Eighteen months ago, I went searching for a Facebook fan page for Earl Campbell, famed running back for Bum Phillips’ next year we’re gonna kick the sumbitch in luv ya blue era Houston Oilers.
Brand new to fb, when I couldn’t find one, I thought I was doing it wrong. How could Keith Sweat have a page, but not Earl Campbell? With a little cubicle-time to kill, once I figured out what needed to be done, I violated all kinds of terms and conditions by starting the page myself. Downloaded a photo of Earl in his Oilers uniform (who dey is right) and sent Q an invite. For weeks, Mr. Campbell had all of two fans until some guy #3 joined, exciting me to no end.
I think the page is up to nearly 7,000 fans now. Pretty good for an athlete who retired right after most facebookers were born and who doesn’t star in an Internet sex tape. Earl’s son is now an admin, bringing legitimacy to the page—I’m no longer running from the EULA police—but I am the main one writing the statuses and keeping the fans updated on Earl’s whereabouts. I enjoy it most of the time, especially when the son surprises me with a thank you note or phone call. Turns out his dad loves the page and why wouldn’t he? I would love it, too, if I could read all day stuff like YOU ARE THE BEST OF ALL TIMES MR CAMPBELL CAN YOU SEND ME A SIGNED GAMEBALL???
People do get confused, and there is an intermittent yet heated debate over whether this is “really” Earl Campbell, even though I’ve written all over the page that it’s written by three admins. I’ve even set the disclaimer as the default landing page for when anyone but an admin visits the site. Each and every time you check the page, there it is: written by admins, read by Earl.
Yet, this week:
Does Earl approve all the things written on this page? I seriously doubt Earl would ask for volunteers to have this facebook page tatoo’d to their arm live on Miami Ink. Who writes this page?
See, well, I was joking a few months back when the page hit 2,500 and I registered facebook.com/TheTylerRose as the page URL that someone should volunteer to get the URL tattooed on his arm during a Miami Ink taping. And, yup, three seconds later, someone volunteered. I had to send the poor guy a message that it was a joke. A joke, I tell you. How could it have been anything else? But I get it: people want to believe.
Fast forward to today: I replied to the above demand with a copy of the disclaimer that the woman would have skipped over in order to get to the comment page to write it. I told her: it’s all in good fun. Her reply to my reply:
Point taken. Thank you for responding. I have nothing but admiration for Earl too, but I put God first in my life and still I am not going to have God’s facebook page tatoo’s on my arm. lol Thanks for all the hard work keeping us morons informed on our legend.
Annnnd, you are welcome.
AWESOME.
Are you being ironic in your all caps?
Of course! But it is really cool that you’ve got a popular fan page on Facebook. I wouldn’t know what to make a fan page of to entertain myself like that.