Tony Romo Fantasy Football Convention in Las Vegas Stopped by NFL

Today’s edition of “the NFL is THE WORST” comes via a report by Fox Sports’ Alex Marvez. Here’s the gist of it, Tony Romo helped organized a three-day fantasy football convention set for mid-July. The premise of the convention was to allow fans to rub shoulders with current and former players, such as Romo, Jamaal Charles, DeMarco Murray and Rob Gronkowski during autograph sessions and fantasy drafts. Sounds mostly harmless, right?

Wrong. The event was slated for the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, which (gasp) is located on casino property.

From Fox:

"A source told FOX Sports that the league informed the NFL Players Association that the inaugural National Fantasy Football Convention slated for July 10 to 12 in Las Vegas would be in violation of NFL rules by being held at a casino property (the Sands Expo) even though there is no gambling at the center itself. “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. Punishment for participation in the event would likely result in a fine but a suspension would be unlikely, a source told FOX Sports."

Real or not, the fact the word “suspension” would appear in this story about a fantasy “convention” is so borderline absurd. ESPN writes that the players involved were set to make around $1 million in “marketing or appearance fees.”

Also absurd is the NFL’s continued ostrich with its head in the sand-like stance that gambling has nothing to do with it’s massive popularity.

Dez Bryant took to Twitter and didn’t sound happy about the NFL’s decision, either: