If you have not guessed it by now, the change we are seeing has been something that I have known about for quite some time.
This has been an interesting season for coverage on many levels. I knew that change was going to come this off-season, but I was unsure what that change was going to look like. I am still not entirely sure what the future will look like for Duck Sports Authority and my work with Rivals - but it will continue on some level.
I first came to this website in 2004 as an effort to help a friend whose son had leukemia; I wanted to talk to some people about one of his wishes and was told I should check out the site. I soon became integrated as a member and loved the interaction; the football talk; and learning a little bit more about recruits.
Some of you may remember my sojourn to South Dakota to work as a volunteer strength coach. Prior to my departure, a good friend Daryl (DiehardDuck) had been running a regular DSA tailgate. When I got back late that season, I discovered that we were no longer hosting one, but wanted to find a way to do that. Some of the best times I have had at DSA were those tailgates during the 2009-2012 seasons. We were packed every week and I remember fondly all of those games; especially poignant were two specific memories. In 2010 when Stanford came to Oregon and GameDay was here, I was on site at 5am and began working on a scratch made jambalaya for the game. The food was fantastic and the game even better.
The other was the tailgate in Phoenix before the National Championship Game against Auburn. We had a large group of great people who made it to Phoenix and had dinner with nearly 50 people the night before the game at a place called ‘The Culinary Dropout.’ The namesake of this message board “FirstDuck” (Dick Busby) and his wife were both a part of that tailgate and I remember fondly the great conversation we shared.
I miss those days when we were all just enjoying the ride without the burden of expectations.
A little over a year later, I stumbled onto a different side of the Lache Seastrunk story and a secondary career began. When I wrote those things down, when I interviewed the Seastrunk family and friends, I had no idea that it would be anything more than a guy telling a story once. I thought that was it – and then my good friend AJ asked if I wanted to write for him more frequently. I enjoy writing and I enjoy football so it gave me the opportunity to do both things for a friend.
That was a decade ago. I could not have asked for a better decade. I have traveled to multiple Rose Bowls, national championships, road games from Virginia to Stanford and just about everywhere in between. In that decade, both of my sons have married, and I have moved across the country – twice. But one thing always remained constant: Duck Sports Authority. My life has changed drastically over the last four years; a lot more responsibility at my day job has precluded many calls to recruits during the day; MBA studies have precluded those calls at night.
At the beginning of this season, though, I talked with my wife about the future and what it might look like. AJ had asked me to be at every home game this year due to some things he needed to take care of and his desire to make sure we had good representation in the press box. As a friend, it was the easiest decision to make. I committed to this season in the booth.
It has been a difficult season; my wife cannot take the late-night games and we have had three of them. I am left driving alone afterward not getting home until around 3:00 am; those days and nights are long, brutal, and lonely. We had discussed drawing back to doing special events only; with me covering the Polynesian Bowl, Rivals Five-Star challenge and maybe bowl games where we can make it into a mini vacation.
And then AJ told me that this would be his last as the publisher of this site. I had known for quite some time that this day was coming, I thought at the beginning of the season that it was very likely to be following this year. Given our friendship and how much of his heart and soul I know he has poured into this site, knowing this day was close at hand, I took some time to think about what the future would look like. I spoke with Ryan Young earlier this week and I know there is a plan in place, but it has to make sense from the perspective of everyone involved. There is definitely a desire to keep our core together and we talked about some things that we think will be very helpful.
I am going to do everything I can with the transition. I really do want to continue covering special events, like the Polynesian Bowl, I may still do three columns per week, or maybe not. That is yet to be decided.. During the season, it is five articles per week plus contributions ahead of each game to joint articles. Given the heavy demands of my day job, the demands of MBA courses and the evolving life of my adult children, the workload has taken a toll on my psyche.
Over the course of the past six or seven years, I have tried to take critiques of my work into perspective and become better. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I do not. I am a flawed human being who has a passion for his alma mater and a love of writing. A few weeks ago, as I was leaving the Pac-12 Championship press box and blending into the crowd I was transported back in time to the final episode of Friday Night Lights. As many know, this is a series that I absolutely watched with passion. But as I blended into the crowd, I felt sort of like Eric Taylor at the end; I knew the sun was setting and a Wordsworth poem reminded me that even a sunset has a sort of beauty that captures opportunity.
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober coloring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. (Wordsworth)
I have loved every minute of covering Oregon football for AJ, Duck Sports Authority, and Rivals. I have spoken a lot of those moments in the press box for the last two home games of this season because I knew that they would possibly be my last from the press box for this staff. I have quoted at times the Tennyson poem Ulysses because it reminds me of the importance of recognizing the change we all inevitably encounter; the beauty of its fulfillment; the importance of never wondering what if.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
These words have power over my own heart and soul because they remind me of how lucky I am to have had so many Duck fans read my work; to comment and to share their own experiences. I entered into this realm by accident, and I would not change a single thing about the last ten years of my life. This has become a part of me that will never leave.
Each and every one of our members; the frequent commenters; the dissenters; the lurkers; you have made this site what it is, and I consider it an honor to have been a part of this work. I am not gone; I am not joining another site; I am still Ducks39 at heart and will always be a member here. I will continue to cover the Polynesian Bowl. Hopefully Rivals will allow me to cover the Five Star challenge.
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