After 63 basketball games in the March Madness tournament, Virginia beat out Texas Tech in a dramatic overtime game to be crowned the 2019 NCAA champions.
But to get to the final winner, college players competed in 28 games that started before 5 p.m. PT — for a total of 17 hours and 5 minutes of gametime during the workday. That begs the question: How do diehard fans watch those games?
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Excuses, excuses…
Stunningly, 44% of March Madness fans said they’ve lied in order to watch the NCAA games during work hours, and we asked those folks to reveal the best real-life fake excuse they’ve used to dupe the boss*.
TSheets then hosted its own bracket-style competition, where Instagrammers narrowed down the top 16 fake excuses to the king of all excuses. “My dog was hit by a car” fell on Tuesday to the No. 1 best excuse for getting out of work to watch March Madness: “My cat is sick.”
Image Credit: Tsheets.
Did they work for you?
We can’t guarantee these all actually worked for the people who used them, but here are the 63 best fake excuses we received from employees to watch March Madness during work hours. If you’ve tried one that worked for you, let us know in the comments below!
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63. “Dude. I have a lot of money riding on these games. I gotta watch it!”
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62. “I have an emergency call I’m waiting for.”
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61. “I have a family trip.”
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60. “My mom is sick, and I have to keep checking to make sure she’s ok.”
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59. “I have a tendon condition at my ankle, requiring me to stay immobile and at my desk all day.”
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58. “I had the cramps.”
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57. “I am getting a fever!”
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56. “Loan problems — at the time I was working on purchasing first home.”
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55. “It’s my birthday!”
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54. “Studying statistics.”
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53. “My brother’s playing in the championship game! (I don’t have a brother)”
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52. “My undergraduate school team played that day.”
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51. “I had a friend’s son playing.”
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50. “I’m in the work pool.”
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49.”It was a way to teach my students about math.”
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48. “I’ll be in the lab for most of the day so I can get caught up.”
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47. “If I don’t get to see the game, I’m quitting.”
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46. “One of the patients wants the game on.”
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45. “I’m having a tooth pulled.”
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44. “My car needed work and I had to run to the garage.”
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43. “It’s to study the bracket system for a project at the end of the year.”
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42. “I made up a conference call with a guy from our Atlanta office who was using me for the same excuse!”
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41. “We HAVE to keep up with it in order to discuss it with our customers.”
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40. “I’m doing research for an article.”
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39. “I have to rearrange the supply closet.”
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38. “I’ll tell my boss that a customer was asking to put the game on.”
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37. “Meeting a client.”
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36. “I needed to watch to see if any of our clients were advertising.”
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35. “Boosts employee morale.”
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34. “I told my boss one of our co-workers was at the game and we should watch to see if we could see him.”
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33. ‘My elderly neighbor locked herself out of the house, and I’m the only person that has a key that is still alive. If I don’t make it home to let her in, she could wander around and get lost because of the dementia. I could never live with myself.”
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32. “Car accident.”
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31. “Fell down my steps and bruised my ribs.”
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30. “Dog has a vet appointment.”
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29. “My cat is on fire.”
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28. “I say one of my kids is sick to be able to use sick time to watch my favorite teams.”
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27. “I have to babysit my grandkids.”
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26. “My son broke his arm.”
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25. “Need to watch my kid’s performance.”
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24. “Explosive diarrhea.”
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23. “I had to take my wife to the emergency room. I wasn’t even married at the time.”
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22. “I got food poisoning from food provided by the office.”
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21. “I had surgery.”
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20. “I have been admitted to the hospital.”
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19. “Doctor’s appointment.”
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18. “I faked a pancreatic attack and was able to get a doctor’s note for that.”
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17. “I had food poisoning and didn’t want to infect the office with my germs.”
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16. “My car got stolen.”
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15. “I have 3-point fever.”
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14. “Family emergency.”
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13. “I have a toothache.”
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12. “My car won’t start.”
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11. “My grandma died.”
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10. “I’m snowed in.”
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9. “I have a migraine.”
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8. “Steph Curry is my brother.”
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7. “I have pink eye.”
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6. “Tummy troubles.”
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5. “I got robbed.”
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4. “My wife is in labor.”
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3. “My bracket is perfect.”
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2. “My dog got hit by a car.”
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1. “My cat is sick.”
This story originally appeared on Tsheets and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
