Change Is Coming to the Gumbo

Since 2009, I've been committed to sharing my thoughts on this space and whatever comes to mind, I write it down. After 4 years and 637 posts (counting this one), I'm very proud of the small success I've had from it as well as watching my thought process evolve.

Yet after attending the NABJ Convention last year, I was encouraged to take this site and my skills to another level. ESPN's Michael Smith encouraged me to get more comfortable doing videos so I forced myself to do more. Bomani Jones talked about branding at a panel and it made me start evaluating what I'm good at more than just what I can do.

This is something I've thought about for a while but I haven't started putting it into motion until last week. I've decided be creating a sports-only blog and it's called The EB Sports Report. It will be unveiled after I finish typing this.

Before you get worried, I'm not abandoning Virgo Gumbo. This has been my baby and the Gumbo will continue to be my outlet for non-sports matters. It's just time to ignore some fears and try this out for the benefit of my future.


I started this site - initially named Enter the Virgosis (E-TV) - because I needed an outlet from my full-time gig as a sportswriter for a Black newspaper. I wanted to show that I could cover stories from more angles as well as appeal to my other interests such as politics, culture, music and more. It was never meant to be only a sports blog and soon sports took a backseat to other passions.

The funny thing is that my site has always been changing. Enter the Virgosis became Virgo Gumbo in 2011 and last year I made formal business cards promoting my site. I also added more widgets and graphics to make my site more user-friendly. Throw in my growth from being 24 when I started to 28 now and it's a far different site than it was in 2009.

So this is the next step. I never wanted to shut off my creative process so instead of try to cram it here, I'm splitting them up. I've been inspired seeing great sports sites like The Shadow League, The Sports Fan Journal (shouts to Ed The Sports Fan), NBA Mistress (the hilarious, insightful Mrs. NBA) and others so I figure why not try my own? I've already established Virgo Gumbo as a hodgepodge of ideas, fun and analysis so why not go back to my roots as a sportswriter.

This isn't goodbye but more like graduation. I'll still be posting here but I'll also be sharing my sports voice. To my faithful few readers, feel free to add it to your RSS Feeds (but not Google Reader, since it'll be gone in July). And stay tuned because more things are coming on the horizon!