Lee Sanderlin is an investigative and political reporter for the Clarion Ledger, a daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. Lee Sanderlin works for the second-oldest company in the state, one that continues to circulate its newspaper statewide. Lee Sanderlin also has worked at the Winston-Salem Journal, HighPoint Enterprise and attended Columbia Journalism School.
Lee Sanderlin is also really bad at fantasy football, coming in last place in his most recent season. That’s how he wound up in a Brandon, Mississippi, Waffle House for a scheduled 24 hours, with the stipulation that every buttery, syrupy waffle he ate would shave one hour off his losing-season fantasy football purgatory.
Sanderlin began Thursday about 5 p.m. ET and completed his punishment about 8 a.m. ET Friday.
As noted above, Sanderlin was able to shave nine hours off his 24-period sentence after consuming nine waffles over 15 hours.
While enjoying waffles, Sanderlin not only had plenty of time to ponder the wonders of life but also relive his agonies from last season.
Sanderlin wrote he was tipping his Waffle House servers well as he stoically endured his often-nauseating punishment, but it’s hard to imagine he was tipping as well as Atlanta’s Michael Carsley, who suffered the same sentence.
Earlier this year, according to CNN, Carsley finished last in his league, and the punishment was the same: 24 hours in a Waffle House, and for every waffle eaten, one hour was removed from the total time.
While trying to finish off as many waffles as he could, Carsley livestreamed a challenge that led to donations for his Waffle House server.
Mosammat Shumi, an 11-year Waffle House fixture, arrived to work one Sunday morning and left with a tip of more than $1,000.
Here are some more of Sanderlin’s musings during his culinary adventure:
Thus far, there have been no reports of Sanderlin being admitted to any local hospital for surgery.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tim Darnell, who wrote this article, has lost plenty of bets after a losing fantasy football season but never had to endure anything like this.
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