Casey Dawson finished in last place in his fantasy football league — and he’s paying for it at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
The Team USA speed skater said he’s carrying out his fantasy football punishment while in Italy for the Games. The punishment includes using a phone case that has a rather large fake foot attached to it.
“The phone case is pretty ridiculous,” Dawson told NBC Sports. “It’s huge, clunky.”
The Park City, Utah, native said he also has to carry around a small, “flashy” backpack that can’t hold that many items.
Dawson is in the fantasy football league with fellow U.S. team pursuit members Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran, according to NBC Olympics, along with other speed skaters. He told the International Skating Union that the league’s last-place finisher has to carry out the punishment for the entire speed skating season. Dawson finished last in the league for the 2024 NFL season, according to The Associated Press.
But Dawson is taking the lengthy punishment in stride.
“Whenever I have [the backpack] at the side of the ice, I’ll look at it and it gives me a little smile every time,” he said.
Casey Dawson holding the backpack and phone case at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Howard Fendrich)
Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran are the world record holders in the team pursuit. Dawson and Lehman were part of the bronze medal-winning men’s pursuit team at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Dawson, a two-time Olympian and one-time medalist, competed in his first event of the 2026 Games Sunday, finishing eighth in the men’s 5000m. The 25-year-old is also slated to race in the men’s 1500m, 10000m and team pursuit.