Happy 5th Anniversary to the "Back Seat Drivers!"

I forgot to write an Anniversary article for BSD last year, but wrote one in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

First, I just wanted to thank Mighty Mike again for coming up with the idea and approaching me about starting this back in the fall of 2004, when I wasn't even entirely sure what a blog was.

Second, I wanted to thank everyone who has ever contributed an article. This includes (in approximate order of earliest appearance):
Hitman, MJ, Beth, B. Hutchens (formerly known as Colonel Sanders), Publius, Jon, The Sandwich, Laz, Hoosierfan, and Nat McCarron.

Some of my other favorite moments/articles of the past 5 years include:
1) First, there was the Beer Draft (Rounds 1 and 2 and Round 3 and Rounds 4 and 5) and then there was the sensational Wrestling Draft (Rounds 1 and 2 and Rounds 3 and 4 and then there was one possible Survivor Series involving all the teams selected in the Wrestling Draft)
2) A Mighty Mike Post: Rams come from behind victory over Seattle
3) A Fictional Gutsy Goldberg Post: Q & A with Isiah Thomas
4) A Publius Series: Charlie Weis is fat… really fat! And Charlie Weis is Pizza the Hut!
5) MJ & Gutsy Goldberg debate: Tiger Woods vs. Roger Federer
6) Hitman's Series: Shut Your Piehole!
7) A Laz Post: Is Sam Cassell Kif from Futurama?
8) A Gutsy Goldberg Series: Meeting the NFL Rookie Coaching Classes
9) A Mighty Mike Series: Cheers and Jeers... and in later years, Cheers, Jeers, and Scantily Clad Women. Here's one I picked out randomly, that I like.
10) The relatively complete history of Cobra Commander (aka Brian Billick)

I'm sure there are many great articles that I've skipped, but these were the ones I found by clicking through the archives. Feel free to comment on some of your other favorite articles of course.

In terms of BSD, it's been a fantastic 5 years, and I can only hope the fun continues as we head off into the future. "The blog", as I refer to this one, is one of my favorite outlets each day to read and is one of my favorite activities each week when I sit down and attempt to write an article. Thank you to everyone for helping contribute to BSD and making it into the success that it has become!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to the “Back Seat Drivers!”

I cannot believe we are about to enter the fourth fiscal year of thedawggs.blogspot.com. Here are some great stats:
Year 1 – 259 posts
Year 2 – 543 posts
Year 3 – 408 posts

While the number of posts was down this year, it was misleading, because our slugging average actually went up considerably during Year 3. What this means is that we actually had a higher readership and higher quality articles during Year 3, despite less posts. Also of note, we had a whopping 1,314 visits in November 2006, according to sitemeter.com, during the heart of the NFL season, the BSC controversies, and the beginning of the NBA season.

Perhaps one of the more exciting developments on BSD this year was the “Mock Draft.” First, there was the Beer Draft (Rounds 1 and 2 and Round 3 and Rounds 4 and 5) and then there was the sensational Wrestling Draft (Rounds 1 and 2 and Rounds 3 and 4 and one possible Survivor Series) The end-product was awesome and hopefully we’ll be able to hold additional “Mock Drafts.”

Some of my other favorite moments/articles of the past year included:
1) Charlie Weis is fat… really fat! And Charlie Weis is Pizza the Hut!
2) The Introduction of the Sandwich
3) The Rage-a-Holic label/terminology, for some of MJ’s (and others) angry posts
4) Hitman’s Rant on cyberathletes and any other mention of a reference to Mario Kart.
5) The discovery of Captain Chaos!

The next year can only be better for the blog, for football, and for mankind!