Winner, 2016 College Journalist of the Year - Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Chapter.
Multi-faceted approach to writing that covers everything from tone to narrative to desired outcome
SEO-focused, personality-driven content
Written content intended to easily translate and be usable for other mediums, from social media to video to advertising campaigns
Background in journalism provides experience in well-researched, informative but entertaining writing
Fast-paced, meticulous work ethic that ensures all bases covered and all avenues explored
Over 2500 published articles
A few major events I’ve covered: 2021/2019 Super Bowl, 2020-2023 Stanley Cup, 2012 NCAA Baseball Super Regional, 2013 BCS National Championship, 2014 College Football Playoff, 2015 Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, 2016 Orange Bowl, 2017 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Governors Ball Music Festival, FORM Music Festival, BUKU Music Festival, Okeechobee Music Festival, Shaky Knees Music Festival, III Points Music Festival, Lollapalooza Music Festival
Bylines
Here are the links to my CNN, Complex, FLOOD, Bleacher Report, SB Nation, and FSView author pages. If you'd like to see anything specific, please, definitely feel free to reach out.
Selected Works
CNN
CNN World Sport: 25 Years Project
As part of CNN World Sport’s 25th year on air, I helped research and compile elements 25 significant events from the show’s coverage, from the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the 2016 Chicago Cubs, and then wrote accompanying short pieces for when they were placed on digital.
La Liga games in the US 'not fair for anyone'
Enrique Bonilla, president of Mexico's top-flight football division Liga MX, has told CNN Sport that he is against the proposed decision to host a La Liga game in the United States or Canada.
Gabriel Landeskog: From Stockholm to NHL stardom
Seven years into his NHL career, Landeskog has lived out more than a couple of of his childhood dreams, manifested through each of his years on the ice in Stockholm.
The future, he hopes, still holds a few more to come.
Complex
Lil Wayne is the Forefather of Modern Rap
With the launch of iTunes in 2003 and the contemporaneous rise of peer-to-peer clients like LimeWire, listeners were liberated from being required to purchase full albums to get the music they wanted, instituting not only a new thought process in consuming music, but in purchasing it as well. This was good for fans, but not necessarily for artists, at least when it came to album sales. From 2000-2005, just 10 albums (including three rap records) managed to sell over a million copies in a week.
After 2005, no artist was able to achieve that feat—until Tha Carter III’s release in 2008. The album sold 1,005,545 copies in its first week. Following Wayne’s success, a-million-in-one-week record sales became commonplace again, occurring in six of the nine years after the album came out, and proving that people still cared about albums in the midst of the presumed demise of the music industry.
The Best Chance the Rapper Features
As he continues work on the follow-up to 2016’s Coloring Book, Chance has been keeping himself relevant by appearing on other artist’s tracks, most recently on Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy. In the world of rap, an artist’s success can be measured, at least partially, by the quantity and quality of their guest appearances on others’ tracks. While we’re still waiting for the long-rumored collaboration album between himself and Childish Gambino, Chance’s guest verse catalogue remains varied and deep, spanning across several genres with a wide range of artists.
He’s teamed up with megastars like Justin Bieber and Kanye West, but he’s also popped up on tracks with everybody from friends to childhood idols, bringing his own unique style and flair to each to further establish his own lane in popular music. He’s touched on everything from lost love to Gucci belt-assisted booty rubs, advocated against both drunk driving and Xanax usage, and taken time to twice mention his affinity for having just a mattress and no bed frame. He’s shown off varied flows, rhythms, contributions, and topic matters, but throughout it all, carried with him the same energy he’d bring to his own music.
Flood Magazine
The Radical Earnestness, and Subtle Jubilation, of FORM Arcosanti
Attendees were given the opportunity to continuously witness intimate performances enacted out in an environment that would be impossible to replicate at any other venue in America—a fact FORM is well aware of. In its welcoming packet, a quote from Stein mentions that the event doesn’t “happen in a converted football stadium, nor in a series of darkened nightclubs or elite galleries; it is not out on an unforgiving desert plain, or a converted farmer’s field. It occurs, as if by magic, in an architectural community designed especially for events like this.”
