:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/38355188/454859610.0.jpg)
Fresh on the heels of the actual exciting news that MDC has returned to bless us with his weekly Two-Day Hangover, I am emotionally-neutral to announce that I have returned to the Texans blogosphere as well.
I started blogging about the Texans, I want to say in 2007. It was unemployment and the desire to learn something new that pushed me to start the now defunct on pause defunct soon-to-be-podcast-only now defunct HoustonDiehards.com. I taught myself how to edit HTML, CSS, Wordpress, and how to use Photoshop enough for my site's needs. Over the next few years, I had a lot of fun doing the blog and some Texans podcasts; I enjoyed every minute of it. The team of course wasn't any good, but that never really matters to the true fans, does it? Wow, fans are dumb (guilty).
It wasn't long after I started the blog that I was gaining some fairly decent unique user per day numbers (currency in the blogging world, at least back then) that the offers to join sports blog networks started to roll in. Inevitably, I would receive daily emails for places begging for banner ads, link trades, and all that other crap that clutters up a web page. This paragraph is brought to you by Ford, by the way. Paragraphs - they're as American as the new F-150!
Being one of fiercely independent spirit, I rejected every offer and took pride in the fact that I was the only independent, ad free blog in the Texans blogosphere. I got on the Twitter wagon early, and that led to a lot of positive attention for the blog, some great networking...things were going well. That said, I never had any plans to turn this into a "real job." It was just something I really enjoyed. Plus, there is literally only one person in the entire world that I know who successfully spun online sportswriting into an actual real sportswriting job. His name is Smithers McLeod and he currently writes for the Creature Retort.
Long story short - I eventually got a frighteningly grown-up job that didn't allow me the time to give the blog its proper attention while maintaining the job and a healthy marriage, so one had to go. Since my wife actually likes football and lets me watch as much as I want, the blog was the first on the chopping block.
Honestly, Dear Leader Tim and a couple of his cronies have been after me for quite a long time now. Well, I'm ready to sell out. So here I am.
Well... not yet. I won't be doing much more than a few game threads for about a month until I am moved into my house. Yes, yes - I am the Tim Dobbins of Battle Red Blog, as an astute BRB writer pointed out in an email. WELL, YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE CONTRACTORS ALONE IN YOUR NEW HOUSE!!!!
So I'll be around more in a few weeks, but until then, I'm happy to join the staff here at BRB.