I started 2 things in 2006, and for me one of those things is coming to a close today.
In the spring of 2006, I married my impossibly patient, outrageously beautiful wife.
And in the late summer of 2006, seemingly to test her patience, I started HerLoyalSons.com.
After today, I’ll still be married to my wife.
But after 5 and a half years and 6 full Notre Dame football seasons, I’m retiring from the world of collegiate football blogging. I never expected it to go this far, and I never expected to see it come to an end. (But don’t worry, Loyal Sons and Daughters, HLS will go on. It just wont be impeded by me any longer.)
College Football, as a concept, is a wonderful thing. Or it was a wonderful thing. Back when we started this site, college football was still ostensibly about actual student-athletes competing for a championship while maintaining the ideals of amateur athletics. At least it was to me. Perhaps I was naive. Today, possibly in part thanks to the explosion of social media coverage of college football, almost nobody would attempt to tell you that the sport resembles the ideal at all and try to maintain a straight face. From Miami to Ohio. From Pennsylvania to Southern Cal, nobody need look too far to see blatant, and, for a time, horrifying, examples of the Frankenstein’s monster that is college football today. Just look at the various Twitter accounts of other college football bloggers and paid writers these days – a far cry from the relatively light-hearted bunch when Twitter first became a thing among us. Today cynicism runs rampant. The actual business of College Football is just a mockery of the ideal. That’s not to say I don’t still love college football or Notre Dame. It’s just to say I don’t think that the Notre Dame I believe in is playing on the same field as the college football industry I know. I’ll choose to continue to believe in that Notre Dame. I’m choosing to be a little less invested in this college football. I’ll withhold the rest of this screed for whoever I may meet in real life when we can talk over beers.
Instead I’m going to invest myself in some personal projects, and try to do a lot more to help protect the internet. Some of you may have noticed that I would plaster this space with anti-SOPA messaging on occasion. Unfortunately if I kept devoting this space to defense against assaults on the most important communications platform of our time, I’d have to rename the site to something like “SeriouslyStopTheseFingAHolesFromBreakingTheInternet.com.” And that URL is a bit ridiculous (and probably already taken). So instead I’ll be devoting more energy within my personal space to advocacy for the freedom of the internet and the freedom of information, discussions about what’s coming in our very near future, and observations about our crazy new, tech-infused world. That way younger generations can continue to start their own stupid websites devoted to their own favorite college sports teams. At first I’ll be doing it through my writing here, and tweeting here, but over time I hope to be even more involved. It’s important to me.
Biscuit will be taking over ownership and administrative control. It’ll be a bit of a process, probably, but as far as my official involvement with this site is concerned, I’ll just be a long-time, frequent reader. I have no doubt that Biscuit and Tex can build HLS into something big – really big. And I trust them to at least maintain the mission of HLS that sort of evolved over the years – to cover Notre Dame and collegiate football with a frank, sometimes funny, occasionally smart tone. Plus I know where Biscuit lives, so that should keep him from straying too much.
Thanks to so many really excellent people around college football, blogging, and sports writing who helped me and this site find a “voice” and garner some relevance in this niche. Thanks to the guys at Blue Gray Sky for first inspiring me to butt into the conversation, and then throwing advice my way whenever I asked for it. Thanks to the other ND blogs, who made me feel like part of a community, even if I wasn’t always the best member. Thanks to Biscuit, Tex, and all the past HLS writers for keeping this thing moving and keeping it fun. Thanks to my wife, for understanding that yeah, I’m the guy who can obsess so much over a silly game that I stay up late into the night compiling player statistics just to win some imagined debate about offensive philosophy. And to you guys and gals who, for whatever reason, did me the honor of actually reading my stuff on the internet, thanks. It was fun. It was awesome.
- Friday Roundup: That Was Fast Edition - December 14, 2018
- Ian Book Is Smokey and the Bandit - December 12, 2018
- Don’t Call It A Comeback - December 10, 2018
The Subway Domer
I wasn’t expecting this today… Thanks for everything. You have helped me grow as a blogger, even if I still write like a 16 year old girl.
Seriously, thank-you and good luck.
Shit.