Here, nestled in the community that allegedly inspired the design of Star Wars’ Tatooine, creative experiences are constant and consistent, spaced out perfectly throughout the day to not only avoid overlaps, but to curate an aesthetic for those in attendance. Previous iterations of FORM required an application to attend, and even without it, the creative spirit flowing from person to person was still retained. At any moment, you could turn your head and see somebody drawing, or painting, or dancing, or, as noted by Tennyson artist Tess Pretty, absolutely shredding on a typewriter.
Future Neo-Noir: Three Miami Nights of III Points 2017
Nestled in the heart of the city of Miami sits Wynwood, an arts district featuring eateries, boutiques, and elaborately graffitied walls. A far cry from the typical white-sand and all-night-party image associated with Miami, it was here that III Points, born in 2013, made its presence felt.
With the majority of other festivals opting to be part of the summer experience, III Points exists in a special vacuum that allows them to be more creative with its scheduling. There are only so many variations that can exist when the same artists are touring or promoting releases, and so lineups start to blend and mirror.
While boasting three unique headliners (out of Gorillaz, Nicholas Jaar and The xx, only the third had played a festival over the summer), the festival also showcased a variety of local talent, not only on the stage but around the festival. Interactive art pieces and galleries set the aesthetic and tone for the festival, effectively using the modernism of the art to elicit a futuristic vibe.
Bleacher Report
Florida State Football: Blueprint for FSU to Reach BCS Title Game
We just experienced a weekend of football where not one team looked like a solid national championship contender. Alabama and Oregon, though victorious, looked flawed at times against their respective opponents. Texas A&M gashed the Tide's defense for the most passing yards 'Bama has given up since 2001, and Tennessee had an early lead against a way more talented Ducks team.
In this final year of the BCS, mayhem is to be expected. Save for a few minor upsets, much has been the standard as we enter into Week 3, which only means one thing: Craziness is approaching.
Since insanity is expected, then is it crazy to make an out-of-left-field statement?
One like, say, Florida State has a legitimate shot to make the national championship in Pasadena.
Florida State's Defense Makes SEC Teams Jealous with Dominant Performance
On a day when all the SEC powers, with the exception of Alabama, lost, Florida State solidified itself as a national title contender through shutdown, lights-out defense.
Yes, the offense was phenomenal, putting up 51 points on the No. 3 team in the nation, but Florida State's defense also held the Tigers to seven points, unless you want to count a garbage-time score by Clemson. It was the defense, which was doubted even after its dominance of Maryland, that made the 'Noles look like they could beat anybody in the nation.
Florida State forced a single-game-high three turnovers, for both itself and for Clemson. Senior defensive back Lamarcus Joyner may have played the best game of his career, and sophomore Ronald Darby’s second-half interception gave FSU its most turnovers in a game since forcing four versus Florida in 2011.
SB Nation
One-on-one with FSU head coach Mike Norvell
“I think if you allow yourself to learn from the experiences that you’ve had, and really, apply the lessons that were learned, I mean, that’s, it’s an opportunity for growth for everyone.”
It’s been said many times, many ways, but the truth remains — Mike Norvell’s 2020 was hard.
A first-year head coach already has so much to deal with, from roster turnover to relationship building to system install to adjusting to a new city. Add an unprecedented global pandemic and social strife into the mix and that’s a recipe for stress.
“It was a challenging year in all aspects, not only for people that are playing in college athletics but for people that are just living in normal day to day lives.”
Eyes on the Enemy: Florida State rival rundown
Weekly column for Tomahawk Nation roasting the week in news for FSU's rivals
So…..after starting off the season 0-2, this column should naturally be more humble, right?
