ESPN HQ in Bristol has 3 primary attributes: piercing cold, intimidating geese, and employees. Instead of covering my intense experiences with the former two, I'd like to talk about the latter and the cordiality and friendliness of the ESPN.com team. During my time in Bristol I met literally tens of people - many of whom I'd interviewed with the better part of a year ago. Some were famous (lookin at you Skip Bayless). Some were not (lookin at you Pat Alreth). Regardless, however, of their notoriety I definitely have a keener sense of how the .com group fits together as whole, including how .com fits under its parent group WDIG.

I met the majority of the staff of two major groups in Bristol: fantasy and the main site. After talking with Jaime Stella and Dave Weiner - the respective managers of these groups - and the producers and engineers they oversee I determined several points of integration with each. With the main site we could do a better job of promoting widgets, perhaps displaying actual widgets on index pages or adding a widget tab to player cards. With fantasy we should investigate the creation of an open social application so that users could display their fantasy sports data (rosters, results, etc.) on their favorite social networking sites.

Perhaps more important than all of that was my introduction to the glory, majesty, and brutality of Gator. Gator is a miracle. Created by Norse monks in the 12th century, it's a game that combines the best of soccer and handball in a chaotic and incomprehensible melee replete with bruised shins, pulled groins, and Cody throwdowns. Highlights include APs frisbee-sized bruise, my first Gator goal - a no-look, fake pass, leaping toss of epic might, and Schmidty admitting he's moving to Alabama. Roll Tide!

In conclusion,

Make way for geese.