Reporter pays for fantasy football failure with Waffle House marathon, ends up going viral

Tom Gatto

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Reporter pays for fantasy football failure with Waffle House marathon, ends up going viral image

A newspaper reporter, fantasy football and a Waffle House. All the ingredients for a viral story, of course.

The world was introduced to that combo Thursday afternoon by Lee Sanderlin of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. He had chosen the day to do penance for finishing last in his league last season. It's more fun if we let his tweet explain what he had to do:

Yes, that's an entire calendar day in one Waffle House, minus the hours he could erase by eating plate-size waffles.

Let's just say, he ran into a wall early.

As Sanderlin's discomfort grew (one of his Twitter updates was for a late-evening trip to the bushes outside the restaurant for, um, getting sick), so did the crowd of online gawkers. By early Friday, the world was watching.

Waffle House.jpg

And the commitment to the bit was absolute.

Even one of the waffles jumped on Twitter.

So, was Sanderlin — whose Twitter bio shows Ivy League ties (Columbia) — the bottom-feeder in a league full of sharks? Based on this Week 8 lineup, we'd have to say no.

Finally, at 7:37 a.m. ET, Sanderlin finished the challenge. He accomplished his goal of eating nine waffles and spent 15 hours in the restaurant.

What say you, at Waffle House? Free grub for this intrepid reporter/fantasy laggard once his stomach can handle it?

UPDATE: Sanderlin ended the marathon Friday morning with waffles 8 and 9.

And if you want his published account of the whole ordeal, then click here.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.