Since the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine, I’ve struggled to create content. Like the rest of you, I’ve been glued to Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, looking for real time updates. Like some, I’ve cried, panicked, raged, and laughed nervously. My heart breaks for the people of Ukraine, and that’s why I’m struggling… I create sports content.
When I began my YouTube channel in 2017, and started to get a little following, I knew why people watched me, I was entertaining. I’m not that smart, I’m wrong more than I’m right, but I’m probably going to make you laugh as I talk about it. What I do is easy most of the time, I’m a sports fan who talks and writes about sports. I’m basically an idiot that fell into good fortune and I get to live out your dream.
During the pandemic I made a decision not to talk about COVID-19 unless I was thanking all of the frontline workers. At the time, my podcast partner was Conor, and we just tried to make each other laugh. The response we got was overwhelming. Our inbox was flooded with messages from frontliners thanking us. We were blown away, why was a nurse working 16-hour shifts, with very little PPE thanking us? Because we were a distraction. For 40-minutes a day, they were able to watch a couple of assholes talk about football, laugh, and not mention death, the WHO, masks, vaccines, or politics. We took that seriously, and we were honored.
Fast Forward to now. I so desperately want to be a distraction again. For a few minutes a night, give people a chance to not think about the war, honking “Freedom Fighters”, Dean blowing the devil, and Ryan discriminating against straight brim hats. I’ve been doing it, but it’s been tough.
I’m not here asking for pity, clearly struggling to create sports content is the least of the world’s problems, and I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me, I think though I may be expressing what some people are thinking. How can we enjoy sports, when innocent people are being killed in a senseless war. – The truth is, we’ve always done it, and we shouldn’t stop.
After 9/11, we rallied around the New York Yankees and Mets. The entire world cheered as the New England Patriots, decked out in red, white, and blue, won the Super Bowl. After the Boston Bombing, we were all up lifted by five words “This is our fucking city”. From there we cheered as the Boston Red Sox won a World Series for Boston. The New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina, and fucking marble races and Japense Baseball during the early parts of the pandemic.
Sports has always been there to get us through hard times, even when it’s happening. So why does this feel so fucking different this time?
You probably haven’t noticed, but this is my first blog in a few days, and the only subject I could come up with is, I’m finding it difficult to create sports content. Fuck, I sound like such a pussy. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is leading his troops to fight off Putin’s henchmen, and I’m crying about sports content.
I guess this is the time I’m going to put my brave face on, put my big boy pants on, and promise to create content for you going forward. I’ll tell you why Josh Allen is great, I’ll brag about the Patriots six Super Bowl rings, I’ll annoy football fans with my constant soccer references, and I’ll continue to say that the CFL is the stupidest sport on earth.
What was the point of this post, I have no fucking idea.
I just needed to write it.
