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Mom’s household complaints on Facebook spill onto the gridiron

Forget Friday Night Lights. One mother's Facebook posts about household chores forces a high-school football team to forfeit three victories. 

 

Dave Copeland

IRL

Posted on Sep 29, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 2:30 am CDT

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Clean rooms?

The previously-undefeated Perry,Tenn. high school football team was forced to forfeit three games after the mother of two players complained about their messy rooms on Facebook, according to The Tennessean. The posts tipped league officials that two star offensive linemen, brothers Rodney and Ryan Belasic, had transferred from another high school and were ineligible.

The Facebook posts by the mother, who works in Henry County, border on the mundane. The first stated that she sent the kids back to Perry County for the week, while the second simply stated: “How can two boys mess up their room as badly as they do when they’re only here on Saturday and Sunday?”

The implication, however, was clear.

“(Perry County) inadvertently played ineligible athletes in the first three ballgames,” Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, said in a statement. “It was two brothers that transferred. They got a residence in Perry County, but they had not vacated their residence completely in Henry County.”

Perry County Coach Michael Harrison removed the Belasics from the team when the TSSAA started its investigation two weeks ago.

“We are sorry that this investigation happened and that the two players were deemed ineligible,” Harrison said in a statement emailed to the Tennessean. “We hope to put this investigation behind us and move forward.”

On Twitter and Facebook, the incident was seen as one of the many dangers of over-sharing.

“this is why parents shouldnt have facebook,”  Donate Hicks said in a tweet responding to one of the articles about the incident.

“See what FB can cause! Sigh!!! Pls keep some of these nitty gritty details to yourselves, you don’t need to share them,” Janyl Benyl posted.

The morale of the story? Clean up your room.

Or maybe just unfriend your mom on Facebook.

Photo by Midwest Mainer

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*First Published: Sep 29, 2011, 5:14 pm CDT