Happy Anniversary - to the Blog!

Prior to week 1 of the 2004 NFL season, the “Back Seat Drivers” Blog began. It all started when Mighty Mike approached me with a magnificent plan for the 2004 NFL Season. Instead of just entertaining each other through emails and random phone calls, Mighty Mike thought we should take our antics, analysis, and humor to the one market large enough to accommodate them, THE INTERNET. I thought it sounded like a good idea, as we each would take what we loved (and hated) from various sportswriters and make our own sports columns. It's only fitting that prior to this upcoming NFL season, we celebrate the history of www.thedawggs.blogspot.com.

A lot of readers have asked, "why is the Back Seat Drivers' URL is www.thedawggs.blogspot.com ?" The answer: Some Irishmen stole backseatdrivers.blogspot.com from Mighty Mike. Seriously, go to yahoo and do a search. So the next best thing was to pay a tribute to the Top Dawgg - Hanford Dixon ( a cornerback from the Cleveland Browns in the late '80s, for those who don't know their Cleveland Brown history).

As the 2004 NFL Season kicked off, I emulated my childhood hero, Norman Chad, by composing a weekly comedic article to pick all of the NFL games for the week. I used superstition, comedy, sarcasm, with a dash of logic as he succeeded in producing entertainment. When it came to actually predicting, I limped my way to a pathetic 58.5 % success rate and had an astounding 4 weeks where I finished below .500.

Meanwhile, Mighty Mike provided a weekly column during the season, titled “5th Street” before hundreds of columnists copied his format. At the height of the popularity of poker, before all of us grew sick of the poker references, Mighty had his column broken down into, “The Flop,” “The Turn”, and “The River.” By providing banter on not just football, but other sports, politics, and world events, Mighty helped reach a broader audience for the blog.

Once the football season ended, bloggers and spammers across the nation wondered, would the blog go on? The answer was a resounding “Yes.” I provided more comedy and sarcasm by focusing on his specialties- the NBA, college basketball, and Family Double Dare. Mighty Mike stuck with some unique opinion pieces on every sport, including baseball, the nation’s pastime. But once the NFL season had ended, the readers wanted more. Other contributors were soon recruited. MJ, Hart, Colonel Sanders, and Beth have provided fresh new opinions for the blogs, and seem to be really popular with the 18-34 demographic, which happens to be the blog’s target market. Plus, MJ & Beth help provide a pro-Yankee viewpoint to the anti-Yankee nation that we live in.

I just wanted to thank Mighty Mike for his foresight in creating this blog, which has provided joy to jedi across the galaxy. In addition, his contribution to this very article was also helpful! After 1 year on the blog, some statistics show how far the blog has come.

*As of 8/23 - If you type in “Back Seat Drivers” into Yahoo, the blog comes up as the #2 site!
*Unofficially, there have been 259 posts so far
-MJ has submitted 86 posts.
-Mighty Mike has submitted 78 posts.
-Gutsy Goldberg has submitted 52 posts.
-Hart has submitted 32 posts.
-Colonel Sanders has submitted 8 posts.
-Beth has submitted 3 posts.

Other Facts and Figures of Note:
Average Daily Visit Number: 41
Least Common Language of Visitor: Farsi
Favorite Mighty Mike Post: Rams come from behind victory over Seattle
http://thedawggs.blogspot.com/2004/10/5th-street-wild-wacky-week-especially.html
Most Depressing Mighty Mike Post: Darkness Warshed Over the Dude
http://thedawggs.blogspot.com/2004/11/darkness-warshed-over-dude-and-5th.html
Favorite Gutsy Goldberg Post: Why this will be a great NBA Finals...
http://thedawggs.blogspot.com/2005/06/why-this-will-be-great-nba-finals.html
Most Fictional Gutsy Goldberg Post: Q & A with Isiah Thomas
http://thedawggs.blogspot.com/2005/03/q-with-isiah-thomas.html