Not cashing in

I've interviewed many, many soccer players, coaches, officials, fans, etc., in my time as a journalist. It would take a long time to figure out the more memorable ones, but right off the top of my head I recall an interview with Carlos Hermosillo I had when I first started in 1998. We spoke by phone, he was gracious as ever and I got a good story out of it that even ran in the USA Today.

I talked to Alan Rothenberg two days before MLS Cup 98 when he told me all about D.C. United coach Bruce Arena taking over the U.S. national team after MLS Cup.

I talked to Enrique Meza in Guadalajara two months before the 2002 World Cup, when he was with Atlas. It was just us two in a large conference room sipping coffee, talking soccer for a good half hour. He's probably the classiest and most humble person I've ever interviewed, which is what made that memorable. Well, that and the harrowing ordeal it took to get that interview, which I may go in to in the future.

Between the memorable and mundane, the important and the quick-and-easy, I've talked to so many players/coaches/officials/fans/etc. that it would be impossible to count. But I will say one thing. I've never tried to cash in on those interviews. It's my job, and if I get a good interview it will turn into a good story and my employers and readers will be happy or at least informed.

But lately we've been bombarded here by some pseudo-journalists who are definitely trying to cash in on their little scoop. I refuse to be a part of it. We put out a blog item here last week, it got various types of response and that's that.

We welcome comments on here about readers' thoughts and opinions on what we post about, anecdotes that a blog item might have spurred, opposing viewpoints, links to other pertinent sites/video clips, etc. I frown on those trying to plug unnecessary sites. For instance, if someone tries to have us post a pornographic link, it's not going up. Sorry. If you're trying to plug some lame site, sorry.

Our blog has grown since Andrea suggested we team up to start this little unpaid venture in December. Skeptical at first, I've grown to embrace this blog and our steadily increasing stream of awesome readers.

And I intend to keep it that way.