Raiders' tight end Brock Bowers will miss the first game or two of the NFL season after minor knee surgery. This typically is pretty standard injury news, but the Raiders handled it in a way that has football fans across the country up in arms.
Bowers reportedly had a minor surgery on his knee about a week ago. One would assume that Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak would've known about this, but when asked for an update on Wednesday on Bowers he said that they are expecting to have everyone ready to play for their season opener.
Just a few hours after this press conference though word came out that Bowers will miss a game or two to start the season, and NFL fans were livid.
#Raiders HC Klint Kubiak a couple hours ago, when asked if Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby would be cleared to play and ready to go on Sunday:
— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) September 9, 2026
“Yeah, we’re expecting to have all our guys ready for Sunday.” https://t.co/tDlYieQQeK pic.twitter.com/qBBRwVaRVo
NFL fans are furious after the Raiders may have hidden Brock Bowers' injury
NFL fans are not happy with Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak. They believe he hid Bowers' injury on purpose, and it's hard to disagree with them since Bowers was ruled out for the start of the season just a couple hours after he said everyone should be good to go for their season opener.
There is a chance something changed with Bowers' injury in those couple hours after his press conference, but if his surgery was a week ago then it seems unlikely that anything could've changed in that amount of time.
NFL fans are upset with the Raiders now because this information directly impacts their fantasy football leagues and sports betting. An injury to any player, let alone a star like Brock Bowers who will be rostered in every fantasy league, has an impact on game odds. The Raiders don't have to care about any of this, but many fans live and breathe fantasy football and sports gambling so if they think a team did something shady they're going to speak out about it.
And NFL fans did not hold back on social media.
So let me get this straight — the Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders didn’t know his best player had a knee injury and was getting surgery in Dallas while this presser was going on? Ok…
— Dylan Federico (@DylanFedericoWX) September 9, 2026
Genuine question: how is this allowed?
— garrett (@gxrrettgsn) September 9, 2026
I guess Brock Bowers isnt one of their guys
— Olumpians Fantasy Sports (@olumpians) September 10, 2026
Wait.. So not only does Vegas rip people off with gambling but now they’re having their professional sports teams do the dirty work as well?!
— Shae’s Theory (@ShaeFlex) September 10, 2026
NFL needs improved injury reporting standards after the meteoric rise in sports gambling
Something has to change with how NFL teams report injuries. Before online sports gambling became so widespread teams didn't owe fans anything. One could argue that teams still don't owe fans any information related to injuries, but that may not be true because the NFL and their organizations are all in on sports gambling.
The NFL as a whole has partnerships with three major sportsbooks including DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics. Most NFL teams have individual partnerships as well which includes the Raiders who are partnered with BetMGM. If teams and the league as a whole are willing to take money from these sportsbooks to advertise their services then they may owe a duty to their fans to report any and all injuries as soon as they know without withholding any information.
Keeping this information hidden can cost fans money. Again, NFL teams may feel like they don't owe fans anything in this regard, but if they're willing to get in bed with these sportsbooks then fans may deserve the right to know injury details so they can make an informed decision when gambling on these sportsbooks the NFL is pushing on them.
There isn't an easy fix to the current sports betting ecosystem, but if the NFL is going to continue to partner with these entities then it makes sense that they owe fans accurate information.
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