Madden NFL 17 pro Chris "Dubby" McFarland recently won the Madden Bowl 2017 finals in Houston earlier this month, but has garnered more attention recently after receiving a $3,000 USD fine for racially abusive tweets from 2011 that had emerged online.
On February 3, the day Dubby won the Madden Bowl 2017 finals, Twitter user Bryan Wiedey posted screenshots of older tweets by Dubby (warning, racially offensive language), prompting the fine from EA, however, many are complaining that a $3,000 fine isn't enough considering he won $75,000 for his victory.
What's more is that, without specifying the issue in question, EA also said that this offensive content occurred both "during and directly after the competition," so Dubby may have said something during the finals too.
"It's important that we clearly set conduct boundaries to guide our competitors and ensure that promotional and financial opportunities for all parties continue to grow," said Matt Marcou, Madden's Competitive Gaming Commissioner and author of the announcement. He also added that the money would go towards "programs to help our players prepare for the exposure that comes with being a top-level gaming competitor."
Since the tweets emerged Dubby has been relatively defiant on Twitter, posting tweets like "Today is the day the real Dubby dies. Feel free to unfollow." and the much more provocative tweet: "Yall searching thru 75 thousand tweets, ima search thru 75 thousand dollars...tell me how my a** taste #neeeeedit."
Since the fine, however, he has been slightly more apologetic, saying: "When I won the Madden bowl my tweets were no longer just for the Culture they were for everyone. I understand that better now." Dubby has also issued a statement to Polygon as well:
"[Lots] of what I said was outta passion and emotion at the time," he said. "I understand everything that I did wrong and accept responsibility for my words. Honestly the fine just shows how much this game is growing. It's not just for the small group of pro Madden players, it's for the entire country. We as players need to understand that we not only represent ourselves but the growth of the game. [...] EA holding us more responsible for our actions is a reflection on how big they want Madden to grow, at the end of the day that's what we all want. I have accepted the consequences and plan on representing both myself and the game of Madden positively."
Do you think the punishment was fitting, or should EA have cracked down harder?