“I’ma have to shut the studio down…” – P-Diddy
“It is ALL over!” – Mike Goldberg
“Game Over” – Lil’ Flip

I’m trying to make this thing as clichéd as possible. Unfortunately, this is not one of those funky new Rumor Mill things I’ve been doing.
The On Deck Circle is actually shutting down. With some degree of regret, I have battled with the decision for a few weeks now and decided it’s best if I just stop doing the site. While I have obviously not lost my passion for sports, I have lost my interest in writing about it with great frequency and maintaining the website. It takes more work than you’d think to edit and manage a staff of roughly 30 writers, all while trying to write your own work for a few different websites. It’s taxing, both in terms of time and mental state. Additionally, the site has made me less of a sports fan – not only is there less time available, but I sometimes dread reading/writing/watching sports because it has gotten to feel borderline like work. I know this sounds kinda cliché, but the one thing I’ve learned running the site the last 6 months is that I might not want a profession in sports like I thought…it may be best left as a passionate hobby. This is still unclear, but running the site and writing has most definitely hurt my enjoyment of sports.

I grew the site from nothing to a 1200+ hits per day site with 30 writers and nearly 100,000 hits in July. It’s pretty impressive and will hopefully make good interview fodder. Just thought I’d pat myself on the back there.

I need to seriously thank all 30-ish people who have wrote for the site from time to time. The amount and variety of writers is what made the site pretty unique, and I appreciate all the hard work you guys put into it. I love working with my friends in this type of capacity and appreciate your work.

This goes times infinity for Stu Wilkinson (who deserves his own Gary Roberts Wednesday he’s so underappreciated), Alex Jackson (the Hit Counter MVP) and Trevor Smith (the Post Quality MVP). These guys have shouldered the writing load mightily and made the whole experience much more enjoyable for me.

A special thanks to Tas and Skeets from The Basketball Jones, Ryne from Odenized/Slam, Ryan and Austin from Hoops Addict, Dennis from About.com/Gear Live Media, Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm, and many more for their contributions to my evolution as a writer and site operator.

And a major thank you to anyone who ever read the site, provided feedback, told a friend, whatever…if you’re here or have been, thank you!

Before I sign off, I thought I’d pay homage to the articles with the most traffic in site history. Tip of the cap to these.

Top Traffic (1000 Hits or More)
1. Attractive Female Celebrities and Movies… by Alex Jackson

2. The History of the Finger Wag by Blake Murphy

3. French Open ‘Preview’ by Alex Jackson

4. The NBA: Where Summer Movie Mayhem Happens by Trev Smith

5. Cereal Mascots and Sports by Kabeir Dilawri

6. Derek Jeter’s Other Game by Alex Jackson

7. Sports Lyrics in Hip Hop by Blake Murphy

8. Wives and Girlfriends of Footballers by Alex Jackson

9. Moving Away from ESPN by Stu Wilkinson

10. The Wire and the MVP Race by Blake Murphy

11. Carnival of the NBA #56

12. Interview with Carl English by Blake Murphy

13. NBA Free Agency Salary Cap Guide by Blake Murphy

14. Unfinished Blog Ideas by Alex Jackson

15. Kobe Bryant – Hate It or Love It by Blake Murphy

16. The Sad Downfall of Lil’ Penny by Alex Jackson

17. UFC Has a New Opponent – Affliction by Blake Murphy

And my personal favorite of anything I ever wrote: Eric Hinske is Going to Kill You.

And finally…I felt the most appropriate way to end the site’s tenure was with a Video of the Day. I thought about Brett Favre’s retirement speech, or the Lou Gehrig speech, or the Jimmy V speech, or any number of other emotional retirement speeches. Instead, I found and settled on the greatest retirement speech of all time, and a fitting one at that.