Why, Hello There...

Hello everyone.

This is my first post at Hail to the Orange. Glad to be here! It's taken me a while to figure out how I wanted to introduce myself to everyone here at the site. I'm Paul, and I've even been on the Champaign Room podcasts, so I'm familiar with the site. I covered Illinois for many outlets, most recently The Sports Bank, for the last several years, but other work and family occupy too much of my time now.

Joe can relate from a time standpoint, so here I am. He and I might form one, fully competent commentator. Well, if "fully competent" means angry and drunk, that is...

Oh, shoot. Joe usually starts these things with a music video, doesn't he? Dangit. What music should I use that best exemplifies my relationship with the Illini? That's tough -- I'll have to think on that while I write. Perhaps, "The Night," by Disturbed (appropriate song AND band name...)?

A little about me not about the Illini -- I'm a defiant punk rocker, despite being 33 and too old to go to most of those shows any more. I have a powerful caffeine addiction, and I have a great love of 5 Hour Energy. I hope they don't cause cancer some day, because I'll be screwed.

I love my wife and one son (whose first sentence, said during the Illinois upset over Ohio State was, "Go Illini!") with our second coming, quite literally, by Monday. I do have an Illinois problem, though. I care a little too much. When I was a member of the media, I'd have to take Xanax before big games to keep myself in line on press row. OK, that's not entirely true. But I did pop a lot of anti-acid.

Joe and I have a special bond, one that can only come from having covered the Illini together for a few years. And from him receiving a drunken phone call from me last March about Jereme Richmond not playing in the NCAA Tournament first round game against UNLV...while I was in Las Vegas having just placed a wager on the Illini. And one that can only come from having shared a hotel room together to cover the Big Ten Tournament. Remember those special nights, Joe?

Hmmm, a song to describe me. Howsabout Skee-Lo's "I Wish"? A little blast from the past? No...

Anyway, I'm here, like I said, to try and help Joe out and crack jokes at his expense. I like to think that I'm the negative, more handsome version of Joe, and that I play in to so many of the normal Illini fans' fears that I'll fit right in here. Did I mention that I'm more handsome?

Unfortunately, I have to go. I have to go use an electric planer that I just rented to make some closet doors fit into their hole. I swear I'm not making that up. Joe will probably give me a solid roasting tonight after Illinois plays their TRAP GAME against Penn State tonight, when we record our first joint Champaign Room podcast with me as a contributor for the site.

So I leave you with a music video. When I saw it for the first time, I watched it, in all seriousness, a dozen times. I revelled in its weirdness. I took in all the subtleties. And really, don't we all have a bad romance with the Illini?