By Ava Thompson
Dirty Turtles is the name. Social media is the game.
The Turtles, a University of Maryland intramural flag football team, run a parody Twitter account.
The Turtles are a Division B team. RecWell runs the intramural flag football leagues, which consists of Division A, B and the CoEd division.
Social media manager Jenna Bloom, a freshman journalism major, said the account was originally an inside joke but it has bonded the team.
The account satirizes typical NFL team social media posts such as those about injury reports, rosters and defensive players of the week.
The Dirty Turtles’ Twitter said the injuries are usually deemed “out ” or “questionable ” because players need to finish homework, have jiujitsu conflicts or are computer science majors.
Bloom said she has seen the account primarily spread among friends.
Team captain Nathan Schwartz, a freshman journalism major, said the account has bonded the team.
“[It’s] to add another aspect of fun to it,” Schwartz said. “Just being able to laugh about what we post, what the reaction to it is and just the whole process of making it, like making the logo and everything.”
Brandon Schwartzberg, a freshman journalism major, found the logo for the team: a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Schwartzberg and other teammates wanted a social media presence and a graphic design strategy for the team.
After making a logo and four graphics, Schwartzberg started Twitter and Instagram accounts. He also kept generating post ideas.
“I kind of came up with ideas out of the blue,” the wide receiver said. “I felt that first we needed to have a roster post, and then we came up with the injury report idea. Then after the [first] game, I decided we should do a player of the week. So I made graphics for that. And then I will also have a game day graphic out the morning of the [second] game.”
The team is currently 1-1 and they tweeted their first win on Oct. 26. Their first game was a scrimmage because the other team forfeited. The Dirty Turtles lost their second game 41-0 on Tuesday.
“They got absolutely obliterated,” Bloom said.
Despite the team’s big loss, their social media accounts are becoming more noticeable.
“Everybody’s reposting it on their own social media pages,” said Schwartz. “And just giving us another element of fun to the team. And the people we followed, some people are like ‘Who are the Dirty Turtles?’ Like, we’re the best football team on campus.”
Featured image: The Dirty Turtles gear up for their game Oct. 26. Photo courtesy of Dirty Turtles Instagram.