Preaching To A Choir Of Heathens
Jun 23, 2008 Bloggerating, Ranting, Self-Referential Stuff, The ghost of BFD, Vince Young can't read this post
As I’m sure most of you have seen by now, Will Leitch took The Big Lead to task (kinda) in response to this LA Times article about how Buzz Bissinger’s [likely drunken] tirade against Will made bloggers change their tone and become more serious. Will’s article was well-written, even if (as other’s have pointed out) it’s a little ironic for him to be complaining about blogs changing, given the number of writers, many of them horribly shitty, who have guest slots on Deadspin now. After all — and I’m paraphrasing a number of comments and blog posts — selling out is selling out, no matter what the impetus, right?
But none of that is why I mentioned this whole thing in the first place. Honestly, I don’t care about the fallout from Bissingergate at all because I don’t see that it’s had any affect on what we (or other Texans blogs) are doing. Nor do I care about whether other sports blogs are changing their tune because, honestly, other sports blogs don’t cover the Texans enough to really draw more than a passing interest from me. (Honestly, unless the material is (a) consistently hilarious or (b) extremely well-written, I might go weeks without reading a given blog.)
No, I bring this whole thing up because of Will’s final sentences in that article. In a piece of advice to all bloggers, Will opines:
Just take care of your own business, figure out what you do best, pray everyone just stays out of your way and then start ripping shit up. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.
If I were trying to sum up the mindset of DGDB&D in one sentence, that part in bold would come pretty close. I hope BFD doesn’t mind me speaking for him here, but our goal has always been to entertain first and inform second, and I feel like we do a pretty good job of it. There aren’t too many blogs, Texans or otherwise, that do in-depth Xs and Os talk sandwiched between fake conversations and jokes about sodomy. Do we go a little over the top at times? Definitely. Is it possible that we are offending some people, including families of some of the people we write about? Sure. But so what? No, seriously — why does that matter at all? I mean, for Christ’s sake, I have a photo essay about Richard Justice that begins with a rhino having explosive diarrhea. Do you really think there’s anything here you shouldn’t take with a huge grain of salt?
Now, I realize that, as with anything, tastes vary when it comes to blogs. For instance, I love half of the KSK writers but can’t stand the other half, I find With Leather nearly unreadable, and I happen to think that Deadspin was best when it was just Will and Rick on a daily basis. Your opinions may (and likely do) vary, which is totally fine by me. Which is why I don’t understand people who feel the need to comment or email to tell me that what I’ve done is “offensive” or “rude” or “stupid as shit” or whatever. You feel that way? Great, more power to you…but your opinion means less to me than, apparently, mine does to you. Why waste your e-breath writing something that is just going to get ridiculed or, more likely, ignored? It’s not like you are going to change anything at all on this site.
I guess my point is that DGDB&D is never going to please everyone. First, that’s more or less impossible, and, second, that would incredibly boring. What we try to do is entertain the people who do like the site and just forget about those who don’t. More accurately, what we try to do is bring something to the Texans blogosphere that you can’t get anywhere else. To my way of thinking, that should be everyone’s goal. For example, Battle Red Blog, the gold-standard of being entertaining while being informative, has cornered the market on doing in-depth features, hitting on breaking news first, and creating a comment section that is friendly and often hilarious.
Now, as a blog with a similarly-sized readership base, we could attempt to do the same thing as them or we could find another angle and try to make our site different, which is exactly what we’ve done. By doing this, to paraphrase SOLIS, we’ve created a place that is like a local bar, where you recognize most everyone, you bullshit with your friends, you revel in the constantly stupidity, and you get into the occasional sports argument.
If we can entertain you while providing the occasional nugget of actual football insight — and if we can accomplish the whole thing through some well-written pieces — then I feel like we’ve succeeded in reaching our goal as a blog. It may leave some things to be desired and it sure as hell ain’t for everyone, but no one is making you read it. If you don’t like it, read something else; if you do read it, then realize that this site is the way it is for a reason.
And fuck you if you can’t take a joke.
Top 5 Most Important Games in Texans History
Jun 22, 2008 19-10, 2006 Draft, The ghost of BFD, Top 5
Another day, another pre-season Top 5 list. This time, something a little more positive–the Top 5 Most Important Games in Texans History.
5. Denver @ Houston, December 13, 2007 (Texans win 31-13). Mario Williams’ coming-out party, clad in Kool Aid-esque all red, came on national television. (Sort of…it was an NFL Network Thursday Night broadcast, so it’s not like everyone could see it.) On Denver’s first possession, Jay Cutler rolled out toward Mario on a naked bootleg and I immediately texted my buddy, Sid, saying “Mario’s not biting on the play action. If they run that play again, Mario will destroy Cutler.” Well, they ran it more and Mario ended the night with 3.5 sacks and, more importantly, with most of the country realizing just how good he is going to be.
4. Indianapolis @ Houston, December 24, 2006 (Texans win 27-24). Our first and, to date, only win over Peyton Manning and the Colts. In retrospect, it wasn’t a huge deal, but at the time it felt like something big. Coming on the heels of being blown out by the Pats, that win over the Colts (and the subsequent win over the Browns) was a great prelude to successes of the 2007 season season, which ended with…
3. Jacksonville @ Houston, December 29, 2007 (Texans win 42-28). Andre Davis, as Spartacus, took it upon himself to blow this game wide open, meaning our 8th win wasn’t in doubt for much of the second half. Sure, sure, the Jags weren’t exactly fielding their A-team and, yes, Richard Smith reverted to his non-blitzing ways so Quinn effin’ Gray was able to put some points on the board, but a win is a win and this one was awesome. I’m sure that some day we’ll look back and think, “Man, were we really THAT excited about a .500 season?” But, for now, the answer is “hell yes, we were!”
2. Houston @ San Francisco, December 31, 2005 (Texans lose 20-17). If we had won this game, we would have drafted third, behind the Saints (who would still have inexplicably taken Reggie Bush) and the 49ers, who almost certainly would have taken Mario Williams (after all, they went defense with their second 1st round pick and it’s unlikely they’d have taken Vernon Davis second overall). It sounds odd to rank a loss so high on this list, but snagging Mario Williams (and DeMeco Ryans at the top of the second round, which was also fallout from this loss) was the move that will define this franchise and make it competitive for the next 7-10 years.
1. Dallas @ Houston, September 8, 2002 (Texans win 19-10). Maybe I am just overly nostalgic about these sorts of things, but this game remains number one on my list for a whole host of reasons: It was an unprecedented debut, it was over the Cowboys (who, it would seem, became cursed by the win, as they have not won a playoff game in the Texans’ lifetime), it was a nationally televised Sunday night game, and it won me $200 because everyone else in my suicide pool picked Dallas that week. It was also the best we would ever see from David Carr, who would immediately begin to suck with a ferocity that has rarely been seen in professional sports.
