I know this is not much of a surprise, but basically on July 1 all subscribers here will be ported over to the On3 Network as part of Gold and Black and Boiler Upload will cease to be. Dub has already moved over as the lone writer that is going, so Casey and I are basically caretakers for the next two weeks before this place shutters.
For those that stayed as subscribers or came on in the last three years, I thank you for hanging on. it was obviously a weird time when GBI moved away and now y'all are heading back, but Kyle, Casey, Israel, Dub, and I appreciate you for reading us. Casey is still searching for a landing space, but I know he is working to find a place where you can still get quality content from him. We will still have access to our YouTuve channel and podcast feed, and I believe intends to use those. If you were s subscriber in the last few years you took a risk. The headwinds were against us from the beginning because GBI is a well-established brand and a different voice than we had. We had to jump in and learn a lot on the fly, but I cannot think the other writers for producing excellent content from day 1.
As for me, I am not sure what I am doing yet. I have been running a site like this since 2006, so I am entering my first football season in nearly two decades where I am not writing at least something for some entity. I have not done a whole lot as it is in the past year and that has been intentional. Casey and Dub have handled the lion's share of the work and they deserve all the credit. It is likely that I will stay mostly retired, as I have some other career goals I want to pursue that are more important. In the last few months I have looked at returning to school for the first time since 2002 to get a Masters in mental health counseling. I have been accepted into the online program at Butler for this, and I am just figuring out the financials of it before fully committing. Also, my son is 12 now, and it is far more important for me to be a dad than to drive to West Lafayette several times a week. I have mostly been dadding the last few years anyway. I don't know if anyone has realized this, but this gig has never once been a full-time job for me. Ever since starting on Blogger in 2006, through 13 years at SB Nation, to now it has always been a side gig. I have poored probably too much of myself into all while maintaining day jobs as well. To be blunt, I am exhausted from it.
All in all, it has been a strange journey. When I started my first site on Blogger in August of 2006 I had no audience, no idea what I was doing, and I just had a desire to write about Purdue football. I had no delusions of ever having much of an audience, but thanks to SB Nation picking me up in 2009 everything took off beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. I know I haven't been perfect. I have been a passionate voice that has often spoken before thinking, but I have mellowed substantially now that I am in my mid 40s. If you had told me in 2006 I would have my work mentioned on ESPN, I would be interviewed Anish Shroff about the eventual firing of Darrell Hazell, and and I would get to be courtside for hundreds of basketball games I wouldn't have believed you. My lone regret is that I was not able to make it to Phoenix last year, as life circumstances prevented me from physically making the trip. On that day I felt like Moses, viewing the Promised Land from afar but not getting to go after years of seeking it.
Thank you, all, for everything. I am humbled that eny of you ever wanted to read my writings or hear my thoughts. I am sure I will be out there somewhere still and might even post occasionally, but in the meantime, it has been an honor.
