The Carlton Football Club has terminated the contract of player Josh Bootsma following what the club is calling a serious breach of its social media policies, but what everyone else is calling Snapchatting his dick to teenagers. The club allegedly became aware of the situation after the mother of the recipient turned in the photos, making Bootsma one more person foiled by the dreaded screenshot function.
The incident is the last straw for a player with a history of disciplinary issues, including consistent lateness to training, and outright missing appointments and meetings. He had not played for Carlton so far this year, spending the year in the club’s reserves side, the Northern Blues in the VFL. He last played for Carlton in Round 21 of last year.
Not only is the fact that he’s been sending pictures of his business to teenage girls more than a little bit gross and reprehensible, but it’s further complicated by the fact that his heavily pregnant girlfriend – who, at time of writing, has seemingly not yet had the time to drop him like a bad habit – is due to give birth any day now.
Meanwhile Carlton has been forced to deny allegations the club has a social media misuse issue, with this Bootsma incident the latest in a string of players who have ran afoul of social media in various ways; Brock McLean was suspended and fined after abusing a fan on Twitter in 2012, and teammates Jarrad Waite, Marc Murphy, and Jeremy Laidler were reprimanded for criticising the AFL tribunal.
The lesson to be learned here, kids, is that if you’re going to send a photo of your “hard ball get” to someone, maybe make sure they’re not a teenager and also probably just don’t do it in the first place because it’s stupid? Call me naive and call it stereotyping, but there’s scarce few women alive who’d receive a picture of a dick apropos of nothing and would react like “Aww yeah. Gotta… gotta get me some of DAT.“
Bootsma’s dismissal leaves no hole whatsoever in Carlton’s regular lineup, and would only come as a shock to supporters because they had no idea he was still on the playing list.
Photo: Michael Dodge via Getty Images.
