdowns in nine games last season, is rather hilarious. Earlier Wednesday, Pham called out the commissioner of the fantasy football league, Mike Trout, on how he handled the controversy stemming from the league’s IR rules escalating to an incident on the field. Pham declared that Trout was the “worst commissioner in fantasy sports.”
Meanwhile, Trout told reporters that “everybody was just being competitive” and “passionate about fantasy football.”
The nine-time MLB All-Star laughed while telling reporters that he had not made up his mind if he would resign as the league’s commissioner. However, two things are certain. One, the situation led to one of the strangest sports feuds. Secondly, according to Trout, “it’s a legendary fantasy football league.”
