Abandoning Post: My Life as a Crew Blogger

By: Jeff | May 21st, 2007

And so it goes that seven games into Major League Soccer’s 2007 season, I’m abandoning my position as the Columbus Crew’s blogger for The Offside. It was a fun experiment, trying to write about a soccer team I don’t support. If nothing else, it finally disabused me of my notion that I can hack it as a sports reporter. So, I’ll begin by taking my hats off to everyone who has ever covered a team as a job; you’re all tough S.O.B.s, tougher than me anyway.

The reality is, once watching the Crew felt like an obligation, resentment kicked in pretty quickly. After a promising opening game or two, the Crew seemed determined to turn off neutrals and, judging from some of the commentary that appeared in the first “Fire Sigi” thread I have seen this year, they’re in the process of turning off their fans as well. Fans being fans, they tend to stick with the team till it is no longer, but, frankly, I’m just too fickle to follow a team I don’t support - that goes double when the team is as hard to watch as the Crew have been in ‘07. In truth, it goes triple (or so) when there’s the added aggravation of missing games involving teams I do find interesting.

On the upside, there’s a replacement on the way who holds two built-in advantages over me: he lives in Ohio and he likes, perhaps even loves, the Crew. I’ll leave his introduction to him, but look forward to reading what he’s got to say; hell, I look forward to actually learning about what it’s like to be a Crew fan. For all the times my heart was in the right place here, and there were a few, I can’t really speak to that.

It’s been fun here for as long as I’ve been around and, though I won’t be running the Crew blog or any other space on The Offside, I intend to continue haunting the site as a whole (hell, I’ve got all the MLS blogs bookmarked; and I’ll have this one bookmarked once it’s no longer mine). I’ll continue following the league over on It’s a Simple Game, though that will involve following what interests me - e.g. Major League Soccer as a whole. I’ll also keep plugging away at Write On Sports. Hope to see and hear from people over there.

And, with that, I pass the torch to someone I expect will do better with this space. Good luck to him. And, hey, to prove there are no hard feelings, good luck Columbus.