Today marks the end of an extremely meaningful seven day stretch here at TGS Headquarters.
One week go, we published our 500th blog post, as J. T. Nutt reminded us that these four memorable sports figures all hail from a certain Missouri Valley school in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Today is our first birthday. While we will gladly accept gifts and tributes in all forms, we understand that money is tight. So we’ve come up with a way for you to commemorate our first year without spending a dime. Simply check out our most memorable pieces from the last year!
We try our best to fit our content into four major categories: Sports, Current Events, Culture, and Off-Season (which is really just a catchall). Below, you’ll find the four most popular in each of those categories, as well as the top episode from our top four podcasts.
As you can imagine, trimming 500+ posts to 16 and 140+ podcasts to four was a seemingly impossible task – but alas, that’s why they don’t pay me.
Before we proceed, we’d like to thank each and every one of our readers – including the haters and losers – for supporting us over the last year. We look forward to bringing you more and more content like the glorious batch you’ll find below.
Sports
If we’re honest with ourselves, sports is how we butter our bread here at The Tailgate Society. We’ve touched on everything from Group of 5 teams in the playoff, to Yordano Ventura, and even chronicled Avon Burt’s adventure to Wrigley field to witness her beloved Cubbies winning a World Series. While there are many more we could feature, we present our four most popular sports pieces from the past year.
An Open Letter to the University of Arizona
It’s no secret that many of our TGS contributors reside in flyover country. Over the years, the NDSU Bison have taken their FCS Champion, FBS team whoopin’ football program on the road to ruin the seasons of a lot of our favorite teams. As news broke that the Arizona Wildcats scheduled our friends from North Dakota, Travis Halm tried to prepare the desert kitty fan base.
American guide to choosing a Premier League team
Soccer may not have reached the popularity level that American footy fans are still hoping it achieves, but as this piece ages, more and more people are searching for the Premier League team that they should be following. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, people turn to this guide to find out who they should be rooting for while they watch English soccer and house Bloody Mary’s before going about their weekend.
Why both the Eagles and Vikings made out like bandits in the Bradford trade
Last season didn’t end the way Vikings fans would have liked, but that doesn’t mean that trading Bradford was a mistake. As reports of Teddy Bridgewater’s recovery leak out of the Vikings’ camp, fans should be comforted knowing they have two extremely competent QB’s on the roster.
From AVerage to AV-Rage: Why the Avalanche should keep Sakic and Bednar
The Av’s were…how do you say…bad this past season, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be bad forever. Sacking Sakic and Bednar would delay the rebuilding process though, writes JT.
Current Events
Please forgive me as these events are no longer “current”, but that shouldn’t distract you from the greatness of these pieces. Sometimes current events can be uplifting, like your guide to Girl Scout Cookies. Other times they can be stressful, like the Presidential election – regardless of which side you were on. Alas, here are the four most visited current event pieces from the last 360 days.
Giving helped me cope with being broke at Christmas
Sarah Kelly Shannon opens up about the real spirit of Christmas, including her personal experiences on both sides of the gift giving exchange.
The consumer debt crisis is personal
These days, it’s extremely popular to talk about the federal debt. There are cries to “run the government’s budget like you would for a business or your own household!” Turns out, people struggle to do their own budgets, and the solution to the problem is entirely personal.
It’s no secret that Tami Dooley has not been Tomi Lahren’s biggest fan. But when times got rough for the embattled TV star, Tami put their differences aside and offered some friendly advice.
Chuck Grassley owes the American public an apology – and a refund
She may live in Texas now, but Kelby’s Iowa roots have always encouraged that a watchful eye be kept on the Iowa Senator. While he’s currently infamous for his airport interaction on AHCA (see below), Kelby wanted to make sure that he’s held responsible for his responsibility in the Supreme Court vacancy controversy.
