Hey folks, I want to thank you right off the top for helping to keep OS alive all these long years, and today’s announcement is I hope the start of the next phase of keeping this place going strong for many more years to come. I’m going to be introducing a premium newsletter this Wednesday, an extension of the Not Just Another Roster Update newsletter, that will be our first paid product we’ve ever offered on OS. I want to talk about why I think this is important, what it means for OS moving forward, and what will be in the newsletter itself. But before getting to that, I do think it’s important to take a bit of a walk down memory lane.
Where OS Started And Why It Means So Much To Me
There is something glorious about this site being older than the Y2K scare, and the fact that Operation Sports shortens to OS only furthers the bit. But whether it was Y2K scares, or Madden curses, or launch countdowns, we’ve always wanted to be an outlet for people who genuinely care about sports, and especially sports video games. And it was never just about playing the sports games, we cared about playing them the “right” way and finding ways to bring that realism to life through sliders, rosters, or even house rules. In short, we wanted to create experiences that the games didn’t always give to us out of the box.
For me, that desire to chat with others about sports games and discuss them in a way that wasn’t just about finding the best “cheese” plays lead me to Operation Sports. My first forum “love” was MaddenMania, but I also remember reading reviews on OS by guys like Terry and Clay back in the day – before I even posted on the OS forums. I believe I was around 17 years old when I chatted with Steve for the first time – and, for the record, I am not anywhere near 17 years old anymore. OS was the first real writing gig I had that paid me, and I did it throughout college before it eventually even helped me land a job in game development for a handful of years.
In my absence, Steve and the crew pressed on because that’s what Steve does. I eventually came back after a number of years away, and Steve and I have been a duo for a long ass time all over again now. We have known each other for something like 20 years at this point, and we’ve worked together for quite a few of those. He’s my work wife, and he’s just had to accept there’s no escaping me.
Why We’re Introducing This Newsletter Now
We have no plans or desires to stop doing this. I genuinely still love this community and sports games, and I know Steve feels the same way. That said, evolution is inevitable, and survival is not a given out here in these internet streets. How this site existed back in 1998 isn’t how this place can survive in 2025. To be clear, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, it just means we need to redefine who we are on some level to keep chugging along.
Growing the way we have since 1998 comes with its own ups and downs, but I’m not here today to claim I’m writing any of this so we can continue to expand and reach millions more people. That’d be nice for sure, but it’s not why I’m writing this or why I wanted to introduce a paid newsletter. I’m also not here to do a “woe is me” speech about where OS stands today. No one has it easy right now in this sort of media environment. Whether it’s AI eating into search, Google always changing its algorithm, ad sales being unreliable, or whatever else is impacting websites today, we’ve continued to survive by trying to adapt, and this is the next adaptation for us.
I’ll talk more in-depth about our plans in a second, but the point is we’re going to start offering up some “premium” pay-for options that we want to continue to expand in the months and years ahead. It starts with our premium newsletter, which will be an expansion of the weekly newsletter I already do, and it will continue to be run entirely by me.
Simply put, community is the only thing that keeps this place strong and people coming back, and that is going to be the basis of anything “premium” we offer in the short term or long term. Steve and others helped build this place on a foundation of the forums, and you all have always come together as a collective to keep the discussions around these games going. We continue that legacy year after year because these conversations are still worth having, and sports video games are still worth playing, critiquing, and tweaking to get the most out of them.
I can say without a doubt that if I didn’t see all of you still talking about the games, or the stories we write, or the news that breaks, or creating cool-ass stuff that you showcase year after year, I would have stopped doing this by now.
It’s also why I feel comfortable coming here with a “hat in hand” so to speak to talk about the next steps for this place. I want to continue to keep the lights on in such a way where I’m not worried about whether the check might bounce. I want this place to continue on not just for a year or two, but for years to come. This place has a history worth preserving, and it still has a story to tell in terms of how it shapes and talks about sports games moving forward. I would hope a lot of you know who Steve and I are at this point and have enough trust in us that we wouldn’t come to you with something like this unless it was serious, and so there is no hyperbole when I say we’re doing this because we want to, but also because we have to.
