Fantasy football's not a presidential debate topic, at least not for Chris Christie who swatted away the question at Wednesday night's debate. Though many tweeted their agreement, Jeb Bush was happy to debate the topic and proud of his fantasy skills.
"Fantasy Football! We have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football?" the New Jersey governor complained to the CNBC moderators who asked whether fantasy sports betting should be regulated, said
USA Today.
Christie's gripe lit up social media.
However, when he took on the question, Bush bragged that his fantasy football team was 7-0, said the
Huffington Post.
"I think this has become something that needs to be looked at in terms of regulation," said Bush. "Effectively, it's day trading without any regulation at all. When you have insider information, which has apparently been the case, when you have people who use that information, use big data to try and take advantage of it, there has to be some regulation."
Fantasy sports betting became a hot topic this month when a DraftKings employee revealed he had confidential information while winning big on rival fantasy site FanDuel, spurring calls for federal regulation.
Others agreed that fantasy sports was a debatable topic.
Marco Rubio didn't get involved with the question, but if he had he would have had a leg up on the others because his debate prep put him in the fantasy football groove, said
The Hill.
A tongue-in-cheek video released by Rubio's campaign shows the Florida senator getting ready for the debate by taking playful jabs at Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson while playing a fantasy football name game with NFL players Reggie Bush of the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Giants' Victor Cruz, and the Arizona Cardinals' Carson Palmer.
"What's the latest on Cruz?" Rubio asks while on his cellphone starring at laptop screen, noted The Hill. "Is he in or is he out? I'm seeing reports here that say both."
"What about Bush? He's been kind of quiet this year but you can never know with this guy," says Rubio. "You think we should look at who? Carson? Look, I know he started the year as a sleeper but he's really thrown the ball around lately pretty good."
Rubio lets his viewers in on the gag by ending "Victor Cruz, Reggie Bush and Carson Palmer – let's keep an eye on all those guys. I know I have a debate tonight, but I've gotta get this fantasy football thing right."
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