As a few The Yanks Are Coming readers are aware, our Editor In Chief and fearless, visionary leader Daniel Seco does not have a favorite English Premier League Team. He’s dabbled a bit with the boys at Craven Cottage but never fully bought in. Same for the Billy Beane Sabermetrics club success story that plys its trade at the Emirates. So he’s not a Gunner, and he’s not a Cottager, but let’s call those two clubs the leaders in the clubhouse.
As we approach a new EPL season, it has been decided by the powers that be at the TYAC home offices that Dan Seco needs a new favorite EPL team. After all, as he adjusts to his new job doing good things for kids with Teach for America in New Orleans, he’ll doubtlessly be looking for an excuse to begin his weekends early. Granted, it’s hard to find a drinking establishment in Nawlins open on a Saturday morning, but Dan is a smart guy and he can figure it out. Heck, I bet he could even find a few other lost souls to have a perfect pint with and take in an early game featuring his new favorite team.
We’ve offered Dan a few suggestions over the years, but we figured the best way to find him a new side would be to involve our beloved readers. As such, we proudly launch the “2010 Find Daniel Seco an English Premier League Side Contest”. We’ll have a post outlining what we think the upside and downside of each possible club choice is in the coming days, but the most important part of this contest, and the only folks who can win, are you the reader.
Here’s how it works. You, the reader, send a (Maximum) 200 word essay to nwblackmon@gmail.com on why Dan should pick your favorite side. Along with Dan, we’ll pick the best essay—judged on historical accuracy, humor, and the reasonability of the argument, mostly— and you’ll win the first prize. We’ve also decided to award a prize to the runner-up. Here are the prizes.
1st Place: United States Men’s National Team Scarf, OR, Scarf of Your Favorite EPL Team. Entirely your choice. You’ll also win a Yanks Are Coming t-shirt.
2nd Place: Your choice of a shirt from our friends at “OBJECTIVO”. See their stuff, if you haven’t yet, at http://store.objectivo.com/.
We think this contest will be a great deal of fun and will go to a good cause, giving a new schoolteacher and a great editor in a new city a team to wake up and pull for on his weekends. Deadline for entries is August 14, 2010 (the date EPL play begins anew!!!) and the best entries will be posted on the site for global perusal, which is an added bonus, we think.
GOOD LUCK.
Neil W. Blackmon is the Associate Editor of The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at neil @yanksarecoming.com, but for purposes of the contest- use the address above. Also, he can be found on Twitter @nwb_usmnt.