“You really should think about doing it.”

The story behind the formation of Pegboards isn’t really that unique, nor is it particularly exciting. Why would anyone want to know how a blog that is as inactive as this one came to be? More importantly, why would I want to write about that? The answer is a cliche, but an appropriate one: sometimes you have to go back to move forward.

It was 2013 and I was attending a psychology workshop at Auraria Campus. Seeing as it was spring break and the last place in the world I wanted to be was school, I was feeling a little out of sorts. This sensation only heightened when I got a text message from Kevin that revealed those words. “You really should think about doing it.” This was preceded by numerous other texts all containing a similar message. At that time, Mile High Report was hiring new writers to cover all things Broncos and Kevin was trying to talk me into applying. I resisted. He persisted. We both insisted!

One of the irrefutable truths of life is that your good friends always recognize what you’re capable of, especially if you don’t realize it yourself. They’re also more than willing to give you a good kick in the ass when they think you’re being too complacent. In hindsight, I think Kevin was trying to accomplish both here. He knew that I loved writing and the Broncos and that was enough for him. I started to consider it, partly because I knew he wasn’t going to let it go until I did, but also because I knew that I needed to start doing more with my writing. However, it still didn’t feel quite right. No offense to the folks over at MHR, all talented and dutiful writers, but I didn’t want to be restricted to just writing about the Broncos. That may have been my dream once, but dreams change (Yes, the irony of Kevin and I wearing Broncos attire in the picture above is not lost on me. Stay with me).

So I made him a counter-offer: why don’t we just start our own blog? He agreed and here we are.

As I sit here writing this today, I’m proud of many of the things we’ve accomplished. Our Walking Dead rankings have been going for a couple of years now (there’s a reason that Kevin jokes that we’re just a Walking Dead blog) and our annual NFL mock  draft is always a good time. We’ve also both cranked out a lot of great reviews and columns and every time I see or hear from Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, I stand by everything I wrote in my Grantland piece back in November.

But as with everything in life, things haven’t worked out quite the way that I envisioned back in 2013. Rather than becoming something truly meaningful and noteworthy, this blog instead exists more as a hobby that I’ve toyed around with from time to time. There are far too many periods of radio silence in between updates and too many empty promises made by yours truly to post more often. I don’t think that’s what Kevin had in mind back when he was nagging me to stop being so lazy, and it’s definitely not what I wanted when I suggested that we embark on this creative journey together. And that’s on me people. Kevin would try to share the blame, I’m sure, but it’s all on me.

In a way, I’ve come to associate the shortcomings of Pegboards with my own unrealized potential. I’m a week away from turning 26 and a class away from finally earning a Bachelor’s degree, and unsurprisingly I can’t think of too many instances in my life where I’ve accomplished something truly significant. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself, but when you know that you’re good at something and you don’t have much to show for it, it’s difficult not to be apathetic. That’s how I feel about my writing and why I’m so frustrated with Pegboards. There’s nothing wrong with writing here and there just for the hell of it, but this blog could be so much more than that and the fact that it’s not drives me batshit crazy.

But that ends today. The more I think about that day when this all started, the more that Kevin’s words resonate with me. “You really should think about doing it.” Well, I’ve thought about it and I think it’s high time to find out just how far we can take Pegboards. Our goal is simple: to entertain you five days a week and give you a reason to check us out more than once every couple of months. After that? I don’t know. We’ll see if we can move forward and cross that bridge when we come to it.

So enjoy Pegboards. Feel free to have a look around and stay for awhile. I don’t know if this will ever be anything more than something Kevin and I do for fun, but I promise it will never again be due to a lack of exertion. And if the day comes when we actually make something of this, I’ll look my good friend in the eye and thank him for believing and for pestering me until I got off my ass and got it done.