My name is Paul Pearson, aka Paul Shrug, aka Shrug, and welcome to ?Field Gulls,? a sports blog brought to you by, well, SportsBlogs Inc., devoted to the reigning NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks.
Before we discuss anything else I?d like to address the blog title.
I admit I came up with the title. Upon giving me this gig, the fine folks at SportsBlogs asked me to come up with five to ten possible titles. ?Field Gulls,? while catchy and easily URL?ed, was not my first choice.
That would have been one of these:
- ?Where Waterfowls Dare?
- ?Hawkwind?
- ?The 12th Blog?
The first title, I admit, is long-winded. The second is also the name of a defunct progressive rock band, which might have given us copyright problems even though the band doesn?t exist anymore. The third is alphanumeric, which doesn?t really scan well, and also would have caused Texas A&M to break into hysterical sobbing and, for all we know, frivolous litigation. There is also another Seahawks blog called ?The 12th Man,? and the similarities were perhaps too close for comfort.
?Field Gulls? was one of the names I put down. It was kind of a joke. But the folks at DailyKos ? who, by merit of their gigantic readership, must know something about what makes a good blog title ? went with it. I trust their judgment. They know what works in the blogosphere. I?m not going to debate them.
I am nonetheless fully expecting hardcore aficionados, especially the notoriously tough sports fan community, to wretch at the title. I accept that. It?s my burden. The phrase first emitted from my big cakehole. That is not SportsBlogs? fault, it?s mine. I?ll take the heat on this one. You have my permission to punish me in the astral realm. I promise to take it like a good cadet.
Besides, I believe that the ?Field Gulls? logo at the top-left of the home page ? which I did not design ? is so utterly fantastic, that I believe it absorbs attention away from the blog title. If it helps, please use that logo as your mental association for this blog, rather than the name. That?s certainly how I?m going to approach it.
All right, that?s out of the way. Now we can talk about substance, which I?m looking forward to doing. I love substances.
(1) This blog, and its blogger, are not professionally associated with the Seattle Seahawks. I can?t get you tickets. I can?t even get you foam fingers. Garlic fries maybe, but it?ll take a while, and by the time I get them to you they'll be soggy.
(2) I am, at best, a junior football analyst. I?m primarily a fan with great affection for the Seahawks. I will attempt to learn how to analyze football with as much steadfastness as any other novice sports blogger will ever use. But for awhile, at least, I won?t try to explain exactly why a slant pattern is favored on third-and-long, rather than a curl pattern. Having said that, if you are an armchair analyst, I urge you to comment often, particularly on the game-day open threads. Then I will shamelessly steal your observations the next time they?re appropriate.
That's a joke. Ha.
(3) Like I said, I am a Seahawks fan. That?s the perspective this blog is coming from.
(4) I will provide you with a million Seahawks-related stories a week, give or take 999,990 or so.
(5) On game days, like all other blogs in this system, we?ll be having open threads. I will be posting these open threads the night before each contest.
(6) During Seahawks away games I?ll try to enter game updates on a per-quarter basis to cover the progress of the contest. During home games I?ll actually be at the stadium, and will sum up when I return. (My family and I will be in Section 328 during the 2006 season if you want to visit us. Yell really loud to get our attention.)
(7) Despite my loyalty to all things Seahawkian, in my professional capacity, I will not denigrate or demean any other NFL teams with cheap shots or crass remarks.
(8) Except for the Raiders.
(9) Speaking of verbal abuse, although I fervently believe in freedom of speech, there are certain, very simple ground clarifications I?d like to discuss as they relate to your comments or contributions:
a. Racist remarks are unwelcome, and users who post them will be blocked from the site without warning. I don?t think this?ll be a problem but I needed to mention it. I have problems with all sorts of discrimination, in fact. Using hate speech is a certain way to get yourself punted from ?Field Gulls.?
b. ?Smack? against the Seahawks won?t get someone deleted, so please don?t ask me to do it. If someone posts a comment critical of the Seahawks, answer them back. Or better yet, let the Seahawks prove ?em wrong. I think we can handle smack talk like mature adults. Don?t you? Sure you do.
c. Trolls won?t be banned unless they use hate speech as defined in (a). Trolls can be annoying, but sometimes they illustrate points. We'll accept what my friends Jeremy and Matt like to call "well-crafted trolls" for that reason. I'll review persistently abusive or troublesome trolls, but my standard for taking action against trolls is pretty tall. I will consider revising this policy if the trolling starts to take away from the site.
d. I?m uncomfortable with reprimanding users who use profanity, so I?m not going to set a policy on it. I do encourage you to use clean language, only because I think it encourages people to be better communicators. But at this point I can?t censure people who use bad language. After all, Seahawks fans must have used several curse words while watching Super Bowl XL.
If profanity is used to excess, I may revisit my non-policy. For right now, though, I won't say a bleeping thing.
(10) Now that you?re a user, start a diary, as seen in the right-hand column. Multiple voices almost always make a site better.
(11) Please keep in mind that I crack jokes like peanut shells. Try to allow for the possibility that some of my posts might be comedy.
That's all folks, for now. Please make "Field Gulls" a part of your life. It's a lot cheaper than a dog or a new baby.