Editorial Opinion – May 2025

There I was sitting on a park bench getting a little Vitamin D sunshine during a lunch break at the tail end of another magazine deadline. 

Survived another one. Deadline week causes a bit of angst and stress in my house.  

Not that any of y’all are counting, and neither was I, but a former coworker who might soon be rejoining the GON team did some quick math the other day and figured I’d now had a hand in making 663 magazine issues since starting this journey in March of 1989. That 663 number is counting the Alabama Outdoor News and GONetworker days, and the early days of GON when we published twice a month. Anyone who remembers those tabloid-style issues is officially an OG GONer… Original Gangster.

Sitting there, enjoying the sun and some outside time, a grown man passed by walking—more accurately being walked by—a big dog. Based on the dog’s color, I’m guessing it was one of the newly crafted breedings of a golden retriever and a poodle—Golden Doodle. If you’ve spent much time around this trendy breed, some of ’em can be just a bit of a handful. This particular Doodle had that handful gene. It wore a chest harness the leash was attached to—not a sign of a well-behaved pup. The man and his fortified leash were no match for the dog when it spotted the goose.

Watching that man try to hang on to that leash and hold back the determined dog, I thought of Steve Burch, the numeral uno OG of GON OGs. 

I’m speaking for Steve—and he might have a different opinion, but this is my opinion column for now. Steve Burch, the man who started GON in 1987, cared about sportsmen like no other I’ve known. When he got a whiff of sportsmen being slighted, wronged, overlooked, or heaven forbid our license-fee money misused, Steve was like that Doodle when it spotted the goose. Or imagine the most hoity-toity gathering of blue-bloods, dressed to the nines, holding their crystal glassware with pinkies extended, and in bursts a wild bucking bronco. And doing their best to hold back the reins were me and Brad Bailey and Brad Gill and Linsday Thomas and others who wore the editorial hats at GON over the years. 

Steve was a thread hunter, and he wasn’t afraid to pull a thread if he found one. 

Think of the entirety of Georgia hunting and fishing encased in a tightly woven shroud, a hoity-toity party of businesses and government agencies and organizations that were funded and existed solely because of sportsmen, those of us who have a passion for hunting, fishing and the outdoors. An outdoor shroud created by the money generated from a love of hunting and fishing by men like my father and yours. Steve Burch and GON were a part of that shroud, but at the same time we were taking a slow walk around it, looking closely. Anyone who cares to look close enough can find a loose thread in the shroud. Few dare to pull on that thread. When it came to protecting sportsmen and our money, Steve cared enough and had the courage.

About a year ago, Steve and his wife Emma, Mike Rhodes and myself, who collectively owned the business, found ourselves with an unsolicited, unplanned opportunity to pass the torch. Steve and Emma had been fully retired from GON for a while now, and Mike and I were getting close. 

But before any serious discussions even began about passing that torch, there was one requirement—that the OGs could make the handoff with complete confidence and assurance that GON would be around long after we are gone—no pun intended.

There are now resources being dedicated, long-needed upgrades being deployed—talents and skills and ideas that the OGs simply didn’t have the bandwidth for. There are already new faces at GON, and more are soon to join the team. 

Regardless of what names appear on the pages of GON or who carries the torch, one constant will always remain. This is your magazine. The men and women who love the outdoors, y’all are the fuel that keeps the torch burning, regardless of who is carrying it.