Sorry for the lack of content lately, but I’ve been extremely busy working on something huge… that’s now close enough to being a done deal that I feel safe about announcing it.
I am currently in the middle of signing a deal with FOX Sports to feature this website on their blogging network, Yardbarker, and have paused long enough to type this out (signing a contract takes longer than you might think). I will then be awaiting the countersignature from the people at FOX Sports/Yardbarker that will make this whole thing official.
What all this means is that I will finally be getting paid to do what I love, which is writing about Gator sports. At age 20, and eight short months after the relaunch, it happened a lot quicker than I could have imagined, and it wouldn’t have happened without several people.
First and foremost, a huge thank you goes out to Ryan Moyer. He’s been so great to me in more ways than I can imagine, and long story short, he will be getting a cut of my profits. Kind of sucks that I’m forced to take this copout and not launch into a novel about all he’s done for me, but I really don’t have the words to describe my feelings of appreciation for him. Hell, nobody does, not even the accomplished wordsmiths over at SB Nation.
Next, my group of staff writers deserve a shoutout: Joey Vizzi, NW Blackmon, Nick Joost and Tyler Mack (who you all know as “The Bone”). They’ve all been great throughout their time at IAKOW, (Joey and Bone in particular, who’ve been with me since IAKOW was owned by Ryan Moyer back in 2010, and NWB and Nick were two huge pickups for us as well). In addition, I’d like to welcome back Tanner Dennie. He was dealing with some personal stuff, but he’s beaten them and now he’s once again a member of IAKOW.
Finally, thank you to all the people who have read me since we launched in November, and dating back to my days at SB Nation and Bleacher Report. Or even in the prior incarnation of this website. Just reading and taking time to digest what I write is very flattering, and very much appreciated. And it’s going to be key to our success going forward.
The way I figure it, this is the dawn of a new day for us, and hopefully, our partnership with Fox Sports is so successful that this day never sees a sunset. It’s pitch black out there right now, and thus we’ll all be feeling our way around in the dark for a little while, but I do see the metaphorical first ray of light, way off in the distance. I know that we have great things lying ahead.
However, in order to get there, I need your help. Yes, YOU, the fantastic readers of In All Kinds Of Weather. You know what you want from us, and you also know that we do things a little differently than the other Gator blogs out there, such as Alligator Army, Only Gators, Hail Florida Hail, etc. You know that we do lots of things that they don’t, like interview incoming freshmen about their expectations, tolerate all sorts of opinions in the comments box (something that everybody says they do, but doesn’t really follow through on), and yes, not be afraid to ruffle the feathers of our Tomahawk Chopping f(r)iends like this. In eight months, we’ve built quite a following (more than 2K twitter followers) and what I feel is a solid amount of respect (mainly among Gator fans… not so much among those who live in Tallahassee. But hey, that’s not my problem!).
But this is the perfect opportunity for you to tell me what else you want. What kind of things would you be interested in reading that we don’t currently write? More directly, what can we do- in any respect- that we don’t already do to enhance your In All Kinds Of Weather experience?
The long and short of what I just wrote is, this is In All Kinds Of Weather 3.0. We are all strong for Florida, and in all kinds of weather, we’ll all stick together… no matter how frustrating times may be, we’ll all stick together… for the seven letters that, when you string them together, form the name of the team that I’ve loved since watching them trounce on a certain Native American nicknamed team in some bowl game that was particularly sweet as a not even three year old tyke… and every teenage girl’s dream vacation destination… FLORIDA.
There’s a beautiful orange and blue sky awaiting us, and we’re cleared for takeoff. So buckle up, and let’s go for a ride…
