NFC North Intro: Covering the Original Black & Blue with Andrew Garda

This is the culmination of a lot of work on a long road.

It's hard to believe when I started doing this—writing about football—a decade ago, that covering the NFL like this wasn't even a thought.

Most of you know me either from my work here at Bleacher Report, alternatively covering the San Francisco 49ers, the NFL Draft and the NFL in general. Many of you know me from my work covering the NFL for CheeseheadTV.com. Others of you know me as a staff writer for Footballguys.com, where I cover the game from a fantasy football angle.

What very few of you will know is that I actually started writing on a little site called Fantasy Football Journal. It all started around the time my first child was born and my wife and I were getting to know the neighbors in the apartment next door.

Jeff Hoffman, who would soon become my writing partner, knew I loved to watch football (the infant in the Jets jersey on the couch during the games on Sunday may have been a tipoff) and asked if I was interested in playing this thing called "fantasy football."

Sure, why not? Then Jeff somehow convinced me over beers that, as an aspiring screenwriter (that's a whole other story) I could sharpen my writing talents writing for his "fantasy'" website.

Next thing I knew I was doing a podcast (before they had a name for it), with some crazy dude named Cecil Lammey aka The Source doing a segment from Denver, Colorado while Jeff and I talked football for an hour a week.

If you can find a recording of those old "Source" clips of Lammey's you'd be in for a treat.

It was through Lammey that I ended up seriously covering the NFL Draft at Draftguys with him, Sigmund Bloom and Marc Faletti, which lead to Footballguys. And, long story less long, here we are.

By now you're saying, "Great, that's lovely, but why the NFC North? Didn't you grow up a Jets fan?"

Fair enough question. So let's look at why I'm about to light up a division once known as the Black and Blue Division.

Of course, as mentioned, I have spent the last couple of years writing NFL content for the Packers website CheeseheadTV. While I have been (and will continue to be) focused on the wider league there in terms of content, I've become very well acquainted with the team by osmosis.

That's not entirely true—absorbing Packers factoids may be accidental at first, but once you're around Cheeseheads for a while you start to do it on purpose, if just as a survival effort.

I knew about the Packers before I joined CHTV. I know about the Packers now, if you get my meaning.

Aside from the Packers, I have a confession to make. Don't tell New Yorkers. OK?

I love the Detroit Lions.

I have for a long time. I fell in love way back in the Barry Sanders days, during the endless "why is Wayne Fontes still coaching" era. I started cheering for them to annoy my brother who was a big Dallas/Emmitt Smith fan. I ended up really enjoying the team, despite the fact that they continually made me want to heave a TV out my window.

Maybe it's being raised a Jets fan—some DNA wired to be a glutton for punishment.

Vikings and Bears fans, don't worry. I'm not leaving you out here.

You cannot have grown up in the '80s and not have respect for the Bears, much less have a working knowledge of history in the NFL and not know how fantastic a franchise it has been.

You also can't watch Matt Forte run or that defense play and not be absorbed by it.

Same goes for Adrian Peterson. I fervently hope he comes back from this injury at 100 percent because in my mind there is nobody better at running the ball in the league right now. The Vikings are struggling these days—both on the field and in building a field—but we all know how quickly things turn.

The NFC North is a fantastic division and as a student of the game as well as its history, I cannot think of a better division to cover. The history, the rivalries, the storylines that crop up year after year?

They don't get better.

Here's the final thing. I love the game of football. I love it enough to where I am producing my second year of NFL Draft prospect videos for the grand total of no dollars. I do it because I love it. I do it because I love the players.

Ultimately, that's the only reason to do this in the first place. Lammey likes to say, "Glory to the players, glory to the game," and it's a saying I live by.

I don't do it to get rich and famous (thought a paycheck makes it possible). I do it because I can't do anything else. I do it because I love the game of football.

This is what I do. All day, every day. I live and breathe football.

Now I live and breathe the NFC North.

Here's what you can expect. We'll be doing letters columns. We'll be doing news updates. We'll be looking at all aspects of the teams here as well as who they are playing and what they might do. We'll talk strategy, we'll break down a game that went south or a play that was brilliantly effective. We'll be having a Facebook page for you guys to congregate.

I'm usually around for a little chat. Follow me on Twitter (@andrew_garda) to keep up-to-date on what we're doing here but be warned—I tweet a bunch and I tweet about many things. I'll do a lot of NFCN chatting, but I'll dovetail off into other divisions and teams as well as talk incessantly about the latest Walking Dead or Game of Thrones episodes or the upcoming Avengers movie. I sometimes get political but not too often because life's too short to be angry or frustrated unless it's really momentous.

I'm a huge nerd, which has served me well in my football obsession. Sports fans are just nerds with jerseys. Embrace it, and we'll get along just fine.

I ask only two things of you. First, let us know how we're doing. Is there a feature you love or hate? Let me know. Is there something you'd like to see? Tell me. I want to make sure we cover what you need. Not saying everyone gets what they want but I'm willing to try.

Second, keep it civil. The rivalries in this division are intense, and the fans are equally so. I get it, I love it. Let's try to debate with a modicum of control, shall we? Back and forth "yo mama" jokes are all well and good and I'm all for people disagreeing with me or others. However let's strive to keep it all clean and above the belt.

So without further ado—let's kick this thing old school and show them how we do things in the frozen North.