I'm at the airport. We confronted @ChuckGrassley about Trumpcare and he walked away pissed. pic.twitter.com/7WJmTy5v0e
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 22, 2017
Culture
This was the most difficult category to narrow down. Shoot we’ve got pieces on weed, video games, and Nicolas Cage. Then you’ve got to throw in the more serious topics like body shaming, memorials, love stories, and literature. So I stuck to the numbers on this one to try and take some of the subjectivity out of these selections.
Mt. Rushmore Week: The Office Episodes
This is the most recent piece on any of these lists. Spencer Hughes was tabbed with the unenviable task of trying to choose the top four episodes of The Office for our Mt. Rushmore Week.
Catcalls are commonplace and it’s not OK
In the year 2017, you would think we, as a society, would have come further in the battle against sexual harassment. We haven’t.
I want a career and not a baby
As we grow up, we’re faced with the inevitable “when are you having babies?” question from our friends and relatives. The pressure to pump out children seems overwhelming at times. Jackie voices her displeasure with the question, and resents the idea that she should feel guilty for potentially not wanting to have children at all.
Britney Spears’ Lifetime movie cast is garbage
For those that know Dana Melcher, it’s common knowledge that you don’t disrespect The Holy Spearit. Unfortunately for Lifetime, they did just that when casting her biopic. Don’t worry, folks. She followed up and let you know that the actual biopic was just as awful as the cast.
Off-Season
Ah, yes. Off-Season. The assortment of random thoughts upon which TGS was founded. While some of these topics may seem off the wall, like ranking the holidays or weekly collections of internet frivolity, many are extremely important, such as whiskey rankings and gardening.
What the #!$@ is the big deal about swear words
Sometimes Nicole just wants to swear and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It shouldn’t bother you or anyone else either.
Over the last couple years, the entertainment community has lost a number of meaningful figures. Prince may be one of, if not THE most meaningful.
One of the great things about The Tailgate Society is the diversity of the contributors and their locales. Many of us have been barbecuing for years, but how many of you have tried smoking some meat Texas style? Brandon offers some helpful hints if you’re brave enough to give it a shot.
It took us more than 400 articles to get to an issue that really dealt with our namesake. What’s a tailgate without some cornhole? Our hope is that none of you have to observe that reality in the coming years. We hope that you make some awesome cornhole sets that are customized to your liking with this helpful guide.
Podcasts
Before this beautiful website ever existed, there was an independent podcast that brought three gentlemen close. That podcast blossomed into a dot com, and now this website serves as the host for nine different podcasts. The Tailgate Society Network features podcasts about almost every topic, so you’re sure to find one that piques your interests. Below are some of our most popular episodes, but we’d like to believe the best is yet to come.
Drunk Dialing 1.04: Things get spooky
Drunk Dialing is the largest podcast in the TGS Family, largely because you, the listeners, are the focus of the show. In this episode, the hosts and guests reminisce on some real like spooky moments that gave Ted the willies for days.
Well, Actually 1.04: What do we do now?
The days and weeks leading up to the election gave the ladies of Well, Actually plenty to talk and vent about. In this episode, Arnold joins Tami and Nicole to discuss what Americans’ next course of action should be following the election of Donald Trump.
TGS Pro Weekly 1.08: The World Series and much more
The World Series was big time for TGS Pro Weekly. While the most notable moment may have been Ted’s on air adventure during game seven, the preview show takes the cake. Fantasy football was in full swing, Ted’s prediction came true and some ESPN bashing wrap up an epic episode.
Shop Talk 1.13: Beautiful Canvas w/ Ryan Lindsay!
Shop Talk is one of the newer podcasts in the TGS family, covering comics, video games, movies, Marvel, DC, anime and all sorts of other good stuff. In their short time on air, they’ve secured some great interviews, including this one with Ryan Lindsay – writer and creator of Beautiful Canvas.
We look forward to bringing our audience more great content over the next year! If you have submissions for pieces that you think should have made our Mt. Rushmore, please let us know in the comments or on Twitter and Facebook.