A New Twist In Belleville

Yesterday, if you missed it, I wrote about a couple of social media conversations that two OHL players had with women that left a rather sour taste in my mouth and a black eye on both the teams they play for and the OHL. Greg Betzold of the Peterborough Petes already has apologized for his actions yesterday, but there was a strange silence from Chad Heffernan of the Belleville Bulls. Today, we found out why Chad was silent when this story broke on Twitter. It appears that Chad was innocent all along as this story unfolded.

Again, the conversations that were had via the social media app were supposed to be private, but is anything truly private any longer? Chad Heffernan's silence seemed odd after Betzold was quick to apologize via Twitter, and the silence on Heffernan's part continued into today. And here's why it did.

In the past 24 hours there have been some comments made about my teammate Chad Heffernan.

— Jake Marchment (@JMarch11) November 4, 2014

I would like to make it very clear that these comments were made by myself on his cell phone, not by Chad.

— Jake Marchment (@JMarch11) November 4, 2014

Even though it was a private conversation, my comments were inaproriate, disrespectful, and I accept full responsibility for my actions.

— Jake Marchment (@JMarch11) November 4, 2014

I have embarrassed myself, my teammates, the Belleville Bulls organization and the city of Belleville. I truly apologize for my actions.

— Jake Marchment (@JMarch11) November 4, 2014

So there's the reason for Chad's silence - Jake Marchment was the one who was making the idiotic comments to Lindsay via the social media app through Chad's phone.

So to Chad Heffernan, I apologize. I will go back to yesterday's story and update the information to reflect today's new information. Again, he was always held innocent until proven guilty, and I'm glad that Jake Marchment had the nerve to own up to what happened to clear his friend's and teammate's name. We'll talk about Marchment in a second, but Chad Heffernan's name will be wiped clean from this mess.

Yesterday, the writer to Lindsay indicated he had been drafted to the NHL, and we found that Heffernan had not been drafted. Well, Marchment wasn't lying. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the sixth-round at 157th overall this summer. In 72 OHL games thus far, Marchment has 13 goals and 26 assists. He's no Connor McDavid, but he's a capable player, it seems.

While Betzold's apology has the Petes considering all options in regards to what to do about his mistreatment of women, Marchment's case is a bit more damning in that he made the comments under his teammate's name and then waited a day while the world condemned Heffernan for what was written. The fact that Marchment did this under Heffernan's name shows a serious lack of judgment on his part.

I'm sure that Belleville will come out with their own statement to distance themselves from Marchment's comments, but Marchment is still a Bull. They still have to deal with him in some way in order to send the message that his comments and actions towards women are not even remotely close to being acceptable. While I doubt the Los Angeles Kings will make a comment, this kind of blemish on Marchment's character could affect his standing within the organization.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave via social media.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!