Massive Introduction: Grant Miller

Editor’s note: As Massive Report expands its staff, we will introduce each new member by having them write a little something about themselves to help the MR community get to know them. Who are they? What’s their soccer background? How long have they been a fan of the Crew? Whatever they want to share to introduce themselves to our great and loyal readers. Today we introduce Grant Miller.

Hello, Massive Report! I’m Grant Miller, a new writer here for the 2022 season. Fans of the Columbus Crew and the Columbus Blue Jackets may have read my writing online over the past few years. I am overjoyed to join the Massive Report squad!

To be frank, I never played soccer growing up or had an interest in it at all really. Like many young boys growing up in Western Ohio, my heart was set on playing American football.

One particular summer, after returning home from morning American football practice, I flipped on my TV to see Brian McBride’s bloody face and watched the United States Men’s National Soccer Team gut out a tie with Italy. Subsequently, I was hooked.

From that moment on, my passion for soccer never slowed down. It was around this time my local team happened to get really, really, really good, all thanks to Guillermo Barros Schelotto. If you are reading this, you know what he means to the Crew. But for me personally, Schelotto embodies everything that makes soccer “the beautiful game.”

If the 2006 World Cup introduced me to soccer then the 2008 Eastern Conference Final introduced me to Crew soccer. Everything about that game between the Black & Gold and the Chicago Fire was magnificent. The Nordecke, Chad Marshall, Frankie Hejduk and, of course, Schelotto.

Seasons change and trophies become less prevalent. I grew up and moved around, inside and outside of Ohio, but one thing kept bringing me back to Columbus, the Crew.

I find this team to be so much more than a franchise in a single-entity soccer league that is much younger than myself. To steal a phrase from FC Barcelona, to me, it is “Mes que un club” (“More than a club”).

The Crew is countless afternoons tailgating in bad weather at the fairgrounds. It is acquaintances that become friends and friends that become family. Columbus is Save The Crew and it is winning the MLS Cup amidst one of the worst years of our lives.

I hope my perspective can enrich you and your experience of following this team week in and week out. I love this team and even more, I love writing about them. Is there anything more romantic?

Here’s to a new season of memories shared and goals scored.