Olympic Sized Hangover

Let me just start off by saying how lame I am for sending this three days late: Very Lame.

But I really wanted to be present when I wrote this and I could just tell my focus was drifting toward the end of last week. That’s what happens when you reach a mountain top or finally achieve a goal, you‘re just like, “fuck, this is it huh?”

I talk about this a little bit in last week’s interview with Charles Austin, but I had wanted to do that interview we did for as long as I have been a journalist. There is really only one other instance where I remember something like that happening.

My senior year at Texas State, while I ran The University Star, the legendary Bill Wittliff died and for months, I wanted to do a big profile on him. So, after months and months of talking to and bugging different people, I finally got to talk to his wife Sally. But, it ended up being one of my worst interviews of all time.

It was well-researched, well-thought-out, planned and coordinated but quite frankly just sucked. She was not ready to talk, was on a time crunch, we had some connection issues to kick things off and I was burning through my best questions and getting single-word responses.

It was a nightmare.

Nothing came out of it, no article, no profile, no re-interview or follow-up, I was helpless and just mad at myself. Since that day, I have made it a point for that to never happen, I go out of my way to ensure a smooth interview and if the timing isn’t right, it isn’t right. I refuse to do anything like that ever again.

Just like with the Charles Austin deal, we tried to book that guy for literally four months to be on our episode 100. But it worked out last week and it was perfect. Sometimes you don’t get to choose when your stories run.

With success and with failures come hangovers.

I didn’t realize how much last season would like consume me with the show, freelancing and just like regular life. I wouldn't have it any other way, but I knew that this year, I wanted to do things differently to avoid the sort of workload and burnout I had last year.

I’ve rededicated myself to studying the blade (journalism & jiujitsu), been running like a madman (over 400 miles so far this year), just signed a new TV deal that keeps me in San Antonio for two more years and worked on myself a lot mental health wise.

If you’re not right, nothing else will be. So, I had to make some changes in the off-season. I’m more prepared to cover football this year than I ever have been to cover anything else in my career so far.

Over the next few weeks we have a series of interviews I really think you all will enjoy that continue to tell the story, history and dreams of this team. I can’t wait for you to hear them all.

Unrelated: Are you guys down for a college pick ‘em?

Let me know, I’ll throw something together on ESPN.

Onto the next one!

Tap into last week’s episode: https://linktr.ee/SquarinPod

Please help us get to 1,000 followers on X ahead of kickoff! tell a friend to tell a friend!