Why I went to BlackandTeal

Back in the prehistoric days of blogging Chris began this site with his first post HELLO!  That was August 25, 2006 and he had 10 comments, five from him and the others from the Indianapolis Colts bloggers. He wrote articles for months with no comments. Big Cat Country existed out there alone, in the desert, no one participating in open threads or commenting on articles. He was persistent and slowly the readers began to show up.  Later, in 2008 Collin joined and I joined and Jonathan joined. A young girl named Jeanne started another blog named BlackandTeal. Jaguar blogging was beginning to take hold.

 I had season tickets beginning in 2006 and adopted the Jaguars as my team. In 2008, I would visit both blog sites and couldn't get enough Jaguar information. As I got more involved with Big Cat Country I didn't read BlackandTeal as much. I watched Jeanne's video blogs, but stayed here at BCC.

Collin and Chris and Jonathan and I finally met in 2009 and began going to games together. We grew to really like each other. As BCC grew and grew and grew the need to provide content grew. Chris got a job and Collin got busy and Jonathan and I held the fort as best we could. The decision was made to add more writers to feed the content and then I could take a break for awhile.

While on break I visited BlackandTeal and found a help wanted sign. Jeanne and I had written before so I wrote to her and asked what happened. She said she began teaching school and didn't have time and she couldn't find anyone to write. She was so sad to see her creation in shambles as she put it. To me it was like finding a puppy on the side of the road without a home. I love Big Cat Country, but couldn't bare to see a site go under.

I called Chris and Collin and Jonathan and talked to them about an idea of taking over BlackandTeal. I spoke at length to Chris. We all agreed Jaguar fans are hungry for information and two sites running are not competitive they are additive. If we could provide a vehicle to exchange information and links, more people will find us and we can grow the online community. We all thought it was a good idea.

I presented my idea to the owners of the Fansided Company, parent of BlackandTeal. SB Nation is the parent of Big Cat Country, Fansided runs BlackandTeal. They were excited and supportive as well. The blog world is not competitive it is complimentary. The Colts have both sites in cross-blogging and both are very big sites.

So rather than take a break, I am now working harder. I am opening opportunity for new people to become writers and bloggers. Jeanne is doing her video blogs again. BlackandTeal is Big Cat Country's little brother. So if you see a link to the site or reference to articles, it is not with Chris's permission, it is with his insistence. After living in the desert for years, he wants to see this world grow. Chris was a pioneer in this space and I appreciate all he is doing. You can't imagine how big the Del Rio inteview was to him. From nothing to that, wow. Grow the blog community and they won't be able to ignore us much longer!

And that is the story.

 - Terry O'Brien