Mike Waters, the niche he filled
 

As I've come to think of my "career" on sports message boards, I think I am now able to sum up what I did and how I did it.

I filled a niche in the BYU/Mormon sports message board community, that made me somewhat unique. I told the unvarnished truth, as I saw it, no matter the topic, no matter what the board politics and personal relationships were.

None of it was ever groundbreaking opinion. Marcus Whalen is not as good as people around here are saying. Gary Crowton is a bad head coach. George W. Bush is a bad president. If America loses its morality and ethics, there is nothing left to protect. Mormons should look at themselves and their religion with an eye towards self-analysis and improvement.

It's astounding, given the obviousness, and frankly, the banality of these subjects, that I was able to make a small "career" on the boards. Freaking amazing.

I did what I could, as I saw fit. I wasn't perfect. I wasn't always right. But I was a unique voice.

Each wave, with its unique shape, beauty, and sound, only crashes once. To us, it seems to happen in just a moment. But to the wave, it is a lifetime. It is an unstoppable force, having traveled from far away, that casts its form in an intricacy that can never be duplicated, and finds its end pressing against the land.

We each find our end. There will be other waves. At least I hope so.

Don't forget to mention your remarkable humility.

In a world of billions of people, the idea that anyone should listen to me more than anyone else is breathtakingly arrogant. It's the premise for all this BS.

As Pontius Pilate said (one of my favorite NT lines), "What is truth?" Two things that make you extraordinary (to me), Waters. First, your execution. You're often self-contradictory and even, yes, full of it. But you never fail to entertain. It's your wit, stupid. Unfortunately, wit does not always make for popular success, more times than not does not. Second, I have a personal soft spot for you because your online persona comes closest to being my alter ego or even twin. If that scares you, so be it.

is this the end of Mike waters or just musing on what you are?

I think someone has a man-crush.