Creating The Writers Block

What do New Years Day, the day after we set the clocks back to Standard Time and today have in common?

They’re the 3 most depressing days of the year.

Watching the Christmas decorations come down and the sun set at 4:15 are awful enough, but nothing compares in horror to the site of turning on Fox on Sunday at 1 (see what I did there) and seeing some show where people get hurt skiing come on. During football season, Sunday is a part of the weekend, often times the best part. But during the other 7 months of the year, it’s barely even a day off. It’s a day you have to pay your bills, run errands, and do laundry. For some reason, during football season you don’t do any of that stuff on Sunday and it still gets done during the week.

Now some people will say “Oh, there’s plenty of other sports on Sundays now.” That’s true. Today there were NHL games, NBA games, and college basketball games. During the summer there’s always baseball on. And I like all of those sports. But regular season hockey, baseball, and basketball really isn’t the same. You can try to convince yourself otherwise, but you know you’re kidding yourself.

So where does that leave us?

Well, we’re at best 30 weeks from Week 1 of the 2011 NFL Season. Between now and then, one topic will dominate the NFL news, and that’s obviously the labor talks. I personally want to write a few columns about it, but honestly, there’s not going to be any shortage of coverage on that. I doubt anyone would come here to learn anything other than my particular take on the issues, which I’ll provide. I have a few ideas for some other pieces I’d like to write, the top one being “A List of Things NFL Coaches Consistently Do Wrong.” If you’ve ever watched me scream “Kick The Field Goal” at a team down 10 with 3 minutes to go, I think you know what will be at the top of that list.

But it’s along off-season, and I’m not vain enough to think you’re interested in hearing only from me for the next 7 months. So I’m going to turn it over to one of the greatest Americans of all time to help me.

That’s right, Apollo and I (and Kyle, remember him?) want your help with Sunday At 1. We’re looking for people who want to write. It's time to assemble our full staff of contributors, from here on out known as The Writers Block. Obviously this is a pretty low-key blog, so we don’t have any strict rules on what you can and can’t write, but here’s a few basic guidelines/ suggestions:

1. Be Able to Commit to At Least 1 Piece a Week.

People are busy, we get that. And I’m not interested in making people do something they don’t want to. Eventually we’ll be open to guest columns on a one-off basis. But right now, I’m looking for those who want to contribute regularly. Doesn’t have to be every day, or even every Wednesday, but one a week is the minimum right now.

2. Have Something to Discuss Besides Your Favorite Team

One of my biggest fears is that left to my own devices I’ll turn this into a Giants blog. Obviously, I don’t hide my allegiances on here. That said, if you’re only interested in talking about the Eagles, Jets, or Jaguars (that last one is a joke) maybe a guest column or two later on is a better fit.

3.  You Don’t Need to Know Much, Except How to Be Interesting

No one is coming to this blog for breaking news, or analysis on how the Cover 2 works against New England’s 3 WR set. I played football for 11 years, and watch basically every NFL game all season. This gives me a pretty good wealth of knowledge about situations that come up a lot, and basic gameplanning. But I still don’t know anything, comparatively speaking. The best columns for this blog express opinions on current topics in the NFL. We don’t need a game recap, and we sure don’t need it to be groundbreaking. So if you’d like to write but are worried you may not know enough of the intricacies, don’t worry about it. Being interesting is a lot more important. Out best feedback so far came from my piece about Super Bowl 42, which was more about the art of being a fan than it was about the giants and the Patriots.

So there we are. If you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail at andrewneumann86@gmail.com or leave me a message on Facebook or on this blog. We don’t have a set number of people in mind, so the more the merrier right now. Any questions, feel free to be in touch.