Only difference is I didn’t spend my summer staring at Jerry Jones‘ grotesque botox-enhanced face.
I know you’re ready for some football but as this is the first post in Total Steelers history, please indulge me for a moment. My name is Chris. I’m a Steeler fan. And I used to write for a blog by the name of Nice Pick Cowher.
Rest assured I DID NOT LEAVE VOLUNTARILY. Unfortunately, NPC was part of this horrible collection of sites called the FanSided Network. FSN exists solely to line the pockets of its two owners. They roll out blog after blog, each run by an array of hacks who churn out mindless content as frequently as possible in order to achieve their oft-stated goal of generating as many page views as they can (CHA-CHING!) rather than attempting to provide you with unique content.
On top of this, there was also a very strong Anti-Steeler bias amongst the network. It came to a head last year when they repeatedly asked me to be less passionate in my articles. Heaven forbid someone on a network titled FANSIDED be a crazy fan, huh? When I ignored this stupidity, they unceremoniously replaced me with a couple of guys whose chief skill appears to be linking to what newspapers and ESPN have to say (CHA-CHING!). After four years of building a site from the ground up, I was removed without a chance to post a proper farewell nor did either of the owners have the common decency to send along a thank you for all the work I put in over the years.
I did receive plenty of support from Steeler Nation, however. To the close to a hundred emailers/tweeters/FB posters who reached out to me, I can’t thank you enough for your kind words. Whether we agreed or disagreed, whether I made you laugh, cuss, or just plain shake your head, we are all Steeler fans and at the end of the day Black and Gold is thicker than water.
I apologize if all this reads like the political bullshit coming out of Washington but many people asked why I left NPC so I felt it needed to be said before we move on to important stuff like Ben Roethlisberger‘s sham wedding or who the hell is going to play left tackle this season.
Blame/thanks goes to Monty, who runs TotalPackers.com, for bringing me back to the blogosphere. I first met Monty during Super Bowl week when he emailed about running a Q&A exchange in anticipation of the big game. About a month ago, he inquired about what had happened to my site and I told him the whole sordid tale. We promptly cooked up a scheme to hatch an entirely new site which you now have before your beady little eyes.
Most importantly, I want to thank all my readers, new and old, for supporting me as I embark on this new venture. You guys (and gal) are literally why I do this. Go Steelers!