If you are reading this
If you are reading this, you have now become aware of the fact that Man Free: A Football Newsletter has migrated to Ghost. Goodbye, Substack!
To try to set good expectations for writing this year: I actually, between my commitments to Rotoworld and a few freelance gigs, have a pretty busy schedule. I'm happy about this generally! Last year when I launched Man Free, I had almost nothing going on and was just trying to rejoin the industry after a year of child-watching wilderness. As Rotoworld increased my posting responsibilities last year, I found that I was mildly overwhelmed – the idea of writing a little something about every game is a lot more stressful when you have to deep dive a few games and can't stay up deep into the night. And then, as I became more and more aware of Substack's ties to Nazi content, I became less and less interested in posting. I don't plan to overwhelm myself this year, and I am really hopeful I don't have to switch platforms again next year. Ideally, I'll just keep writing about football and enjoying it.
Where I think this will wind up is: I'll probably do more features than reactions. And I'll probably do more stuff mid-week than on Mondays and Tuesdays. I truly wish I could post as often as I did last year and accumulate the amount of money that said writing deserves, but I was born at the wrong time and with the wrong sensibilities.
I am starting out hoping to write one paid post and one free post per week. Anything else will be a happy accident.
If there is a technical problem with the transition from Substack to Ghost: I apologize, it took me months to actually migrate and I have a nagging fear of dealing with any of these systems for exactly these reasons. I will try to follow any kind of directions I can to help people migrate with me. I also do not promise that I will be good at it.
Is this publication going to be broadly about the NFL or is it going to be broadly about the Texans? Yes.
I can't hide from who I am a fan of, and I guess the best way to answer this is to say that if I have thoughts about the Texans that compel me to post, I will post them. But I also want to feel compelled again. I think last year's writing broadly had the vibe of Overly Excited About Getting Out Of The House After COVID where everything is kind of novel and new. And this year I'm looking to write less summaries and small bits about everyone now that I've re-established the lay of the land.
