Learn a little bit about the history of blogs on the internet

When this blog was in it’s infancy, Will Leitch ran things at Deadspin. It was a fun, magical, wondrous site in those days. I’ll admit, I still stop there sometimes out of habit for a quick gleam of what they’re saying about the sports world. But it’s long become plastic and lost it’s innocence along the way.

I didn’t realize it at the time – I was too wrapped up reading all the big stories that broke – but it lost it’s innocence when A.J. Daulerio took over as editor.

I liked Dauelrio, though. I associated him with Leitch for good reason, and I found that I enjoyed his stories like when he went out hound-dogging for stories at the Super Bowl. I just liked something about the guy. I sent him marginally written shit – like the kind of stuff I still write – and he would link it if he could. Just like Leitch.

We bullshitted through e-mail a few times. He actually just seemed like a good dude.

When he went down in the Hulk Hogan lawsuit, I felt for the guy a little bit. When I read this story at Esquire today, I felt for him a little more.

I started this blog in the wake of reading Deadspin in the Leitch/AJD era every single day. If nothing else – if you weren’t in the loop when having a (sports) blog on the internet became ‘the thing’ – read this article. It’s definitely something that belongs in an internet blog history book someday.

And Daulerio, if you ever stumble across this buddy: you have one ‘spinhead who is out here praying for you and rooting for you. Bad times don’t last.