It has been more than five years. Five good years. Five years of disappointment and growth in the Arizona Cardinals. Five years of personal growth and site growth. Five years of articles and link dumps, five years of open threads, picks against the spread, picks, Madden simulations and more.
But today I spend my final day running the site that has defined me in the Internet world for quite some time. I am leaving Revenge of the Birds and SB Nation and handing over the keys to the car to my good friend and very able Cardinals fan, Seth Cox.
I am not leaving the football writing world. I am moving on to another large network to take on a brand new site. It has not yet launched so I can't say where, and out of respect to SB Nation I will not use this platform to promote it. If you are interested and you use social media, you know where to find me, or you can email me -- senorroot@gmail.com. I will be announcing it soon enough.
It was not a decision I took lightly, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity. ROTB has been my baby and I am proud of what I have been able to do here, helping it become, with the help of my staff and the great community members, a great place for Cardinals fans to get info, analysis and community.
I have never played football at any level, so I have written from a different perspective than many. I have learned so much. I started blogging in 2010. By 2012, I was given the keys to this site at a time when it was not in the best shape. I worked hard, was challenged and grew a lot.
I thank Seth Pollack, my editor when I was a contributor at SB Nation Arizona, for suggesting me to give it a shot. I thank SB Nation for letting me. I thank Jesse Reynolds, Randy Fields, JoeCB1991 and Skii for staying on staff when I started. I thank Tyler Nickel for a ton of content early on. I thank every single staff member to help me out. Some have come and gone. Some have been in the background. Some are still around.
I thank KDean75 for challenging me and hevchv for accepting me, a newcomer to the community, as the manager of the site.
I thank AndyStandsUp and BigRedBilly for helping me in more ways than you know personally. I am grateful for the friendships I have formed with people I have barely seen in person.
I thank Dave Burns for putting us on the map with his shoutouts on the radio show.
Seth told me he wants today to be about me. I am not really comfortable with that. ROTB is a part of me and will always hold a special place in my heart. But I am not the site. I acknowledge I have been the primary voice of the site, but the site is great because you all read it and add your voices to the mix in the threads, even with the constant talk of busts, elite and Matt Barkley as QBOTF.
And so I must sign off. I am leaving, but I am not gone, although if I participate, it will be under a different handle.
Seth is now the man, and I know he will keep this place great because he knows way more football than I do. And with this great community, it will continue to be that way. I would love you to hit up my new site and read the content there, but that doesn't mean leaving here.
That's enough from me. Seth is the man in charge now. I'll be in the background where I can.
Technically, Seth is filling in on an interim basis. The job is posted online if any of you would like to throw your hat in to take over. The job listing is here.