Hello and welcome

It was halftime of the 2025 Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London and I noticed a woman a bit older than me, sitting down, crying her eyes out.

I went over to check on her. After all, Newcastle — the team I’ve supported since the late 1990s — had taken the lead on a Dan Burn goal before halftime and was 45 minutes from its first trophy since 1969.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

“NO!” she replied. “I’M (EXPLETIVE) MYSELF THAT THIS COULD HAPPEN!”

Now that is a fan. And when Newcastle scored to go up 2-0 in the second half, we hugged. And when they won 2-1, and my first time seeing Newcastle in person, in a non-friendly match, happened to be the type of game so many other fans dreamed of attending for decades, we were all crying.

That feeling is why I’m here: To do the types of stories that I’ve done for years, only on a new platform.

I want to write stories and bring subjects to life that will make subscribers here feel smarter and more informed. What that means is this: I’m writing this newsletter for people like you.

I’ve long been taking people behind the scenes of the sports industry, from youth sports to NASCAR, from the Olympics to women’s basketball. It’s about the scenes of these events and the people who organize them, promote them, host them, cheer at them.

Seemingly everywhere people turn, there nowadays is an algorithm telling them what to read. Here, I’m going to let my writing do the talking and let personal recommendations, based off my reputation and connections, speak for themselves. That’s how you can trust that my work is worth your time.

I hope that you’ll subscribe, support this work and tell your connections to do the same. This will be built on stories about people that I think are interesting and by suggestions from you, the reader, whose input I will trust and consider at each turn.

Let’s have some fun … together. As my favorite band, Oasis, sang during its reunion tour last summer with its opening song: “Hello, Hello — it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back.”