*Supa Hot Fire voice* SIKE THAT’S THE WRONG NUMBER
We all know that the best way to make our hollow existences more whole, and whatever, is to needlessly get in petty remarks about the situations currently unfolding at rival schools.
So let’s fill this terrible, terrible void!
The top 100 FSU football plays: No. 83— Dalvin Cook shatters Louisville’s upset dreams
The Cardinals, in their first year (for the second time) under Bobby Petrino, launched a drive of their own, with a 51-yard DeVante Parker catch setting up a few Michael Dyer runs, one of which being good enough for a touchdown.
With 3:46 left in the game, the eyes of a nation weary from a 24-game long winning streak turned lustfully towards Papa John’s stadium, hopeful that the night before Halloween would bring some early treats.
And then Dalvin Cook pooped all over their hearts.
Reflecting back on the Buccaneers’ historic, untouchable losing streak
It’s such an impressive feat of failure that it gets mentioned whenever anybody is displaying true futility. In 2015, when the Philadelphia 76ers were degrading the game of basketball with the longest losing streak in professional sports, the Buccaneers were held as the standard of non-excellence that the 76ers looked to achieve. When it was all said and done, Philadelphia, who would finish 10-72 that season, only broke the Bucs’ record by one.
There were several closes loses here and there, but it’s not like the Bucs barely achieved mediocrity: they committed to it. The Bucs lost by an average of 16 points during the streak, and in just the 1976 season, Tampa Bay’s NFL debut, they were shut out five times. After it, then-head coach John McKay put it perfectly, saying to player who planned returning the next season to “stop by my office tomorrow and pick up some fake noses and mustaches so no one recognizes your sorry asses.”
FSView & Florida Flambeau
Undefeated, Unconquered, National Champions/Bright Lights, Big City
It’s the 3:45 flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Auburn fans and Florida State fans make up 80 percent of the passengers, all headed to the other side of the country to watch as their teams try to bring home the final crystal ball in college football history.
On your left is an Auburn fan, maybe 23 or 24. You give him a head nod, he grunts and turns up the music on his iPhone.
To your right sits a Seminole, who you learn graduated in 2002. This is his second time going to L.A., where he got “really, super drunk” last time he came out. His main concern at the moment is ensuring that his download of Tomahawk Nation’s latest podcast finishes before the flight takes off because he really wants to know what they’re going to say because, yeah, FSU has more talent and is undefeated, but still—you never know and you just need something interesting to listen to, you know?
Childish Gambino's Final Act
As he was performing "Stand Tall," the concluding track on Awaken, My Love, he turned to his band, taking it all in.Perhaps amplified from the blunt he partook in earlier in the night, he was visibly emotionally affected as the song he dedicated to his son Legend played out, chords and beautiful sounds accompanied by a choir to his right. He looked up at the screen playing his visuals, at that moment fast-moving stars creating the feeling of hurtling through space aboard a ship.
He shook off what appeared to be tears, and calmly walked off stage. The song continued to play out without its creator. Though he’d eventually return for his final few songs, the moment served as a preview for life without Childish Gambino.
Gone, but ever-present, influence visible without influencer.
The weird, wonderful world of Okeechobee
2016 Associated College Press, Best Multimedia Feature, 8th Place
It’s always strange to be the first of something.
This initial impression, this first glance, must set the stage for the future or the first could become the last. This is perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but the first annual Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival (March 3-6) had a big mission during its maiden voyage. If there are expectations, they must be lived up to and if there are none, you must establish them.
It’s hard to foster a community when the community doesn’t begin to be formed until the day the festival kicks off. Not to say that they were there in spite of it, but nobody was at Okeechobee simply because it was Okeechobee, they were there because of their friends, or the artists, or some other nefarious purpose. Festivals like Bonnaroo almost cultivate a cult-like following of people, which was evident by the way that those who came to Okeechobee in search of a similar environment talked about it.
How Chance the Rapper became mayor of Bonnaroo
“Chance? Chance is here? What? Where?”
