ESPN / ESPN Boston

On Nov. 30, 2009, Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation making my home state, Massachusetts, the 42nd in the country to allow mixed martial arts. A freelance writer at the time, I saw an opportunity. I knew this would be a big deal for the sport’s top organization, the UFC, given the Boston roots of its president, Dana White. So I contacted ESPNBoston.com and pitched a Boston-centric feature on White, which ran in December 2009 and led to me getting the call the following August to cover UFC 118 — the fight promotion’s first event in Boston.

What I most remember about that night at TD Garden was that the UFC’s PR folks stuck me up in the auxiliary press box, the one used for hockey games. From way up there, the octagonal cage looked like a matchbox, the fighters like little black belt ants. Luckily for ESPN Boston readers, I snuck down to a seat near cageside so I could see what was going on.

After that, ESPN Boston asked me to cover Boston College football — who would have suspected it would come to this for a BU boy? — and I did so for one season before moving on. Before I left the ESPN Boston gig, however, I had the opportunity to write a very fun piece in which I chose the five greatest college athletes in Boston history. (Even though he did play a season of soccer at BU, Jeff Wagenheim was not among them.)

Little did I know I was not done with ESPN. In 2016 I joined the company, first as an editor on the blog team, then as a combat sports editor. Eventually, I ended up splitting my time between writing and editing, something I do to this day.