Thread by @thedraftsmanFB, Somebody once asked me what I'd do if I got to 5000 [...]

Somebody once asked me what I'd do if I got to 5000 followers. I said I didn't know. It was never the goal, and in some ways my answer still holds.

But here I am, and it feels worth noting. So I'm gonna go with gratitude - because I got here with effort & help (Thread)

In the beginning I was just a guy that loved football and was fascinated with the draft. I lurked on message boards and didn't even post, for years, because I was afraid of what I didn't know and that it wouldn't be "good enough". Most writers know this fear.

Eventually, I got tired of seeing opinions I knew weren't based in fact. So I challenged one, based on what I'd seen on film, and began discussing prospects; mostly on @WCGridiron 's message boards - because it was (and still is) one of the best football communities I've found.

And people started to help. They pushed back. Made me work harder and dig deeper and confront what I didn't know or hadn't considered. They made me decide, and re-examine, and adjust. WCG denizens like Mr. Titanium and iOftenPanic were amazing partners in my journey.

Then people started to ask where they could buy my draft guide (despite doing a ton of scouting I'd never organized one). I was stunned. I'd never considered that people would value my work that way. Then WCG put out a call for contributors.

I pushed past the voice in my head that said I would fail, and summited a pitch for a weekly draft column. And then there was silence for 4 months. I wrote it off.

Then one late August day I got a call. "EJ this is Dane Noble, do you know why I'm calling?" My column was a go.

Dane was the Editor of WCG at the time and things (in the words of Ron Burgundy) "escalated quickly". Dane wanted my first column in less than a week.

I huddled with my wife and we talked about what it would take. She's a rock of support and said go for it, it makes you happy.

I threw myself at it. It was consuming. I watched almost 400 prospects that year. I stayed up until the wee hours writing and my wife stayed up later to edit. I burned the candle at both ends and in the middle, working 40+ a week and scouting in all my free time.

The column was well received and people pushed back even more. I worked even harder started to reach out to people who did work I respected. To my surprise some answered. @TheJoeMarino was one of the first. He was encouraging and put up with my pestering - no small feat.

Folks like @MattHarmon_BYB @MattWaldman answered my stupid questions. I reached out to @DannyBKelly and @NFL_DougFarrar because in my naiveté they "were local" and did the "same thing" I was doing.

Both were kind enough to respond then and do to this day.

By now @wiltfongjr had become the Editor of WCG. Lester is a damn champ and has pushed me to grow in this more than anyone. He's has been (and continues to be) a tremendous advocate for me. Simply put: No Lester = no EJ as you know him. I'm also lucky enough to call him a friend.

I'd tried to start podcast a few times but knew I needed a co-host (nobody wants to listen to me drone on solo). It was Lester that let me know WCG was starting a podcast channel and that @gridironborn was interested too. He encouraged us to put our heads together.

@gridironborn are kind of football soulmates. We see the game the same way but with just enough differences to make it really interesting & challenging. @bearsoverbeers was born out of a 2-hour bullshit session: by the end of that we were pretty sure we had a concept we liked.

So we drank some beers, talked about the Bears in the most insightful ways we could and learned how to be junior audio engineers and content publishers/promoters along the way.

It was harder than we thought, but we loved it and people tuned in, so we kept at it.

I decided I wanted to go to Bears training camp. Put my stake in the ground and rallied the WCG crew. We'd talked about before but I'm so glad we did. It turned out to be the last year in Bourbonnais. We rented an Airbnb, went to practice, and made podcasts. It was awesome

I also got to meet people IRL that I'd known/followed for years on Twitter. @BradBiggs @moonmullinNBCS @Johnathan_Wood1 @TheShawnSierra @CoachDanDeYoung @OpinionBear @SamHouseholder @aahouze and so many others made that experience one I will always remember very fondly.

Things were kicking along pretty well but then I got one of those dream calls - that you think you'll never get: @wiltfongjr called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the @seniorbowl

As a "draft guy" I can't overstate this - it was a dream shot. I said yes as fast as I could.

So many people pitched in to make that a reality. @jeannathomas pushed for my credential from the SB Nation side. @JimNagy_SB and @DaveRogers01 were good enough to have me. My family made time for me to go and I was headed to Mobile.

The @seniorbowl is the whole football universe in one place, for week. It's amazing. I got put even more names to faces I'd followed for years: @MoveTheSticks @nfldraftscout @Eric_Edholm @LukeEasterling @FB_FilmAnalysis @The_SportsPaige @BenjaminSolak @WhatsOnDraftNFL

And I got to meet even more people who were crazy just like me: @barleyhop @kent_swanson @BradKelly17 @NicholasMoreano the entire draft crew at @WholeNineSports and so many more.

And there was beer(!) and unmatched hospitality @IronHandBrewing ...and I met this one other weirdo

@BrettKollmann was a @seniorbowl rookie like me and we agreed to meet when he got there. We talked football over this plate of BBQ for 2.5 hours

By the end of the week we hadn't run out of things to say. He looked at me and said "You're it. We're gonna start a podcast" so we did

10 months later Bootleg Football has found us a whole new band of crazies to talk football with. Well over 600k people have listened to/watched us.

If you are brand new to this ride or have been here since day 1: Thank you. I couldn't do it without you and I wouldn't want to.

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