Hockey Goalie Mikayla Demaiter Closes Down 2021, Shane Beamer Mayo Bath & Troy Aikman Enjoying A Beer
It turns out we built some serious trust with you guys this year
In 2020, OutKick was just trying to figure out how to survive without fans in the stands, games being canceled, and an audience that was being introduced to several new voices that were taking over editorial control of this site that Clay had built from the ground up.
You guys didn't know us, we didn't know you and there was a feeling-out process. We had to build trust to get a spot within your daily schedule. We had to build up a consistency that left you no choice but to return day after day after day to catch the latest edition of Screencaps. We had to add guys like Armando Salguero with three decades of experience covering the NFL. We had to keep hammering away on subjects that aren't being covered by other sports outlets.
Personally, 2021 took off in a big way when a Woke All-Star Bracket Challenge was suggested to me by a reader. The next thing I knew, Clay had no choice but to bring me on the old Fox Sports Radio show to update him on the standings. I didn't keep count, but I'd say there were at least 8-10 radio appearances before Clay announced that he was leaving FSR and OutKick was selling to Fox News Corp.
It's all such a blur at this point. I can't remember the exact moment where I made my email public, but that was the launch of Morning Screencaps into a different realm. It went from a nice daily column for the Internet to an actual brand due to the rabid fans who are so crazy about this product that they dissect each post in text exchanges with their buddies.
Fox Corp. announced the purchase of OutKick on May 5. By May 20, the Thursday Night Mowing League was born and would go on to consume my summer. Thousands of shirts were sold and I had yet another franchise to brag about on my Linkedin page.
To say that 2021 on a career level has been rather insane, in a really good way, would be an understatement. In six months since posting my email, I've heard from so many great Americans who put life in perspective on a daily basis. Whether it's advice on navigating my son through baseball or Christmas gift advice, the Screencaps community has been at the ready to fire off emails that have helped so many readers.
We have people creating travel plans based on Screencaps advice. We have people cooking food based on what they're seeing here. We have readers falling in love with Instagram models.
It's been one helluva ride and I know that means I have my work cut out for me in 2022 to keep the machine rolling. 2020 was about getting our feet wet. 2021 was about building trust. 2022 will be about expansion and I'd like to get my hands on a budget to do something like a Screencaps Across America series. My goal is to visit Screencaps readers to see life in their neck of the woods.
I want to take TNML to the next level with a mowing championship. The 4th Annual Put-In-Bay Two-Club Invitational will be back. The Woke All-Star Bracket will return. I'd love to hook up with someone like Dan Dakich to broadcast from the Wren, OH wiffleball tournament.
And with that, we close down 2021. I wish nothing but the best for you guys in the new year. Here's to good health, a Bengals playoff victory, and many more OutKick successes moving forward.
Top 10 states for OutKick traffic in 2021:
Top 10 cities for OutKick traffic in 2021:
Top 5 highest-trafficked Screencaps posts of 2021:
Device usage:
Mobile: 85.03%
Desktop: 10.91%
Tablet: 4.06%
Operating system:
iOS: 61.71%
Android: 38.28%
• Ryan O. writes:
Finished up a batch of deer jerky .
• Indy Daryl with his final email of 2021:
Joe,
Good morning and happy New Year’s Eve. I don’t have 3,000 words but wanted to simply say: Thank You. Thank you for being a light-hearted voice of reason and saneness. Thank you for your commitment to pumping out column after column, bringing some cheer to my internet in 2021.
Thank you to the screencaps and TMNL community! I truly love hearing about your lawns, your vacations, how to smoke a prime rib, your best sports stories, and everything in between. It has been a pleasure “getting to know you” this year. I look forward to a great 2022 and can’t wait to hear all the reports from across the land.
Happy New Year to all!!
• Vols fan Matt in Nashville not only had to watch his college team suffer a loss, he also missed out on a big payday:
Hey Commish,
My Wife's cousin and I had planned all along to go to the Music City Bowl today, and at the last minute decided to cancel and stay home. After the quick back to back TD's early we were already regretting our decision so I texted this to him (nsfw words redacted): (See attached)
As we watched the insane back and forth of the fourth quarter, I started to think, holy shit I might be right...then as the score lined up I thought, holy shit I might even have nailed the exact score! Sure enough, 48-45 on the last play. I wish I had bet that exact circumstance on FanDuel. I might be a millionaire now. Unbelievable. Anyways, thanks for all you do with TNML and ScreenCaps. Cheers to a fun 2021 and a better 2022!
• Beau in Toledo writes:
As we all prepare to eat WAY too much food (if you can find it) over the course of the next 3 days, I had a thought about what I'm making for New Year's Day, something that my family has had on NYD every year: Pigs In a Blanket, Kielbasa, and sauerkraut. ( I've been told that it's an old German tradition to eat sauerkraut on the first day of the year to bring good luck for the New Year, but Germans serve sauerkraut like we do french fries.)
That made me wonder if the Kinsey Family and ScreenCap Nation have any Family Tradition Meals for New Year's Day? And yes, I will openly admit that I'm looking for dinner ideas for the upcoming cold Toledo winter months!
Hope Everyone has a great New Year's weekend!!
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Spare ribs, kielbasa and sauerkraut have been traditions around my family for as long as I can remember. My great aunt would pay my father with cabbage rolls after he would help cut down tree limbs or whatever she needed to be done. While it's not a New Years' tradition, January is time for Crock-Pot chicken & noodles. Butter bread. Steaming plate of chicken & noodles then a nap.
• Gerard writes:
Joe,
Just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year and congratulate you on a great 2021. Your blog became a daily must-read for me to break up the day. Everyday you talked about something that connected with me. (Like today with that Berkshire pig picture. Berkshire hog meat is awesome if you can find it. It’s actual red meat pork. It has flavor unlike the dry white meat pork that is mass produced.) You are reaching an audience that I assume is just like me. Hard-working everyday guys that just want to make a decent living, love their families, and like to share beers with the boys when time allows. Keep this train chugging along!
On a side note, I don’t want to bore you with e-mails all the time either. I am also hesitant to write as it’s cool to see my contribution to your content, I have a hard time seeing even my first name attached to anything. This isn’t about me. It’s about your content. I wonder if more people would write in if you left them anonymous?
The next thing is not your department but I'm wondering if someone at Outkick or the Mothership at FOX would take up this article idea. Someone needs to write about how life insurance companies have not changed their business model due to COVID. They would’ve quit writing new policies long ago if the math told them people were passing away at an increased rate. The CORONA BROs talk about “Science”. Nobody talks about math. You would have to interview a Life Insurance Actuary and then somehow translate that to gambling in order to make it interesting to the reader. (Life insurance companies don’t even ask about COVID on a new application. They ask about every other ailment under the sun, just not COVID.)
Hears to a great 2022!
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Here's some inside baseball relating to Gerard and Screencaps. I would call him Gerald (my grandfather's name) the first few times he emailed back in the summer. Now I'm all over his name. No way I'm slipping now. It's on my brain from the minute I see his email roll in.
As for this life insurance thing, that's outside my pay bracket right now. I'll interview swimmers who are outraged over a transgender swimmer, but my head is spinning even thinking about an interview on life insurance. Perhaps there will be a blue checkmark who'll read this edition of Screencaps and jump on this subject.
• I think we're officially ready to close down Screencaps for the year. Have a great day, enjoy those Final Four games and be safe out there this evening. I'll be at the kitchen table playing Monopoly against the kids.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com