My Words Reaching Out

The other night, I got one of the best emails I’ve ever gotten in regards to my blog. Well, quite frankly, most of the emails I get from my blog come from people I get email from all the time. Not that that is a bad thing or anything, but when you get an email from someone out of the blue who has read something you wrote and it has moved them enough to sit down and compose an email… to me that is huge.

What follows is the email I got from my new pal Keith from Washington… (links added by me)

Jason,

Hey, my name’s Keith, and I’m situated in beautiful Washington State. Not
the side with the WSU Cougars, oh no.

The side with the Washington Huskies, a once-proud football organization
that has fallen on some very hard times recently and now relies on a
Freshman QB from a town nobody’s heard of to guide them back to prominence.
To make matters worse, the non-conference schedule for the Washington
Huskies? Brutal. Road trip to Syracuse, home games against THE Ohio State
University and the Boise State Broncos.

However, that’s where the path deviates a little.

Ever since the beginning of the year I’ve had an intense fascination with
the Broncos. Must have been that Fiesta Bowl — One of the greatest sporting
events for raw thrills and emotions ever played. Since I am a journalist in
my heart I’ve wanted to read what people have been saying about the game,
the proposal, and the aftershock. I’ve been searching ever since there were
actual game clips on youtube.com (link) (Pretty much since Jan. 4) for some good
write-ups about the game. The Fiesta Bowl wikipedia entry (link)? Pretty sublime.
Pat Forde’s write-up (link)? Cool. Arash Markazi’s diary (link)? Really nice.

However, I wanted more.

I googled “Boise State Fiesta Bowl unbelievable” and after skimming through
some results found your blog.

All I can say is this is exactly what I was looking for.

Being a sports fan for a couple struggling teams has brought me to the point
of where I’m looking out and seeing if anyone else is as desperate as I am
for a championship. I’ve booed the Cowboys, Yankees, and Bulls recently
because none of my respective sports teams (Seahawks, Mariners, and
Supersonics) have enjoyed recent success like those teams. (Funnily enough,
the Mariners have crapped out against the Yankees in the playoffs and the
last time the Sonics were in the Finals? Oh, those Bulls.) I’m beginning to
wonder if I’ll ever see that. Everyone’s been saying it won’t happen. Even
church pastors.

But reading your description of the Fiesta Bowl live from the scene made me
think, “Hey, it’ll happen, and when it does, it will be the sweetest thing.
Ever. Period.”

So thanks for writing that. As I believe to this day, you never know how
much something you write will matter until after you complete it. And for me
to stumble across that piece? Amazing. It touched my sports psyche and gave
me a little more hope that this American League West race will turn out
okay.

Regards,

Keith Chambers

Now, I don’t know about you, but that email totally made my day.  We have since emailed back and forth a little bit and it is just very cool to connect with another sports fan who read an appreciated my stuff.

Thanks for the email, Keith.