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There was supposed to be a big gathering in Las Vegas next month that would have bought dozens of NFL players together in the name of fantasy football.
I say "supposed to be" because, thanks to the National Football League, there won't be any more.
The National Fantasy Football Convention, organized by Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo, was canceled by the NFL on the grounds that it was being held at The Sands in Las Vegas, and according to the league:
"Players and NFL personnel may not participate in promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos," an NFL spokesman said in an email statement to FOX Sports.
The bigger reason is probably because the NFL hadn't figured out how they could make any money off of this, but they certainly weren't going to put that in a press release. As Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk points out, this now gives the league a year to put together their own event, which I'm sure is exactly what's going to come of this.
How serious was the league about putting the kibosh on this event? Pretty serious, according to the report from FOX Sports.
A source connected with the National Fantasy Football Convention told FOX Sports that NFL representatives were calling players and even the parents of some players threatening that participants could be suspended. An NFL spokesman denied that has happened.
From the information I've been able to gather, since it's not available on the NFFC website any longer (as they've already started hyping their 2016 event in Los Angeles), the only members of the Minnesota Vikings that were slated to be there were wide receivers Cordarrelle Patterson and Jarius Wright. However, there were some pretty big names connected to the event, such as Patriots' tight end Rob Gronkowski and Giants' wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. Such an event would have presented a pretty unique opportunity for fans to interact with some of the league's bigger names, but it isn't going to happen any more.