It's time to tackle, and tell, the region's best sports stories

(Mercedes-Benz Stadium / Wes Blankenship)

Everyone has a story to tell. 

And those stories are endless in the sports arena. On each team there are a number of individuals striving for one common goal. Each of those individuals have a backstory about their respective journey. They are all humans away from their particular playing surface. They just happen to be exceptional athletes who provide great escapism for those who choose to follow and root for their teams. 

Sports go beyond a box score. The stats and analytics are important, yes, but the cultural significance goes much deeper than the numbers. Sports are something we all form bonds with one another. It’s not hard to remember the moments where something incredibly great or terribly sad happened to your team.

I was 10 years old running in circles like a madman around the living room when Marquis Grissom caught the final out in Game 6 of the 1995 World Series. A year later I cursed out the neighborhood idiot -- yes, at age 11 -- for taunting me about the Yankees rallying from two games down. (In Watkinsville, Georgia, of all places.)

I remember the exact seat I was sitting in at a high school friend’s house when Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl over the then-St. Louis Rams. I’ll never forget Vince Young’s magical game against USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl -- arguably the greatest individual performance in college football postseason history. 

Of course, I know exactly where I was during the two most recent heartbreaks for sports fans in the state of Georgia. I was at a close friend’s house on Feb. 5, 2017, watching Super Bowl LI between the Falcons and Patriots, when another buddy in attendance said, “I can’t wait to attend this parade. Who’s coming?” He didn’t knock on wood and all hell broke loose. I was at the national championship game between Georgia and Alabama, covering the moment for The Telegraph, when second-and-26 cut a sizable wound through the collective hearts of the UGA faithful.

Of course, those two moments are examples of the worst kind of sports heartache. With sports, you take the good and the bad. And in the aftermath of the bad and with the offseason transpiring, a new hope emerges. And that’s when you start thinking, “This is our year.”

I have been incredibly fortunate to work in sports media for 11 years. It’s never felt like a job, even during the bumpy moments. It has been an absolute privilege to do this for a living. I have long told myself to never take these moments for granted. In this line of work, you never know when it’s time to turn the lights off. 

Although a lot of unforeseen circumstances have arisen in the past two months, that time hasn’t arrived. The lights remain on.

Not an hour after I was let go from my previous job due to the economic ramifications of the covid-19 pandemic, longtime Atlanta radio host John Michaels reached out to both myself and television reporter Wes Blankenship about starting a new venture.

The first conversation brought upon this question: How can we use our skill sets, sources and relationships to better serve the local sports fan?

Shortly after, Tackler Media was formed. 

The way sports fans consume content has obviously changed over the past decade. At Tackler, we plan to continue doing what we’ve done best with some new twists along the way. We will write these stories to the best of our abilities. We will tell these stories on air through our podcasts. We will engage with you regularly through live streaming and, once this pandemic is over, live events. We will ensure the quality you receive is unique, interesting, and most importantly, informative. We will ensure you won’t get this kind of content anywhere else.

At Tackler, the three of us will continue to tell those stories about your favorite teams and athletes. And in this process, we’ll have a story of our own to tell. 

But for now: 

This is our year.

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Back Porch Sports, a podcast hosted by Wes Blankenship, premiered its first episode under the Tackler Media umbrella. In it, Wes, John and I explain why we put this collective together.