from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

As a sportswriter for almost 40 years now, I’ve always been intrigued by motivation.

What makes people do what they do? It’s a basic but essential question, asked by psychologists and poets and even people who try to produce NHL columns every week. Often I’ve found, if you can plumb down deep enough into the depths of an athlete’s motivation, you usually unearth a pretty good story.

But this week I had the tables turned on me. As I consulted people in my inner circle about joining The Athletic, suddenly they were asking me questions about my motivation. Collectively, they all understood I had a fabulous job already, writing a column for The Globe and Mail.

So why was I prepared to exchange that for life at a startup?

Wasn’t that a little risky?

And my answer was, yes – it was. And guess what? That’s what made it all the more attractive.

All of us who’ve made a similar leap of faith in the past weeks and months firmly believe The Athletic is the future. Just think of all the quality writers who’ve jumped on board in markets across Canada and the United States. It’s an all-star team.

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