Friends, the time has come. After some very grueling soul searching and contemplation, I have decided to hang my jersey up and retire from blogging as The Subway Domer.
This decision did not come lightly. I have been thinking about it since last year at this time- and I almost pulled the trigger then. I marched on and served as another witness to the best season for Notre Dame football in over 20 years.
This decision to retire has nothing to do with the current state of Notre Dame football. If that was the case, I would have called it quits years ago. After almost 7 years, I just don't have much left in the tank.
There was a glimmer of hope a few months ago. I was recruited & approached about doing some freelance writing for a fairly large website that included a very large amount of money each month. In the end, they decided to not bring me aboard, and to be quite honest, it took a lot of wind out of my sail.
The real issue here is family. I just don't have the time to give to the site anymore, nor do I really want to make the compromises that I have been making. I have 2 children and a wife that I love very dearly, and my "free time" hasn't been "free" time in a long time. That opportunity that came and go a few months ago would have given me justification to do all of this and would have helped the family. Instead, it is a weight that weighs upon my conscious. FWIW, Empress Kiki is 100% against this retirement, and has talked me out of it before, but as the great Qui-Gon Jinn once said, "I'll shall do what I must Obi-Wan."
Now, a few beers into this …
Firstly, I want to thank my entire staff at Subway Domer. Steve Herring, Steve In Iowa, Blog Davie, Shane DeLeon, Kelly Bloor, and Knute School Fool have been incredible. Most of them came on board SD by leaving their own sites, and the others were victims of my undeniable charm. All have made Subway Domer what it is today (minus the whole going under thing). Thank you to you all, and if you are fans of their work, I have asked HLS to take them all in as political refugees, and HLS has agreed. (God dam blog war casualties man). Thank you to now retired & former writers at Subway Domer, The Brawling Hiberninan and KGG. Those two guys were the first to cross over to the dark side, and the first shots fired in the Blog War of the Clovers. Miss you guys!
I started this blog 7 years ago, and it was pretty damn awful for a while (please hold your SICK BURN Poot). Gradually I found "my thing" and things started to get better and better. I would like to thank the godfathers of Notre Dame Football blogging, Blue-Gray Sky for linking SD early and giving me some type of legitimacy. Shortly after, I did a "2007 season preview" for EDSBS. Huge thanks to Spencer Hall for giving me the green light despite being a fairly unknown blogger. I totally bombed the post… but thanks bud! Another huge help in the early years came from Matt Quirion, co-founder of HLS. MQ blew some shit about something I wrote about Tenuta, and I blew him some shit, and then we found a medium while I was taught an early lesson in "how to respond to commentors." Gratzi Matt.
Seeking a wider audience and more community from the huge amount of ND blogs out there, I started the Irish Blogger Gathering. Big thanks to those sites: We Is ND, Charlies Nasties, Bad Trade, Brawling Hibernian, and more (sorry but there are just too many people to thank and I don't have the memory any more). The IBG has evolved and more thanks out to Mike Coffey, Keith Arnold, Frank from UHND, Josh Flynt, and Aaron Horvath. Whiskey from One Foot Down has been great throughout the years and I really like the work that we did together, and I thank him for all of his involvement and friendship.
Speaking of Notre Dame… Thanks to Tim O'Conner (@oaknd1), Christianne Hardner, and the entire FIDM crew for not just all that they have done for me and the site, but what they have done and continue to do for the Notre Dame blogosphere. They have been tremendous assets and friends of the site.
A special thanks to Her Loyal Sons and Ryan Ritter. Those guys have been incredible and HLS should only get better in time- if those god damn hamsters just learn to know their role and work.
This has gone on long enough. I'm sure I've missed a lot of people and I do apologize. Thank you for reading Subway Domer. I hope you have enjoyed some of what was done here over the past 7 years, and I thank all of you readers, fans, haters, trolls, and others for making this all worthwhile. I'll still be maintaining my Twitter presence, so not all is lost.
Thanks- HOLLA!!!
The Subway Domer
Emperor & Warlord of the Subway Alumni.
