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Mom’s Facebook Post Gets Sons Booted Off Football Team

October 4, 2011

A mom in Tennessee is regretting her decision to vent about her two sons’ messy habits on Facebook, since it was that simple act that got both of them kicked off their football team. According to The Tennessean, Rodney and Ryan Belasic were two football players for Perry County High School in Linden, Tennessee. Their mom, in a Facebook post, inadvertently tipped off officials that the boys didn’t live with her full-time, making them ineligible for the Vikings team since they lived outside of the boundaries allowed by the school.

The newspaper reports that she posted, “How can two boys mess up their room as badly as they do when they’re only here on Saturday and Sunday?” Apparently, snoops within her social network questioned if the boys did indeed live with her and reported the post to coaches and school administrators. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the Belasic boys did not live in Perry County as their primary residence and therefore were kicked off the team. Adding more insult to injury, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association nullified the team’s first three wins from the season, striking the victories from the record. Now, that’s quite a damaging Facebook post.

The Vikings Coach Michael Harrison issued the following statement: “We are sorry that this investigation happened and that the two players were deemed ineligible. We hope to put this investigation behind us and move forward.”

This isn’t the first damaging Facebook post that has gotten someone (or someone else) in trouble, nor will it be the last. But one glaringly obvious takeaway from these types of stories is that before you go broadcasting personal information on Facebook, just think about who might be reading it.

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