Bring Your Sports Fandom To The Steele Sports Bar!
Substack is making it easy to create the ultimate online community for sports fans...
Throughout the course of any given day I try my best to take 10 and read through the slew of Substack newsletters I’m subscribed to.
They are all so damn good and I’m a firm believer that reading for at least an hour a day feeds the brain all the good stuff it needs. We should all read more.
We should also all read more Substack newsletters. Hey, I’m biased because I’m a proud member of the community here, but Substack really has changed the game when it comes to journalism.
Substack has also helped to revitalize sports journalism as we know it.
I was reminded of this fact while reading Austin Tedesco’s brilliant essay for Substack Reads on why and how sports journalism is thriving here at Substack.
And not the crappy, heavily-saturated, click-bait bullshit you see all over the place on social media.
No, Substack allows old school sports writers to really flex their writing muscles and use the power and the beauty of the written word to bring sports fans the kind of in-depth, intricate, passion-filled sports journalism they so deserve.
While the sports journalism empire may be crumbling in other storied establishments - ESPN goes through more rounds of layoffs than the Jets go through quarterbacks, while The New York Times abolished its award-winning sports desk entirely - Substack is busy building a brand new shiny and robust empire that will stand the test of time.
Again, I’m biased but I’ve preached to anyone who will listen that, if you’re a sports fan, Substack is the place to be. I mean, you have Tyler Dunne who is the best NFL long-form writer on the planet. Joe Posnanski has made writing about baseball an absolute art form. Molly Knight is as respected a baseball writer as you can get. Marc Stein boasts superb connections throughout the NBA world and he uses those connections to bring hoops fans the best coverage of #ThisLeague as you will find.
That is just scratching the surface, too. Substack is littered with a slew of outstanding and passion-filled sports writers that serve their individual and respective audiences flawlessly. The Morning Line is both insanely brilliant and unique in equal measure. Bob Kravitz takes you back to the heyday of the all-conquering, all-powerful old school sports writer with his excellent Musings Of An Old Sportswriter Newsletter. And, my personal favorite at the moment is SubTsakalidis - a Memphis Grizzlies Newsletter by Parker Fleming, who boasts the innate ability to make you smarter about both the Grizzlies and the NBA within minutes.
And then there’s little old me here at The Steele Sports Bar.
We’re just getting started and in the process of carving out a niche in the much-wider sports community here at Substack, but I really am excited about the future for this site and big things are coming down the pike.
I can promise you that.
Substack, and great visionaries like Austin Tedesco, make it easy for sports writers like myself to build an audience while committing to contributing to some of the best independent sports journalism in the world.
Not hindered or handcuffed by headache inducing ads or greedy corporate overlords dictating my every move - as is the case on nearly every other sports website on the big, bad internet - I am free to write about the thing I love most in every way imaginable.
Substack allows me to vent and shed every single ounce of anger and frustration I have after a bad loss for one of my New York based teams. Substack gives me the freedom to really dive deep into the weeds of a long-form story I am intensely passionate about. Substack gives me the confidence to be 100% me in my writing and in my coverage of sports. Oh, and Substack has also reinvented the game when it comes to podcasting. It is an absolute joy to host The Andrew Steele Podcast on this very platform.
As I’ve said time and time and time again since launching The Steele Sports Bar, creating the most unique online sports bar and community for the everyman sports fanatic is my daily motivation. It is what gets me out of bed every single morning, and Substack has given me every single tool I need in order to be successful in that mission.
I love sports deeply. I also love the written word deeply. I’ve always felt like it was my destiny to become a sports writer. Now, thanks to Substack, I’ve finally found the home where I can do my best work, let my true personality shine through and build a real community that can survive the test of time.
I’ve long dreamt of building a virtual community of like-minded diehard sports fanatics. A place we can all hang out, share a beer and also share our love of sports and bond over a euphoric win or a crushing defeat. Because, let’s be real, that’s what sports is all about. That’s what makes it so freaking great.
Thanks to Substack, now is the best time to cover sports and, given that I always have so much on my mind when it comes to sports, I really can’t wait to build a long-lasting legacy here.
Sports journalism the way it was always intended to be is making an epic comeback. And it is all thanks to Substack.
I’m a sports sicko just like you, I care deeply about my teams just like you do and I’m also incredibly passionate about playing my part in ensuring that sports journalism returns to the heights of the glory years.
We’re going to look to tick all of those boxes here at The Steele Sports Bar.
I can’t wait to create something truly special with all of you.
As Austin Tedesco so beautifully put it; Substack is saying yes to a new era of sports journalism and I am beyond pumped to be a part of it. I’ve waited an absolute age to be this excited about covering the thing I love the most.
Here’s to having fun covering sports again. It has been a long time coming.