Akiem Hicks Lost A Bettor $1 Million And It's Hilariously Sad

It wasn't a fun night for the Matt Nagy, Nick Foles, Akiem Hicks, and the Chicago Bears in Los Angeles as they were resoundingly thumped by the Rams 24-10. The offense was a no-show yet again and the defense just couldn't hold L.A. in check due to their inability to stop the run. It turns out though it could've been a lot worse for some people. Just ask Rob Huntze. He was playing a Draft Kings contest in fantasy football that featured a whopping $1 million prize. Everything seemed to go right during the game. Both the Bears and Rams defenses scored enough points and before he knew it his name was sitting alone atop the leaderboard. He was about to be a very rich man according to David Purdum of ESPN.

Then things went wrong.

"A stat correction that changed a sack to a tackle for loss in the Chicago Bears-Los Angeles Rams game Monday caused a $997,000 fantasy football heartbreak for a 41-year-old insurance agent in St. Louis. For 30 minutes after Monday's game ended, Rob Huntze thought he had won the $1 million first prize in a DraftKings contest..." ...A sack that had been credited to the Bears' defense late in the fourth quarter was changed to a running play, a 3-yard loss by Rams quarterback Jared Goff. That 3-yard loss dropped Huntze into a tie for sixth place with 18 other entries, and his prize money dropped from $1 million to $3,078.94."

The play in question came with three minutes left in the game. Jared Goff ran a bootleg fake. Both Hicks and outside linebacker James Vaughters read it perfectly and dropped the quarterback for what looked like a sack. That was the decisive play that put Huntze into the winner circle. Then the official scorer retracted that into a tackle for loss since the Rams wide receivers were seen blocking downfield. That indicates a designed run play. Here is the play in question. What say you? [video width="1050" height="592" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Hicks-TFL.mp4"][/video]

Akiem Hicks should've had a sack if we're being honest

Given how little running Goff does in his career, the idea this is a designed run feels a bit farfetched. It's more likely a bootleg pass he was supposed to throw back to his right but wasn't able to because Vaughters read the play and blew it up. This forced Goff to scramble and then Hicks cleaned it up. By rights that sack credit should've stood. Then again there is no telling what it should've been. One can only feel a brutal sympathy for Mr. Huntze. He came a single judgment away from having his financial future all but set. Then a ticky-tack change on the stat sheet ruined it. It's not like leaving the play as a sack would've killed anybody. The game was already decided by that point. Hicks deserved it after what he'd been through that night.

He was a constant target for referees.

The Pro Bowl defensive end was flagged three different times over the course of the game. One for roughing the passer, one for illegal use of hands to the face, and the final for unsportsmanlike conduct. The first two could be called questionable at best. The third was undoubtedly mounting frustration at the Bears' inability to stop the Rams ground game. Not his best night at the office and he had things to say about it on Twitter too. Regardless, the Bears can't afford to dwell on that. They have a short week before having to host the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at Soldier Field. The same team that humiliated them last year. If they don't get a grasp on whatever is wrong with their team, then that 5-1 record they championed could be 5-3 before they have a chance to blink.