Today's signing of Shemar Jean-Charles reminds me of a time not that long ago when non-splashy roster moves would go completely un-noticed.
Back in the mid 2000s, Seahawks.Net was affiliated with the Scout network and we actually made some attempt to be a real news organization. We had some talented and aspiring writers and a platform where our stories and posts would be broadcast over a greater network. It was the era of the internet where lots of folks had great ideas that didn't make any money and ultimately died on the proverbial vine.
I've always been a roster geek, so most of my job (aside from some historical stuff) was trying to keep track of the 'hard news' of roster moves. The difference back then was a lot of minor roster moves were never 'officially' reported as beat writers still had actual newspapers to write for who care more about columns on newsprint. Even Seahawks.Com wouldn't bother to report such moves. Instead, you'd be watching a pre-season game and see #46 out there and have no idea who that was. The daily transaction wire wasn't available to the public. The closest we got was when Mike Sando still wrote for the News Tribune and he'd do a better job than most on his blog page.
My favorite site to check on roster updates was (and still is) Ourlads.com. For many years they've kept NFL depth charts on their site and clearly they got the daily wire as players would come and go there that you wouldn't hear about other places. In 2003, tackle Chris Terry was suspended to start the season and the first place I knew about it was Ourlads. Nobody else said a peep, but there it was on Ourlads. It become 'officially' reported by the Seahawks a day later.
In April 2006, I saw safety Oliver Celestine pop up on Ourlads. Celestine was not what we would call an 'impact' signing, but he did play 13 games for the Seahawks that year as a backup and special teamer. In the history of Seahawks defenders, he doesn't warrant even a footnote. Raise your hand if you remember good old Oliver! But, seeing him show up on Ourlads, I made a 'post' in Scout reporting his signing.
The next day on KJR, David Locke was doing a news wrap and reported the signing and credited Ourlads (or maybe even Seahawks.net I can't really recall.). I emailed Locke and thanked him for the credit and he replied 'Of course! Happy to give credit'.
Almost 20 year later, I think we take for granted that we know all the nitty gritty (for those of us who care about such things). But years ago it was hard to know details of player moves and cap numbers and all that. I like to think that Seahawks.Net back then helped push the media world a bit forward to care about the little details.
Because otherwise, you might never know about Shemar Jean-Charles.
(Wakes up from his Coma)
