‘I know exactly what I’m doing’

First of all, we hate posts on the OilersNation that are about the OilersNation. That has to be the lamest thing ever. The OilersNation reports the news; we aren’t news. No one around OilersNation World HQ™ wants to see us do anything but bring Oilers fans the thunder.

Having said that, here is a post on the OilersNation about the OilersNation. It’s the last one like this you will see from me for a long time—I want to talk about a 6–2 OT win for the Mighty Oil, not this kind of stuff.

Now that we have a team of writers and a boat-load of traffic, it’s getting more tricky for me to post. I didn’t ever intend to be a blogger here. I just wanted to read an Oilers site that was funny and different and talked to me as a young beer-swilling-corner-fighting hockey fan.

Look what my man Charlie said on here on Sept 12:

Good call Charlie. See the thing is, I am not a serious writer. Hell, I’m not even a writer! I’m not doing this to try and get some job at TSN or at the Journal. That’s for real writers who understand what a Corsi number is and, where, commas, should, go. I have no intention of ever writing on anything except a Nation site. I will never be a “good writer” but I will also never be “serious.”

I’m just an Oilers fan who wanted something better. And you know what? If it hasn’t already arrived it’s very, very close. And that isn’t because of me. It’s because someone went out and signed Lowetide (hotness), Gregor (hotness), Brownlee (hotness) and Willis (hotness), and all you good people have come to the site and left all the hilarious comments/battles that you do.

See, when you don’t really care what people think you can do whatever you want. We built the site we like and we hope you like it too. We just want it to be awesome. The whole reason we went out and hooked up deals with mainstream media-types recently was to bring some credibility to the site. We recognize that a guy who calls himself Wanye Gretz isn’t the most credible dude in the world. So here are Robin Brownlee and Jason Gregor—some of the most credible sports journalists around.

We realize that our gutter mouth and what not isn’t for everyone. So here: read Jonathan Willis and Lowetide. They’re classy dudes; we aren’t. Are you a member of the fairer sex? Read Amber McCormick; she’s a fox (or that’s what her “Casual Encounters” photo on Craigslist led us to believe). Want something else? Tell us. Ever build a website? It’s friggin hard!

All we know is what we want to see and who we like. And you know who we like? Robin Brownlee. Yeah, he might be the meanest dude this side of the Edmonton Remand Centre but he knows hockey. We used to cut his articles out of the Journal and save them when we were in Junior High. He might yell about this and that and might be 173 years old but he’s Robin Brownlee. Didn’t he actually assist in delivering Mark Messier into the world at birth?

You know who else we like? Jason Gregor. We do have a supreme beef with him for playing the Brass Bonanza during the SCF ‘06 but that’s a different story for a different day. He gets sports in general and is actually worth listening to. Now unfortunately we aren’t long haul truckers so we don’t get to listen to AM Radio all that often. In fact, we wish We were long haul truckers because we could listen to Jim Rome every day. But when we are able to listen, it’s evident that Gregor is in charge. That’s why we approached him to write for the site.

One time we wrote this. And then the dude who runs Oilfans.com said this on his boards:

Buddy, are you kidding me? I speak the truth. When I say that Rexall replaced parts of it’s ice plant, it’s because they did. I know this because I talked directly to the dude that did the work. So if you want to call me out as a liar, come and say it to my face. And I’ll smack the crap out of you—and then I will go sit in a chair.

You know why no other media reported on that, MJ? Because no one cares like guys like you and I do. To us, Rexall Place getting a new urinal mint in section 112 is news. We think it should be shouted from the hilltops. But old school media won’t touch that story with a ten foot pole.

I get it, though: you’re a real Oilers fan. I like the site you have, too. It’s good work. But don’t think that I get up in the morning and think “Gee, what can I lie to the nice people about today.” I can’t be bothered to make up fake crap.

We aren’t doing this for Robin Brownlee or Jason Gregor or Glenda from Scottsdale or for the Pope’s brother Gary. We’re doing this for Oilers fans like an MJ or the guy who called me “a complete F*****G idiot” awhile back. Real Oilers fans. Real ones mind you, not “fans” who emerge when they happen to be sitting near a TV when the games are on or during a playoff run. Fans that read websites during the off-season and think that Rexall Place maintenance schedules should be front page news in the Globe and Mail.

My kind of people.

But I can’t stress this enough:

I do this cause I want to—no one tells me what to do.
I am my own editor.
This is a site for all of us.

I am Wanye Gretz and if 31 million people come to this site daily in September I am going to say exactly what I want to say.

PS: Bite me, Flames Fans.