Happy New Year, friends. I hope this note finds you happy, healthy, and ready for AFF’s annual switchover to #AsForLax coverage, which will start in just a few weeks.

I don’t know if you’ve ever considered supporting AFF or another creator on Patreon, but if you’re wondering, we absolutely could not do what we do without patron support. AFF makes about half of its revenue from sponsors and about half from our patrons. All things considered, we think this is about where we need to be. If we can keep our support mix close to 50/50, we should be okay even if we hit some sponsor and/or audience turbulence.

If you’re wondering, it costs a few thousand dollars a year to run AFF. We rent server space from an Internet service provider, own our domain (AsForFootball.Com), use subscription versions of StreamYard and Podcastle.AI to record, broadcast, and edit our shows, and use podcasting platform Castos to distribute our audio content. We also have occasional equipment and/or marketing costs, and on top of all of this, I feel like we need to pay our contributors at least *something*. First, because we don’t want to exploit anyone, even voluntarily, and more importantly, because we need them to produce quality content on a deadline. 

Writing quality matters. This remains true both for you as readers and for me as the Editor, who has to ultimately make sure that everything we post meets a certain standard of readability. We have to hit that standard while ensuring that our content drops in time to matter. When we started this, a lot of our guys were single or married without kids. Now, though, we’ve all got families. Our contributors’ time has increased a lot in value — to them! 

However, we still need them to have their stuff ready on *our* timeline. 

This does not happen by accident.

I often think of Patreon as a “pay what you want” subscription model. With this in mind, if you think AFF’s content is worth something, you should at least *consider* supporting us. That’s the theory. We try to give our patrons something in exchange for their support, and patrons of our Firstie Club have certainly told us that they really like having a private space where they can discuss the team and college football generally that’s well away from prying eyes. In truth, though, we make EVERYTHING for our patrons, and the rest of our audience basically free-rides on their subscription dollars. Granted, we’re never gonna charge for the vast majority of our stuff. We’re grateful that you give us your time and attention regardless. However, as writers, we always write to a target audience, and our patrons make up that primary audience. When we record, we record to that same target audience. That’s our reality.

Truly an electric game, and we're just getting this season started! https://t.co/1qpGESlEaB

— Lynn Fern (@lynnfernphotog) December 30, 2025

We brought on Lynn Fern as a photography partner this year, and I worry about her time quite a lot. Lynn has added enormously to our team, enabling us to both raise our public profile and execute a bunch of cool new ideas. But she also does photography professionally where the rest of us have day jobs. With that in mind, I know that we cannot pay Lynn what her time is worth. This is why Lynn’s Photobooks go behind the paywall on Patreon. She’s a working mother with a kid about to go to college. I’ll also note that Lynn makes quite a bit of her income from taking Firstie Photos at West Point. She takes these mostly for athletes because she meets the athletes out at the games she covers, but she’s hardly exclusive. If you want to support Lynn’s work, you can book a photo session with her and get pics that you’ll treasure for the rest of your life.

If you absolutely cannot abide the idea of paying for something that you can get for free, you can also support AFF via our merch store. We set that up before football season at FourthWall.Com. Fourthwall is mostly geared towards YouTubers and/or Instagram influencers who don’t have their own websites, but they’ve been great for us because they print and ship on demand. Our various t-shirts have been popular this season, as have our soft beer koozies, patches, and coffee mugs. They even offer free shipping on orders over $75.

Friends, we know that everyone has reached a different stage in their personal journey. We don’t need anyone to run up their credit card bill or go into hock to support As For Football. However, if you like what we do, and you want us to keep doing it and to find ways to continue improving, consider supporting us. 

We truly couldn’t do this without you.

Thanks. And again, have a happy, healthy, and productive New Year.

–Dan