The “40 Yards of Gold” event held back in 2019, which was broadcast on Pay-Per-View, pitted 16 of the fastest NFL players against one another in a bracket-style tournament to determine who would come out on top.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Marquise Goodwin was the eventual winner, coming away with what should have been $1 million for the victory. The rest of the participants were supposed to get $25,000 for showing up.
But the problem is the checks that were written to the participants bounced and nobody has been paid. The person who apparently funded the event, Farzin Morena, claimed he isn’t the reason that payments haven’t been made, according to an article by Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic last year.
Former Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson, who was on-hand to help host with former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson, took to Instagram to call out the organizers for not paying the participants.
“Enough is enough so we all came together as past and present athletes to support @40yardsofgold pull of this event and no one got paid!!!! They wrote guys checks that bounced and still haven’t paid guys if anyone else participated in this event and wasn’t paid repost this so we can get what’s owed to us!!!!!! We need to all get together and get lawyers to jump on top of this I do t know everyone IG name but pass along and repost”
Other current and former NFL players who took part in the event chimed in beneath Johnson’s post in the comments, including Carolina Panthers wide receiver, Robby Anderson.
Robby Anderson: “Real (expletive) they try to say they was gone sue me f I ain’t come tho smh”
Fabian Washington: “All I want is mine. Nothing more nothing less. (Expletive) is Ridiculous”
The lack of payment sent out to the participants is nothing new, but it seems that this situation is understandably hitting a breaking point.
