This week, Deadspin was essentially laid to rest by way of the actions of a private equity firm telling the massively popular sports blog to “stick to sports”, therefore leading to the departure (via firings and resignations) of basically all of the staff that worked there. While it is tremendously sad to see the site go (as much as leadership is saying it isn’t going anywhere), watching this week’s events unfold has been nothing short of inspiring in a variety of ways.
In case you are unfamiliar with what the hell I’m even talking about, you can read all about what happened by way of this piece which showcases the events that took place and why it all happened.
Founder of Deadspin, Will Leitch (pictured second from the right in this header image), published this in his newsletter this morning, which is worth a few minutes of your time to read and digest. Leitch is from Mattoon, a U of I graduate with a ton of links to this community, and an absolutely prolific writer through and through. He goes through his experience growing up, slugging it out in New York City making no money chasing his dream as a writer, founding Deadspin (and obsessing over it for years and years), his time after Deadspin, and what it means in the aftermath of this week’s events.
We’re lucky enough to have his byline — along with Tommy Craggs’ too of course — gracing the pages of SP to write about Illini Basketball. Stay tuned for more on that front.
Photo from Will Leitch’s newsletter