In the summer of 2011 I started a blog called Aztecs Killing Him. It wasn’t terribly successful, in any objective or material sense, but a handful of people seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. Actually, by that definition, it was probably the most San Diego State Aztecsy thing that has ever been on the internet.
Two years later, in the wake of the Aztecs’ NCAA Tournament loss to renowned basketball power Florida Gulf Coast University – which may have been a fictitious team from the movie Blue Chips – I shuttered the blog and went into seclusion. The comedic conceit (the blog was nothing if not comedically conceited) of one of the last posts was that I was so fed up with the loss that I was walking away. In reality, I was just tired.
Tired of staying up late on work nights to post a game recap. Tired of dodging my boss’ gaze every time I needed to post some SUPER IMPORTANT news about our soon-to-be conference inviting Tulane or some shit. (We’re still in the Big East, right? How’s that going?)
Tired of trying to repackage the same Breaking Bad meth joke every time the Aztecs played New Mexico.
Tired, mostly, of feeling obligated to spend my free time blogging for free for the enjoyment of mmmaybe a hundred readers who were in on the joke.
So I quit. But that’s not to say there weren’t pangs of regret.
There were moments (see: Illinois, Eastern and Alabama, South) where I wanted to share some gallows humor, if only to make myself feel better. There were moments (ONE THREE ONE ZONE Y’ALL) that would have been fun as hell to document. And there were so, so many lost opportunities for Crying Jordan memes.
Most of all, I felt like there was a niche in the San Diego State fan universe that wasn’t being filled: a place for people of a certain hot-take-averse mindset to laugh about our maligned, tragic and occasionally wonderful corner of amateur college sports.
Which is what led me back here.
I’ve been kicking around the idea of a new Aztecs blog for a while now, mostly with the encouragement of former AKH contributor lemonverbena. Over the course of a few conversations and blandishments I began to feel the old enthusiasm, the kind I had before I got so damn tired, slowly return.
SO.
I’m excited to announce the launch of Kabeer Thirty. This blog, a joint project with co-editor Lemon, is not a reanimation of Aztecs Killing Him but a descendant that will carry some of the same DNA.
Over the next few days, before we start pretending to know about actual sports things, you’ll meet a couple of our other contributors – engaging voices who will keep the place from getting stale and me from getting metaphorically killed by the collegiate sporting Aztecs.
I hope you’ll follow along. If you were among the small but passionate tribe of readers at AKH, welcome back. If you’re new, thanks for reading this self-indulgent origin story of a person writing about sports on the internet.
I plan to stay a while. I hope you do, too.
KABEER THIRTY 