ThatKidInTheCorner

September 28, 2007

Say Hello To BountyBowl

Finally, an explanation of that little gizmo on the right (and what I've been up to of late on the Internets)

I originally imagined I would write this post about a month ago. That would be the post that explained (a) why I haven’t really written much on ThatKidInTheCorner for the past couple months and (b) where I’ve redirected my blogging energies, on the off chance that (c) you hadn’t figured it out and (d) you were actually interested.

The answer? My fantastically satisfying (at least to me) Eagles-only blog: BountyBowl.com.

Quick FAQ on BountyBowl.

What’s a BountyBowl?

I’ve got a more complete description up on the actual BountyBowl site, but the main details are as follows. Bounty Bowl is the name for the 1989 Thanksgiving Day game between the Philaddelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys in which Eagles coach Buddy Ryan allegedly placed bounties on the heads of Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas and quarterback/ future Hall-Of-Famer Troy Aikman.

In evaluating potential names for this blog, I really wanted something that said “I respect the proud traditions of the Philadelphia Eagles and their famously loyal fan base; also, I could do with a little bloodlust/ glorification of violence.” The Buddy Ryan Eagles were the team that got me excited about the Birds for the first time. I turned 10 a couple months after Buddy was hired, so as I see it, I never really had a choice. OF COURSE I was going to be fired up about that team. That was the team that taught me that rooting for the defense could be more fun than rooting for the offense (especially if your defense was the best in the league and routinely beat the crizzap out of other teams). The Buddy Ryan teams never won anything of merit (sigh) but they DID intimidate the hell out of people. The current administration is obviously a bit more savvy/ competent than those teams (mostly the ownership, STUPID BRAMAN!), but they lack a certain oomph. Those old teams were just meaner. There. I said it. And I kind of miss that.

I really recommend the lovingly maintained Wikipedia entry linked above if you’d like to read more. For the record, the Eagles won said game 27-0. Go Birds.

Why an Eagles blog?

Without going too much into, let’s say that I had a slight moment of epiphany this past spring when a weirdo HR person at my huge corporate job asked what I’d ideally be doing if I wasn’t working for _______ (rhymes with Psycholoft). I thought a moment, and said that I would be the sports editor for Philly.com. And then I realized I could pretty much do that. Like right now. I didn’t even need a reason.

Also, most of my posts on ThatKid during football season were about the Birds anyway, so think of this as just narrowing my focus (and getting to make new logos and graphics!).

How often do you post on BountyBowl?

My general theory on BountyBowl posts is that I’m writing shorter posts but I’m writing them more frequently. The bar for ThatKid posts was getting a little high (at least in terms of length; we can’t speak to quality), and I wanted to make it easier on myself to update the site. So I mostly pound out a paragraph or two, drop a link, and move on. It’s easier for me, and I think it’s a lot easier on readers as well (no gigantic chunks of text to wade through).

What qualifies you to write about the Eagles?

Let’s just say that I consume a LOT of internet content on the Birds. A LOT. It’s my favorite recreational content product. I think that gets me pretty far.

What’s the BountyBowl USP/ Value Prop? What makes you different from the other Eagles blogs?

So while I can’t claim that I have any special insight into professional football or the tactical details of Eagles games, I do think that I have the experience and chops for some solid Eagles media meta-criticism. That is, I try to write about the coverage of the team (especially in the local papers) as much as the team/ games themselves. And when you have a town and a media that’s as frighteningly focused/ neurotic/ delusional/ mean-spirited as Philly, well, there’s certainly plenty to write about. Those people are crazy; they were just asking for some meta-coverage.

Is ThatKid done?

I wouldn’t say done, but it’ll certainly be limited over the next couple months. At a higher level, I definitely was eager for a change in re: my online content generation – I just wanted to try something a little different. I’m keeping all the ThatKid content live and will likely return to it in the future, but I think it will mostly be limited to general personal news and information, as well as the occasional anecdote/ travel adventure.

What about your other online stuff?

All still rocking along. I still put photos on flickr, and my del.icio.us is as live as ever (though, in all honesty, very focused on the Birds). I don’t see that changing. Those are low-impact for me, and have honestly become a habit at this point (especially the del.icio.us).

Any other big news from the past month that you might want to share?

Well yeah, but that probably demands its own post (!).

Posted by thatkid at September 28, 2007 2:19 AM under Philly , Sports , ThatKid | Comments (0)

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