The @SPORTSbyBROOKS Twitter account sent out its first tweet in five years earlier today.
From one of my favorite movies. Love this scene. pic.twitter.com/loZWD49Ngv
— SPORTSbyBROOKS (@SPORTSbyBROOKS) September 26, 2018
Sports by Brooks was one of the internet’s first successful fan blogs. In 2001, blogger Brooks Melchoir’s site featured sports and entertainment news interspersed with gossip and highly sexualized photos of models and actresses. The site spent the next decade gaining a large, dedicated following. By the end of 2012 though, the site was no longer being updated and all Sports by Brooks content was reserved for its Twitter feed.
By April of 2013, the Twitter feed was no longer focused on sports, as Sean Keeley explained at Awful Announcing.
The last time it posted about sports was around April 2013 and subsequent tweets between then and November 2013 seemed to change between conspiracy theories, software talk, and armed forces veteran appreciation.
Jeff Pearlman wrote a piece for Bleacher Report in 2016 about Sports by Brooks and Melchior’s disappearance from the public eye. He would later tweet that his editor had decided not to run the piece.
I wrote the piece. Then decided it shouldn’t run. One shouldn’t always find people if they wish not to be found. https://t.co/GaweIFqgQA
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) June 20, 2016
In October of that year Pearlman told Mannix that Melchior’s story is one involving some serious mental health concerns and his editor didn’t feel right about running it. Pearlman said that he never found Melchior himself, just had found out what had become of him, and he agreed that not running the piece was the right decision.
The internet, particularly sportswriters and sports fans have never lost their affinity for Sports by Brooks, as evidenced by the people tweeting about their excitement to see new content on the Twitter feed. As for what it means though, that remains to be seen. The fact that @SPORTSbyBROOKS tweeted a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory of the titular character emerging from his factory might suggest a comeback of sorts, but even if that is the case, it remains to be seen if Melchior himself is involved or if only the brand will be revived. There is also the chance that this is just an internet hoax or hacking situation.
