To most, my intensity and affection towards following and analyzing sports is fascinating, and in most cases, seems over the top. To me, I couldn’t imagine life any other way. Let me give you some context. When I was six years old, while most kids were watching cartoons and playing with Legos, I was glued to ESPN. From listening to Mike and Mike chop it up every morning on the way to school with my dad. To becoming infatuated with the spirited debate, led by the Godfather of debate, Skip Bayless. Religiously watching him passionately debate, and defeat, whatever or whoever was sitting across from him, defending his thoughts and opinions (no matter how crazy) at all costs. Ultimately, my life began to revolve around sports at a very young age. And although I played 3 sports (Football, Basketball, and Baseball) throughout my life, I always found myself enjoying watching, creating opinions on, and talking about sports a little bit more. Although one thing is forsure- playing those sports throughout my life created the intense competitive nature I have about myself, in which I utilize in displaying and articulating my sports opinions in debate. And this piece will take you through what lead me to creating this blog. And why no matter if I have 5, 500 or 50,000 people reading my work, I will have the same passion, energy and drive to write and talk about sports and the opinions/theories I create upon my analysis.
When I was in the 6th grade, while most kids were goofing off or doing homework in study hall, I was compiling a list of my top 50 NBA players of all time. In 8th grade, when we did an english project about what we wanted to do/be when we were older, most kids said they wanted to be a cop, firefighter, rocket scientists, professional athlete, ect. Ya know, what most 12 year old kids aspire to be. Not me. I did a 15 slide power point about how I wanted to be a sports journalist/ analyst. I had broken down where I wanted to go to college, how I wanted to start at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, move to the Akron Beacon journal, work my way into a larger market news outlet like Chicago or New York, to ultimately end up at my dream destination like all the analysts I grew up admiring: ESPN. From the aforementioned Skip, to the likes of Stuart Scott, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Berman, and Chris Broussard- to name a few, watching these guys made working at ESPN my biggest dream. But just like the kid who wanted to be an Astronaut, life isn’t that simple or easy. And so, as I’ve gone from that 12 year old kid to a 20 year old college student majoring in Finance and Analytics , I’ve learned two things. 1.) That working for ESPN isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and working there was never really my true dream. And 2.) That I love money. And journalism majors just simply don’t make enough money out of college to warrant me investing tens of thousands of dollars on four years of college to obtain that degree. However, my love for sports and analyzing sports hasn’t faded in the slightest. Which is why I realized over the years that my true dream was never to work at ESPN, but it was the idea that I could watch, analyze, and talk about sports and my sports opinions as a career. ESPN just happened to be the top dog, and pinnacle of sports coverage at the time. Which is why I’ve circled back and acknowledge the fact that I can chase my true dream by sitting at home as a mere hobby. Noticing that in the day and age of the online world, and the ever-growing frenzy that is online media, there really is no excuse to not chase my true dream. And with that, this opening post comes to a close. I’m not completely sure where I will go from here, or how far Read Between The Lines will go. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll end up at the debate desk opposite Skip.
Read Between The Lines 