Thank you, Pride of Detroit

If you had told me when I was younger that at some point in my life I would have a job writing about the Detroit Lions, then I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It was a dream of mine, and because of Pride of Detroit, the amazing staff here, and the amazing community, I was able to live out my dream over the past three seasons.

The end of 2020 also spells the end of my time at Pride of Detroit. I will be leaving the sports world (at least professionally) for the near future.

While I the past three years of Detroit Lions football have been the most disappointing, terrible, and every other negative adjective you can think of, span the team has undergone in over a decade, they were some of my most enjoyable years ever watching the team. I’ve had amazing experiences and got to do a ton of cool things both on and off of this site.

Being able to go back and forth with the community in the comments and on Twitter, joining the podcast and postgame shows and even just chatting with members of the community on Discord has turned the usually-miserable experience of watching the Lions get run over every week into something I looked forward to. As a Lions fan living far from Detroit, it felt nice to have a real group of fans I could relate to every week.

There’s a lot of people I would like to thank for making my time here so great. First, Jeremy Reisman. Our fearless leader who took a chance on me back in 2018, allowing me this platform and trusting me to do well with it. He edited nearly every piece I wrote for this website (including this one most likely) [Editor’s note: yep] and truly did everything he could to help me grow over the past few years, opening up opportunities for me that would not be possible otherwise.

I’d like to thank the rest of the staff a well. Chatting about football, music, Fall Guys or whatever else in Slack made this feel like less of a job and more of a friend group. I met a few people here that I think I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life, and these are relationships I will always hold dear to me.

And of course, the readers. Without you guys, there would be no Pride of Detroit. No one would care enough to tap me to appear on CTV, 106.5 or wherever else if they did not believe there was a community here worth investing in. The Lions wouldn’t care enough to credential us and allow us access to the team if not for a strong community here that they truly valued.

Some people reading this arrived here from Google News and have no idea who I am or what this even is. Some are Pride of Detroit readers who don’t really even know (or care) who I am. Some have followed my work closely, from even before I was at Pride of Detroit and was making little film breakdowns on now-defunct Bird Breakdowns.

All of these groups are extremely important to me. The idea that people read the things I write still feels surreal to me. I still get excited when something I write is posted online, whether it is a quick 150-word news piece or a larger scale film breakdown. The nervous-yet-exciting feeling of knowing people are going to look at something I made will never go away.

I will be stepping out of a public role for the time being, but I will still be around. Whether on Twitter, on the Pride of Detroit Discord server or anywhere else, I am excited to remain a part of this amazing community.

And, to paraphrase Johnny Carson, if I do return to the sports world, whether at Pride of Detroit or elsewhere, I hope you will all allow me the privilege to be a part of your lives once again.

Thank you, Pride of Detroit.