Matt Q. (DMQ)
I’ve always enjoyed our little “partnership,” Sub. Thanks for making the IBG happen. And thanks for always pushing the community.
kyndfan
I’m still morning the loss of Poot, and now THIS!
Seriously, thanks for starting this site. I enjoy reading and commenting here. Please do us all a favor and keep close tabs on The Biscuit. I hope you can make a difference in the, keeping free speech on the Internet, department. God bless and as always, Go Irish.
The Biscuit
We will miss you DMQ. Glad this made us better friends.
And KYND, watch out. Things bout to get REAL.
tricerapops
DMQ – thanks for being a part of something that has kept many a fan and alums interested in the happenings of our beloved Irish. I can’t imagine how HLS will look/read without your voice – but I hope you’ll continue to hang around the Sideline (including Beer Talk).
Matt Q. (DMQ)
I’m expecting “more diagonal stuff” under Biscuit’s direction. Will definitely be trolling HLS frequently. And I’ll always have a thing for beer conversations. Thanks for supporting us!
NDtex
Thanks a lot for retiring MQ, now I have to answer to an overlord with dancing leprechauns.
Damn.
(Seriously though, thanks for everything.)
Brian
Always enjoyed your work. Best of luck and go Irish.
Erik 04
I’m one of the transplants who came over after the end of BGS, and I’ve really enjoyed watching this blog grow during that time. Now it’s my first stop for ND football info, before heading over to Keith’s page. I think I appreciate the community you helped create the most. Keith’s posts are riddled with ridiculously ignorant user comments, but these pages have been rather intelligent at times. We’ll miss you, and I look forward to seeing a few trolling comments from you every now and then. Go Irish!
SDI
Thanks for all of your efforts MQ. This site has been a great source of entertainment, education, and group therapy over the last few years and I’m glad you (and Biscuit) made it happen. Good luck with your new endeavors.
Matt Q. (DMQ)
Hey, thanks for being one of our original long-time readers, SDI!
borromini
Sorry to see you step down MQ…it’s quite a task to manage a blog site and you did it with aplomb…fortunate that you have others to take over and we didn’t end up with another BGS shutdown.
TriniND
Thanks for us NDFB fans. I’ve never been much of an online commenter so I rarely, if ever, commented here, but this was actually the first NDFB blog I discovered and checked daily. Was always a fan of your writing (even if I didn’t always agree). Good luck in whatever the future holds for you.
tlndma
Best of luck DMQ. I’ve really enjoyed this site and the type of fan it attracts. I certainly understand your feelings toward CFB. Who knows if ND can compete on such an unlevel playing field? We can hope they can and that somehow things get cleaned up. Again Best wishes.
tjak
DomerMQ as I will always remember you…We have had our differences and at times we got a little testy, but at the end of the day I still always respected you. I hope it was both ways, because dammit this site has been fun. Thank you for your passion and I am sipping a Crown Royal in your honour, (Canadian spelling) as I type.
GB
DMQ Thanks of rall the work you put into this site. I have always liked reading it. Best wishes to you.
trey
“It just wont be impeded by me..”
It never was, man. Everything you wrote was massively entertaining and thought-provoking and I thank you for what you did. This almost feels like watching a pro athlete hanging his cleats up. I know I’ll miss everything you ever did but hopefully find a way to move on. You were an inspiration and I am unashamed to admit I was a huge fan. I owe you a debt of gratitude and you probably owe my EMPLOYERS a debt of something for keeping me occupied during normal business hours.
Mark G.
DMQ,
Thanks. And thanks again. As another transplant from BGS, I literally check this site daily (I know … it is a disease … but if this is wrong I don’t want to be right).
But now we will have no one to keep Biscuit, let along Deep Tea Cup, in line.
Best of luck.
Jonathan
This is like when bluegraysky stopped. Like when they shot that old, yellow dog whose name I never remember. I hate when things change.
Canadian_Irish
Thanks for the time here DMQ……your stories made me feel a little more connected to Notre Dame! It’s hard to find coverage of college football North of the border, and this site has always been a one stop shop for me. Best of luck with all your endeavours. I hope HLS stays as awesome as it always was!
JVH
Always my favorite ND blogger. Thanks for everything. Be well, DMQ.
I love Notre Dame football.
I hate college football.