Breaking The Lines: One Year On

I launched Breaking The Lines as a young, confused kid coming off his first semester of college. I came into first semester thinking I was ready for the real world; it turns out I wasn't even ready for secondary school. I dreaded every single option around me, from the mountain of student loan debt I'd have to pay soon, to the litany of internships and monotonous desk jobs that would come later, to the lifeless purgatory of a job I hate. I didn't know what I wanted, or who I was, I just had a special, intense passion for the game of football. A little while after a tumultuous first semester, some Dutch guy on Twitter named Thomas asked to me to DM him. It went a little like this: "Hey dude, I love your lists, and I think we should make a website out of them."

I had no idea what good repackaging my lists of "Best Footballers, Best Prospects, Best Breakout Stars" in a website would do, but I have always had a fervid desire to categorize things in lists: perhaps it's OCD, perhaps it's vehement anti-Taoist dogma, perhaps it's just the need to simplify things in a hierarchical manner. I didn't think it was a great idea, I didn't think it would get much attention, I mostly viewed it as an inconvenient impediment to my winter break.

Besides, I didn't have much to offer. Thomas and I aren't Guardiola and Cruyff, we aren't tactical experts, or football historians, or well-connected scouts. This was nothing more than a shot in the dark from two hungry, devoted college kids. The only cards I had on deck were a deep-seated love of football and American grit. Nothing more.

Still, I had a faint dream of getting a career in football. It was more like an insurmountable mountain than a sunny dog hill, but it was biggest dream. I decided to go through with it, as this might be my best chance of accomplishing the dream.