If you were at Bonnaroo this last weekend, you either overheard this question in passing, or asked it several times yourself. Chance has, through sheer force of will, become as much a Bonnaroo tradition as being covered in a six-inch layer of dirt by the time you leave. Chance’s presence at the festival, motivated by an assignment to write a piece for a publication, became a major storyline without him even having a performance.
Whisperings and rumors of his potential appearances were a mainstay the whole weekend, aided on by Coloring Book posters and flags scattered through the campgrounds. People played connect the dots by seeing which artists he had songs with, who he was friends with, where he could work. J. Cole, who collaborated with Chance and The Social Experiment on Surf’s “Warm Enough,” was a popular (and obviously correct) guess, as was the festival’s always-excellent SuperJam*.
*unfortunately not, because amongst the songs covered were “Ring of Fire,” “Party in the USA,” and “Sexyback.” I want a Social Experiment cover of “Party in the USA” more than anything in the world now.
Goodbye, and thank you Perry much: An FSView farewell
I’ve traveled across America because of the FSView, going to places and seeing things I would have never gotten a chance to otherwise. I’ve eaten In-N-Out in not just one, but two states. I got to drive a golf cart around campus for two years, one time picking up a drunk Derrick Alexander after a football game. I sustained myself my sophomore year almost entirely on press meals. I got to drink at an open bar for the Rose Bowl, go to 7-Eleven and walk the streets of Los Angeles eating an entire pizza by myself. I managed to sneak into the background of a television shot more than one time, be it a postgame interview or A Season With. I sat in press boxes and got to pretend to be peers with sportswriters who I had looked up to forever, people like Holly Anderson and Spencer Hall and Andy Staples, and sometimes they actually talked to me and it blew my mind.
I’ve put a lot in this paper. Honestly, way, way more than I should’ve. Most people are smart, and wait to become workaholics until after college, but I dove headfirst into the FSView and never came out, because it was the perfect vehicle for me to do everything that I had ever wanted. I covered a national championship, I was on TV, I made dumb videos of me eating food, I went to concerts for free. I did everything I dreamt of, and more. Your expectations for yourself change drastically when you achieve what you thought were lifelong dreams at 19 years old.
Florida State's Strozier shooting, two years later
Every day, students walk in and out of Strozier Library, either blissfully unknowing or cognitively ignoring. There's nothing around that area that would immediately trigger a memory for those who know, or inform whomever doesn’t. If you weren't paying attention on Nov. 20, 2014, you might never know that on top of the stairwell, across from where a statue of Robert Strozier now sits, a body lay two years ago.
It was a nightmare that was over almost as soon as it started, a five-minute window of terror. Shots were fired at 12:25 a.m. Myron May was dead by 12:27 a.m. An FSU Alert was sent out at 12:30. Students gathered all over campus with impromptu vigils, news cameras from around the world stormed Florida State’s campus. For a school used to being in the news because of its football team, being thrust into the spotlight as the sudden face of a school shooting was jarring.
There's been -- understandably -- little done to keep constant reminders of the tragedy that befell Florida State's campus on that cold fall day.
Instead, the burden of remembering falls mainly on the students that were part, or set to become part, of the Florida State community.
America is embroiled in controversy right now. People from each side, yelling and screaming and fighting with no end in sight. There is no happiness that comes from it, only the glimpse of hope that you are in the right on the issue, that your emotions have come from sound and grounded logic and not rash assumptions.
This is what the Minions have done to us.
I have never been a hater, nor a supporter, of Minions. Despicable Me was a pretty good movie. Despicable Me 2 was alright. The Minions were moderately funny, though I never would have imagined that their takeover would be so imminent and overarching, spanning across all socioeconomic and generational groups. Everybody has an opinion on Minions, which is not something that is to be taken lightly. Everybody has an opinion on religion, everybody has a religion on politics, everybody has an opinion on Kanye West and now, everybody has plenty of thoughts on Minions.