US man spends 15 hours at Waffle House after losing fantasy football bet

For Lee Sanderlin, defeat was hard to stomach.

Sanderlin, an investigations and politics reporter at the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, had to spend 24 hours in a Waffle House restaurant after losing in his fantasy football league.

There was one chance at a reprieve, however: “Every waffle I eat shaves an hour off the clock,” Sanderlin said in a now-viral Twitter thread. Sanderlin claimed that this punishment was his idea, per the New York Times.

Sanderlin’s sickly-sweet journey began at 4.07 pm local time.

“I got some books, some magazines and some podcasts. And two waffles to start,” he wrote, posting a photo of his first two helpings.

Within some 20 minutes, Sanderlin had consumed these plates. “Two down. That means two hours down. 21.37 hours left roughly. Already my stomach is rumbling. Gonna be a long one. The staff does not believe me that I’ll be here that long … little do they know,” he wrote.

In just over an hour, he ate another two.

“Been here for 1.5 hours, so that means I have 18.5 to go. I am already in immense discomfort. Please, somebody, launch me into the sun,” he said. As time progressed, things seemed to take a turn.

“Per my league commissioner, I am allowed to sit in the parking lot and also if I puke it won’t count against me. This won’t recalibrate the strategy tho,” he said.

Shortly after 7pm, he managed to finish his fifth waffle. “That’s five hours shaved off and an incredible amount of agony for my intestines. Sixteen hours to go.” As he struggled to eat his sixth waffle, Sanderlin said: “I found my [football] roster from like week 8 or whatever. Just not good. Also, I am definitely puking soon.”

Sanderlin ordered his seventh waffle at 11.31 pm. “Full crash and burn. Not gonna finish it. My body is in revolt/shutting down. It’s time to sit out for a while. Gotta rest up for the stretch run,” he reported.

Sanderlin, who went to the parking lot for several hours, polished off the seventh at 2.25am. Running out of podcast episodes, and confronting dissatisfying crosswords, Sanderlin revealed that his strategy for leaving the restaurant was to order two more at 6am.

“That would bring me up nine and get me out of here by 7am,” he explained.

At 6.16 am, he reported progress. With his penultimate waffle consumed, he wrote: “That makes eight. One to go then we’re just running clock until 7am. This is NOT enjoyable.”

About 20 minutes later, Sanderlin had succeeded at his task.

“The sun is rising, it’s a new day and I’m never eating waffles again. That’s nine waffles and 15 hours in this restaurant. Shoutout to the staff for letting me hang out on a slow night (I tipped them well, don’t worry). This was horrible and I recommend no one ever do this,” he said.

The Waffle House chain appeared to refer to Sanderlin in a tweet, remarking: “Sounds like someone WON his fantasy football league, not lost.”

When emailed for comment, the company said: “We think our Twitter response says it all!”