Daryl Grove (Left) & Taylor Rockwell (Right) of the Total Soccer Show
They say you should never meet your heroes.
I wish I could have done that.
Daryl Grove, of Total Soccer Show fame, passed away last Friday after a two year battle with cancer. He was a pillar of the American soccer community and one of the most respected soccer journalists in the nation. What he and Taylor Rockwell built is special. It started out as two friends talking soccer and grew to a full-on business with an office and a partnership with The Athletic.
The TSS guys embodied the phrase "self-starters". They put out a consistent product for a decade and parleyed their experience and success to larger platforms, so much so that they eventually turned TSS into their full-time jobs.
Why am I spending time writing out information on an American soccer podcast on a CFB blog/podcast you may ask? Because without Daryl and Taylor, there would be no Sideline Judgement.
In the fall of 2015, I was a sophomore at UF and discovered podcasts. I would walk from the Spring Residential Complex all across campus to classes, events, rehearsals, etc. with people talking about sports in my earbuds. TSS was the first podcast I found that made me feel like part of the conversation. There weren't many people who were open to discussing American soccer at the time and finding Daryl and Taylor felt like reuniting with two friends I hadn't talked to in years. It was comfortable. It reminded me that supporting American soccer wasn't as taboo as my environment made it seem to be.
Fast forward to the fall of my senior year, when Tyler and I were looking for an outlet to discuss our beloved Florida Gators football team. The only outlet I even considered proposing to Tyler was a podcast. And because Tyler is Tyler, he was all in.
As we went through the ups and downs of creating Sideline Judgement and discovering exactly what we wanted this thing to be, I always kept one thing in mind: be like Daryl and Taylor. Their relationship was the benchmark for what it takes to create a high-quality product.
That's why Daryl's passing has hit me hard. I always hoped that I was doing my best to be like Daryl. I will continue to do my best to be like Daryl. He not only inspired me to be better, but he also influenced how I approach my work.
Thank you, Daryl Grove. Thank you for setting the benchmark extremely high. I hope I am even a fraction as good at my work as you were with yours.
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