This week on Seaside Chats, former Field Gulls and current The Athletic writer Ben Baldwin, he the master of EPA and destroyer of all things running backs, joins me to discuss a host of topics around those issues and much more. His episode comes just days after Danny Kelly returned to be a guest, so if you missed that one, it’s included in the link below.
Today, Ben talks about the importance of running backs, why Todd Gurley is maybe not as good as Chris Carson, EPA, DVOA, QBR, the season being had by Russell Wilson and if it’s actually that good, why Aaron Rodgers is actually not very good or any better than Joe Flacco, how often teams should actually run, play-action, and perhaps the hottest take of all: does Ben, mr-Anti RBs, actually think Marshawn Lynch was important to the Seahawks success from 2012-2014….at all?
This episode and all others from here on out is available at Patreon for $2 per month. You can listen at Patreon or once you subscribe, get an RSS link to use for iTunes or whatever podcast app you use.
EPISODE LINK
Ben on Twitter
And now a message that I can’t believe I even have to write: hateful comments or complaints about the Patreon model don’t really move the conversation forward or add to discussion. (Actually we get into that topic in the episode because The Athletic is a pay-to-read website and Ben is an actual economist.) Let me just quickly say that for the last seven years I have spent virtually every single day on Field Gulls and written at least one article in each of those days. I’m closing in on 2,500 posts now. In addition to that I decided to spend my own time and money on a podcast venture, of which I’ve recorded hundreds of episodes, spent countless hours getting them online, paid monthly fees to host them on soundcloud, and posted on Field Gulls at no cost to anyone but me. At the end of the day, I could not afford to do another episode so this was at least a temporary solution to that. I totally understand the refusal to not pay for a podcast because I have creators whose content I like (and if you don’t like my content, I assume you aren’t even reading this?) that I don’t pay for once they go behind a paywall. That’s consumerism. I’m actually not asking anyone to pay $2 a month for something they wouldn’t pay $2 a month for. That just means that this particular content hasn’t hit your threshold for purchase and I’m fine with that. I would recommend BeastPode or many other Seahawks/NFL podcasts that are free and made by my friends and colleagues. I’m only saying that if you do find this is worth $2 a month, great, it’s available to try out, and if you don’t, I take zero offense. I know that the silent majority is just reading and moving along without paying and it’s the vocal crowd that’s usually going to have negative things to say, but even those of you folks that fall into that category: I have no problem with you. I totally understand your frustration. This is just a matter of whether or not I even continue the podcast based on my literal financial ability to do so, so in either case, you would not have a podcast to listen to. It would just not exist anymore. In this case, it does exist so that people I love to interview like Danny, Ben, Mina, Rob, and others can have a place to come talk to me about football. In the future I do hope to release some free bonus episodes, so I hope you’ll like those and it gives a small amount of satisfaction for your Seattle podcasting needs. Like many others out there, making me in no way special, I’m just a broke person trying to do something I love any way I can. I hope this gives some small insight and understanding into the decision.
