Donald Trump isn’t the only one having to defend himself from accusations of collusion… at least for this week.
Almost unbelievably, Bachelor in Paradise season two winner Jade Roper Tolbert won one MILLION dollars on Sunday night in a DraftKings fantasy football challenge. And almost immediately after, shrewd Twitter users unearthed clues which made them wonder if she’d illegally colluded with husband Tanner Tolbert to do so. Yeah, this is a strange one!!!
Related: Alabama Hannah Thought ‘The Bachelor’ Was A Joke Before Doing The Show!
DraftKings says they’re now investigating the win, but has thus far not given any indication about foul play. We’ll see what they come up with; we have more from their end (below).
Regardless, ICYMI — since this happened right in the middle of the Golden Globes — let’s go all the way back to the start and show you how this crazy controversy cropped up…
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Jade’s Improbable Win
On Sunday evening, an eagle-eyed fantasy football player noticed the name on the top of the list in DraftKings’ million dollar challenge was the same as the Bachelor Nation alum.
He tweeted it out with a screenshot (below), and immediately the s**t hit the fan:
I’m pretty sure this girl was on The Bachelor. I only know this because my girlfriend forces me to watch it. pic.twitter.com/fkONNR3V99
— Alex Baker (@AwesemoDFS) January 6, 2020
You only know because your girlfriend “forces” you to watch it? Uh-huh. Suuuure, pal. LOLz!
Anyways, the 32-year-old reality TV star confirmed as much by quote-tweeting his screenshot, and adding (below):
“Hahaha that’s me! And Tanner told me I shouldn’t play DK Metcalf!”
(DK Metcalf is a wide receiver for the NFL‘s Seattle Seahawks. He had a HUGE game on Sunday. By having him in her fantasy football lineup, Jade won a ton of points and ultimately secured the bag.)
Jade then quote-tweeted a second tweet about her seven-figure win, adding how she felt “speechless” about coming out on top in the extremely competitive online contest:
https://twitter.com/jadelizroper/status/1213993518818967553
A million dollars richer from playing fantasy football… crazy!!!
Fellow Bachelor in Paradise alum Carly Waddell chimed in, too, celebrating the win with her own comment:
“HAHAHHAHAHAA OMG THIS IS NUTS!!! HELL YES!!!!!!!”
From there, all hell broke loose.
The story went viral across social media and the dual worlds of fantasy football and reality TV improbably collided in the form of a MILLION dollar cash prize.
Welcome to 2020!
‘This Is Absolute Insanity’
As the shock wore off, though, Twitter users started to pick up on what they felt was illegal collusion by the reality TV couple.
Numerous users posted screenshots pointing out how, for example, many of Jade’s chosen players were playing in the set of games on Saturday, while most of her husband’s were playing on Sunday. By doing this, the sleuths claimed, the couple was able to spread out their collective picks and rack up as many points as possible without having to compete directly against each other, thereby increasing their odds to win.
One frustrated Twitter user wrote:
“This is absolutely insanity and is the the clearest collusion ever. Check the QBs lmao. She and her husband cheated, end of story.”
And another doubled down on it:
“Everyone realizes the two of them max entered and split their player exposure, right? And that is illegal.”
There were plenty more tweets where all that came from.
Suffice to say, MANY social media commenters (and presumable fantasy football losers) were less than happy with how the whole thing went down.
The Goose Shows Up…
Things reached a boiling point when fellow Bachelor in Paradise alum Chris Randone — a very involved fantasy football player, himself — tweeted (and deleted) his congratulations to Tanner, and not Jade, on the big win.
“The Goose” tagged Tanner on the social media site, congratulating him for “winning the f**king milly maker!!!!”
Before Krystal Nielson‘s husband could wipe the tweet off his feed, though, Tanner replied (below):
“Technically Jades lineup won…but til death do us part”
Funny..!
But to many, it further pointed to signs of illegal collusion.
The social media firestorm got SO hot, Chris later popped back up with a second tweet trying to clarify the situation:
“I’m done speaking on the situation that doesn’t involve me. Two great friends I love and support in which I thought was doing the right thing in defending from the information I personally know that’s valid But with the hate messages and death threats I just want to be left alone”
Death threats?! Yikes. Come on, people!
He then locked his account. Yeah…
Twitter users still weren’t buying it, though. One noted:
“I mean they basically told on themselves trying to make it seem like they weren’t working together, lol”
Wow.
Whether there actually was collusion or not, Randone’s entry into the fray appeared to have (unintentionally) made things worse!
So, Did They Cheat?!
This is where things get murky. We do know this much, at least: according to DraftKings’ website, it is illegal to engage in “group play behavior designed to gain an unfair advantage over others.”
The company outlined several examples of illegal collusion on their site, including the following scenarios:
“You and 2 of your friends coordinate the makeup of the lineups you build AND coordinate which contests you enter using them … Or, you and a group of friends collaborate in NFL contest to each draft different QBs and WRs, to guarantee you aren’t competing as directly with each other.”
Hmmm…
According to People, the company is now “looking into” the matter.
The fantasy football firm released this brief statement to the media outlet:
“We take the integrity and fairness of our contests very seriously and are looking into this matter.”
In light of their own illegal collusion examples, and seeing how this is playing out for Tanner and Jade, it’s hard to believe DraftKings didn’t already have a “one entry per household” rule for their contests, ya know?!
But alas, here we are…
Tanner Speaks Out!
It didn’t take long for Jade’s 32-year-old husband to come out in her defense!
Tanner also spoke to People about the collusion allegations, calling his wife’s win “pure luck” in this statement to the mag:
“We respect that DraftKings feels they need to do their due diligence in regard to Jade winning their $1 million dollar prize for the fantasy contest for the NFL’s wild-card round this weekend. Though we must ponder, would the questions, accusations and curiosity about this win be the same if the winner had been male and someone who wasn’t already in the public eye? It is incredibly important for us to establish that Jade’s win is nothing more than pure luck and we are confident that DraftKings will determine the same.”
Interesting how Tanner played up the male-female dichotomy on this one.
Is it warranted considering the vast, vast majority of fantasy football players are (now frustrated) men, and many of ’em hurled social media abuse at the couple for hours and hours on Sunday night?! Or is it an unfair diversionary tactic?
More Deleted Tweets?!
Here’s one more weird thing to tie a bow on this crazy story…
Hours after Jade’s fantasy football win on Sunday night, DraftKings themselves tweeted a playful “final rose” gag her way. She quote tweeted it, jokingly “accepting” their rose, as you can see (below):
https://twitter.com/jadelizroper/status/1214004041803386880
But… wait… there’s no tweet there for her to quote anymore. Where’d it go?!
You mean the fantasy football company pulled a Chris Randone and stealth-deleted their original tweet?! Why?? And is it a bad sign for Tanner and Jade? Or is it just the company trying to distance themselves as they investigate?!
This whole thing is crazy, y’all! And it’s about the wildest thing that’ll ever happen in fantasy football! LOLz!!!
Related: Isn’t It A LITTLE Weird How Pete The Pilot Still Lives At Home?!
What do U think about it, Perezcious readers? Knowing all you’ve read here, do you think Jade and Tanner colluded? Are they going to be out a million bucks because of it?! Or did everything go down fair and square???
Sound OFF with your take in the comments (below)…
[Image via WENN/Instar]
