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Parents Of Teens Who Trashed Ex-NFL Player's House Threatening To Sue Him
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 20, 2013
Modified Sep 20, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 20, 2013
Modified Sep 20, 2013
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Former pro football player Brian Holloway's Labor Day weekend was ruined after he discovered that hundreds of teens had broken into his upstate NY home for a massive party which caused thousands of dollars of damage. Holloway, a former Patriots and Raiders offensive lineman, ended up re-posting photographs of many of the teens on a site called HelpMeSave300.com in an attempt to "teach our kids to be accountable." He expected to get apologies from parents and the teens—but he told us that to his shock, he's now been threatened with lawsuits from many of the parents: "I don't really understand how they can be upset with me for things their children did."
"I don't really understand it," he told us over the phone today. "They say 'you ruined our kids' life.' If my child was breaking into your home and you posted them on the website, posted the material that THEY posted, I would come there and thank you, and I would have my child be an indentured servant until everything was repaired and cleaned up."
Holloway was in Tampa three weeks ago about to launch his new website Herleague.net, a social media platform for women who love football, when his son spotted Twitter updates about the party and alerted him. "I went right from shock, blew right past furious, and was like, 'Wait a minute, they are so way out there,'" Holloway said. As he watched more and more photos from the party show up on Twitter and Facebook, he was appalled: "This isn't just alcohol. This is alcohol and meth and crack and heroin. It didn't even make sense."
He estimates there is $20-40K in damage, including smashed windows and glass doors, an "enormous amount" of graffiti, urine-soaked carpets, holes in the ceilings, and a stolen eagle statue (which has since been returned). On his website (which he referred to as a "warning disclosure"), he asked the teens to come to a picnic for veterans at the home and help clean it up. "These 300 lives are in real jeopardy," he said. "Why don't you help clean it up, let's turn it into something good. Because I don't want this place to be remembered by the scar of this ridiculous situation."
He said that so far, only one teen and parent have come forward to help him clean up the damages. He's already turned over hundreds of the pictures to the local sheriff: "We have names of probably 220 kids so far, we'll have 300 by this weekend." He added that he's not scared of the threats he's received so far: "They have so much documented evidence, the only term I can use to describe what is going to happen to these teens is 'shock-and-awe.'"
"And how do you intimidate me?" he asked. "I've lined up against Lawrence Taylor!"
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brian holloway
party house
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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