The Plan For The Premium Newsletter
The premium newsletter is where it starts, and we’re starting there because it’s the most controllable thing we can offer. I run it, and I publish it. As long as the newsletter service is working, that thing will go out to you on time and on schedule. If you read my newsletter now, Not Just Another Roster Update, I appreciate it, and that weekly free newsletter will continue to exist and hit your inbox every Friday.
The premium version of Not Just Another Roster Update is an additional newsletter each week that I want to be shaped by you guys over time. In the short term, my plan is to build it around a mix of retrospectives on old games, monthly interviews with OS members, in-depth guides, and also round-up all the amazing content you guys do in one spot. This newsletter is meant to be a one-stop shop where we appreciate the past and where we came from – because boy do we have plenty of history at this point to look back on – but also still discuss the sports games of today and how to get the most of them in a way that speaks to our priorities as sports gamers. After all, we care about the journey from one-star school to five-star powerhouse rather than simply ripping off national titles with the Akron Zips right off rip (no offense to any Akron alumni out there).
That said, it doesn’t have to be just that. If you want some video content mixed in with franchise playthroughs, I’m happy to oblige within the newsletter. If you want to do some monthly mailbags where you can ask whatever you want on a topic, let’s do it. If you guys want to run an online dynasty or online franchise where I round-up a monthly report on the happenings in the league and showcase some of the top games, highlights, and stories from it like some of the great franchise playthroughs on the site, we can think more about stuff like that as well. We can even discuss doing more fantasy leagues together or even a monthly movie night where we watch a classic sports flick. My e-mail will always be open to subscribers (NotJustAnotherRosterUpdate@gmail.com), and you can of course reach me right here in the forums as well. I want us to work together to shape the premium newsletter to your needs as it evolves over time.
I posted the link at the top, but I’ll also be clear that the premium newsletter will be $3.99 a month, or $40 per year if you want to go with the discounted yearly rate. Also, early subscribers who sign up between today and Monday, August 4, get the next 30 days free.
I also want to give you an early look at what will be in the first three weeks of the newsletter:
- The launch newsletter this Wednesday will be my in-depth College Football 26 Recruiting Guide that should give you everything you need in order to both “master” recruiting but also understand how to make it realistic/balanced for a more challenging experience.
- The following week will be an interview with longtime OSer studbucket, as well as a round-up of a lot of the helpful guides and forum work that should help you get the most out of College Football 26.
- The third week will be a retrospective on the original NFL GameDay. It’s the 30th anniversary of the game coming out on PS1 and scaring the crap out of Madden, and so it feels like a good time to look back on it right before Madden 26 releases.
- Week 4 I’m hoping is shaped by you, and you all come to me with ideas about what you’d perhaps like to see. Again, I mentioned franchise playthroughs (from new or old games), and a “monthly recap” on an online dynasty we choose to play together as just two possible options. If none of that comes together, it will likely be something on Madden 26 instead because that will be in early access by then.
Whether it’s 1 of you, 100 of you, or 10,000 of you that ultimately subscribe, I want you to understand that any money you give to this endeavor is not just about subscribing for the content itself, it’s also about preserving the legacy of Operation Sports as a whole. If we can continue to persevere and find a better way forward, we plan to offer far more ways for you all to build this into a place you love and want to invest in because you genuinely appreciate what you’re getting out of it. We want to offer ad-free forums eventually, and hopefully even leave vBulletin behind for a more modern layout (something that’s possible now that we moved off truly ancient forums that were great to us but always in danger of vanishing and erasing 20+ years of history). We want to offer a Discord that can act as a second hang-out spot and gathering for some more day-to-day chats. We want to do more giveaways, contests, raffles, and just be able to have a little more freedom to do what we want for a more engaged group that’s getting back what it’s putting into this wonderful place.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, I’m tired of relying on Google, ads, SEO, or any of the other silliness that defines websites on the internet in 2025. We’ve never been a spot that’s about churning out endless content, and I don’t want that to be how we try to survive today. Let’s create a place we want to see moving forward and make sure we continue to be the community that has been the hangout for sports gamers for the better part of 30 years. If enough of you take that plunge with me and Steve, I can assure you our best is yet to come because we want this to be the beginning of another 30 years of OS.
