About a week ago when T-Mill asked me to come over to the good old site of Hammer and Rails and be a new writer I had a feeling my will was about to cave. I was going to sell out (though I'm not getting paid) and come to the big corporate site. I mean if the guys at Boiled Sports can sell out and go to a big blogging network why can't I go from independent to corporate shill? For those of you that don't know for the last four years or so I've been the head (and sometimes only) writer over at Jumbo Heroes. There I wrote basically the same sort of stuff that Travis writes here but with much more style and class. I tend to stay away from recruiting because quite frankly I don't know what I'm talking about and you all don't deserve to see some idiot ranting about something they don't understand. You've got T-Mill for that! ZING! Like a young high school girl I held out against T-Mill's overtures for a time but in the end it was just too much and I decided it was time to pull the trigger and come over to the machine. So this is sort of my welcome to the machine moment. So you're probably all wondering who is this guy and why in the world would I care what he has to say. To that I would say that's awfully rude of you I mean we just met.
Like a lot of you I went to Purdue and loved every second of it. I began my Purdue career in 2004 the year of Kyle Orton and Gene Keady's retirement tour when the basketball team went 7-21. I left in 2010 with both a bachelor's and master's degree and a job in the Lafayette area that allowed me to stay around and continue to go to games. Sadly in March I moved out to the Northern Virginia area and now rely on my nice television to watch the games. Enough about the sad real world life all of us lead. Let's focus on college! While I was at Purdue I was VP of the Paint Crew and helped spearhead the transition to general admission seating with the rest of the officer board at the time. That was a hectic experience that I'll never forget. I went to "The Fumble" game and was actually first in line at College Gameday after sleeping outside in a tent the night before. I lived through all the ACL tears and came out stronger on the other side. During my six years at Purdue, hey man it was two degrees don't get mouthy, I spent two years as an intern in the Purdue Athletics Promotions and Marketing department and another two as a graduate assistant. In this role you might've seen me narrating the halftime shows at Purdue soccer, working tables at soccer or swimming and diving or tennis. I also was on the field for each football game for two seasons including one game I even got to work the horn. For a sports junkie like me it was hard to beat. One of the highlights for me was being able to lead the effort of a doubleheader in basketball. The head honchos were out of town on business so I was in charge and it's an experience I'll never forget. All that's all well and good but what can you expect from me as a writer?
As a writer I like to compare myself to Bill Simmons. What exactly do I mean by that? I mean I think I'm better than everyone else, I'm long winded, and to be quite honest my best years are probably behind me. I'll also never shy away from using four words when two will do just fine. You'll find me writing similar things to what T-Mill writes on here but I'll try to add my own spin on things and make things a little better around here. That's what I get paid the big bucks for, actually boss I was hoping to talk to you about that since you don't have my direct deposit information yet. If you followed Jumbo Heroes in the past you'll know that I occasionally would throw a shot across the bow at Travis when I thought he wrote something stupid including most recently when he wrote the article about leaving the conference. I stand by my article I wrote saying it was absurd and I think Travis respects my opinion otherwise he wouldn't have asked me to come over to the dark side. I'm gonna do my best to give you my unvarnished opinions here and I won't hesitate to let Travis know if he's getting too big for his britches. If you want to follow me on twitter, and I recommend you do, you can find me @jumboheroes. I know you all are very active during game threads on here but I'll probably keep away from those as I prefer twitter during games. I will do my best to respond and stay active in the comments though should things heat up and we go into full nerd rage or something. I'll be there for that. To sum up I'm very happy to be joining the staff and I hope I can contribute something of value to your fandom and mine.