It was pretty damn sad to not have any football on yesterday for the first time since August. It forced me to do things like exercise, do chores, feed the cats, listen to my fiance when she wants to "talk," pay bills, wash dishes, grocery shop, and all the other crap in life that kind of sucks. From August to January, football dominates our weekends. And, since we started Stampede Blue, my eyes have been opened to the fact that football is now, truly, a 365 day a year business. So, while I am a bit sad that after this weekend there will be ZERO football games played until August, it is actually the football off-season that generates the most blog buzz. While the NBA and MLB have seven months of games, the truth is no one gives a crap not many care about their pro drafts or their off-season activities unless it involves the signing of a big free agent or a major trade. For NFL fans, every transaction could be the difference between winning and losing.
And the NFL Draft is an event that rivals the Super Bowl in terms of fan interest and media coverage.
So, while I'm sure many of you felt as I did yesterday, it's just because we are going through what 30 other teams are going through-- transitioning to the off-season. Only one team feels "high" weeks after the Super Bowl. 31 other teams go through a very long goodbye.
For us at Stampede Blue, we plan to ratchet up on NFL Combine and NFL Draft coverage. We'll do more Who the hell will they draft? posts and make a stronger effort to get more key information on players the Colts are interested in. In a week, we will also announce our new Stampede Blue writing fellows. this will increase our writing resources and allow us to cover even more draft goodness.
So, while the 2008 season will close very soon, we are already gearing up for 2009. We'll break down team needs heading into the off-season, select players the Colts should (and are) targetting, and cover the 2009 off-season with a slew of new resources. Stay tuned.