People all over the internets are losing a good friend as Mr. Will Leitch is leaving us today for a job that probably won't include as many dick jokes.
I was working an Arizona basketball game, reading a Bill Simmons column, when a freelance writer for, who else, ESPN told me to check out this hip new website (it's the only time in my entire life I had the hip information to hand out to my other sports obsessed friends).
I was 21 and had no clue what a blog really was, even though I found myself sometimes using that word in jokes. ("Oh, nice golf shot, you should blog about that!")
Little did I know that Deadspin would become my homepage, a place I'd visit so frequently I'm almost positive Leitch should just send me the check from Coors Light for all that flash advertising.
I read the website, noticed that nobody really cared about golf, and ended up doing major championship previews for Deadspin, along with some random Arizona basketball stuff. It wouldn't have happened if Leitch hadn't been the nice guy he is, and it gave me an opportunity to scream my blogger voice to more people than I would ever reach alone.
(You can find all that stuff on Deadspin that I've knocked out here if you're interested.)
People have said it much better than I, but for a college graduate that wanted so badly to continue writing, Deadspin was that little light-bulb that popped up above my head. "Hey, maybe I could do something like this?"
Like thousands of other people that would rather search the internet and read funny shit than do their jobs, Will was a friend to me. Without Deadspin I would probably be to the point that every witty comment I came up with would be scribbled on my mirror a la "Good Will Hunting."
Good Luck Mr. Leitch, I hope everything continues to go smoothly for you, Sir. The world's a bitch, but your time with all of us has made it that much better. You will be missed.
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