Photo by Don Wright-USA TODAY Sports
The charges against a 36-year-old Tennessee man who threw a catfish on the ice during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final will be dropped.
Jacob Waddell was charged with disorderly conduct, disrupting a meeting, and possessing an instrument of crime after he snuck the fish carcass into PPG Paints Arena in his compression shorts and heaved it onto the ice during the second period.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala made the determination that the catfish-related actions of Waddell didn't warrant criminal charges, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"As such, the three charges filed against Mr. Waddell will be withdrawn in a timely manner," Spokesman Mike Manko said in a statement Wednesday.
Waddell became an overnight sensation because of his bold and meticulously planned catfish launch onto the Penguins' home ice surface during the Predators' first-ever Stanley Cup Final game. Since his subsequent arrest, he's labelled himself as just a "dumb redneck with a bad idea" and explained that he just "wanted to take a Nashville catfish, because it's more original to throw one of our catfish."As if the story couldn't get any more bizarre, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto doubled-down on the fish puns Wednesday when he heard Waddell's charges would be dropped."I did hear that the DA has taken him off the hook, and… there won't be a herring and he'll be welcome to flounder about Pittsburgh," he said.Any fellow Preds fans looking to gain hero, catfish-tosser status will have to do it the long and hard way just like Waddell did. Anyone trying to acquire an "instrument of crime" from many local fish markets in Pittsburgh will have to show ID to prove they're not from Tennessee, something that is apparently being enforced.But then again, for those thrill-seekers looking for an oppor-tuna-ty to get their own 15 minutes of fame, any fin is possible.
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Waddell became an overnight sensation because of his bold and meticulously planned catfish launch onto the Penguins' home ice surface during the Predators' first-ever Stanley Cup Final game. Since his subsequent arrest, he's labelled himself as just a "dumb redneck with a bad idea" and explained that he just "wanted to take a Nashville catfish, because it's more original to throw one of our catfish."As if the story couldn't get any more bizarre, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto doubled-down on the fish puns Wednesday when he heard Waddell's charges would be dropped."I did hear that the DA has taken him off the hook, and… there won't be a herring and he'll be welcome to flounder about Pittsburgh," he said.Any fellow Preds fans looking to gain hero, catfish-tosser status will have to do it the long and hard way just like Waddell did. Anyone trying to acquire an "instrument of crime" from many local fish markets in Pittsburgh will have to show ID to prove they're not from Tennessee, something that is apparently being enforced.But then again, for those thrill-seekers looking for an oppor-tuna-ty to get their own 15 minutes of fame, any fin is possible.