New Years Resolutions

I wanted this post be my 200th post at Banshee Sports, but the time-sensitive nature of the NFL playoffs took precedent.  Then I got cold feet a bit on even delving into this topic.  Banshee Sports is not a navel-gazing pop psychology site.  This is a sports blog.  The kind of sports blog that celebrates adults having tantrums over games.  But, my dear friend Jessica Smartt (who also happens to be my cousin and a far more accomplished blogger than me) said she'd be delighted to read a post like this.  Better late than never, I guess.  So, here goes.  Here are my official New Years resolutions for Banshee Sports.

Less Snark, More Substance.  I started thinking about this after a Twitter exchange with Travis Williams back in December.  We were discussing some ideas about how to realign the ACC's divisions for football in 2014.  In the course of the discussion, Travis told me that he is going to try to cut back on snarkiness in 2014.  This was a bold statement because snark is the foundation of the sports blog community.  But Travis has proven that he can write insightful and hilarious columns without being mean.  That's a model to aspire to.  Don't worry, though.  I'm not going to turn Banshee Sports into a hyper-technical breakdown of the X's and O's.  Sports are fun.  And I'm going to try to stay funny.  But the reminder I got from Travis is worth taking to heart.  As Speaker Sam Rayburn once said, "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one."  I want to be a carpenter and not a jackass in 2014.

Return of the Sports Fashionista.  Banshee Sports is still just a little over 2 years old, so its identity is still not completely defined.  There were a lot of changes in 2013.  But, one of the things I let slip through the cracks last year was the Sports Fashionista feature.  I intend to correct that in 2014.  Football is the easiest sports fashion to analyze.  But, there are plenty of other noteworthy outfits.  As I type this, my retinas are being burned off by Rafael Nadal's hot pink Nikes.  And the Winter Olympics should provide some fantastic fodder to get this feature revived in February.

Share the Love.  I never envisioned Banshee Sports as my own personal soap box.  Sure, I do the writing, but I always viewed this site as a place to celebrate the things I love: sports and food.  Like any good celebration, the more the merrier.  In 2013, we had some fun with the NFL Fan's Voice series.  In 2014, I'm hoping to have even more guest posts.  I expect to bring back the Fan's Voice series once we're all missing football again during the dog days of summer.  And, I've been discussing some possible additions to the Cooking with Banshee column.  But, I'm open to other ideas, as well.  So, consider this an open invitation.  If any of y'all have a topic that you want to write about, drop me a line.

Stay Away From Vegas.  I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about sports.  Especially football.  Therefore, I always assumed that if I had the opportunity, I could make some coin by putting my money where my mouth is out in the desert.  This year, I took a little baby step into gambling at SportsPlays.com (formerly FreeSportsBet.com).  It turns out that gambling is hard.  Since I joined the website in August, I have only won 37% of my picks.  Fortunately for me, I learned this lesson with fake money.  And I have canceled all plans to relocate to Nevada.


Branch Out.  In the very near future, yours truly will be filling up even more space on the Internet.  Joseph Nardone has graciously invited me to join his team of writers at Busting Brackets.  This is definitely a step up in class for me.  I have a lot to learn.  Therefore, I haven't actually published anything there just yet.  But, moving forward, my college basketball thoughts will be exclusively at Busting Brackets.  Check them out.

Thanks for indulging me in my New Years musings.  If you have any suggestions about how to make Banshee Sports more fun, I'm all ears.

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