This week’s interview subject, Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer, might seem like a veteran in the newspaper business because he’s already written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel, and Louisville Courier-Journal. But he’s only 31. That kind of early success breeds contempt. He talks about that as well as the ESPN-Ben Roethlisberger quagmire, hoops in Seattle, and standing tall when Andruw Jones of the Rangers tried to scoop a girl he was hanging out with.
Q: Let’s start with your rise to major market columnist. Did your journalism dreams begin in high school? College? Were you always a sports guy?
You could say my dreams began in college, but I was developing into a journalist even as early as 10 or 11. I used to play imaginary baseball games in the backyard, remember the stats and then write a box score and game summary as soon as I was finished. I didn’t really know what I was doing then. I barely read the paper, but I loved the agate.
Later, when I was a sophomore at Paducah Tilghman High School in Paducah, Ky., a New York Times national NFL writer named Thomas George (later became a columnist at The Denver Post, now works at NFL.com) spoke to our media class. He was a Paducah native. He was charismatic. And he had the coolest job ever to me because, back then, newspapers had enough money to allow him to be on the road five days a week.
From that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Thomas was so kind that he met with me after class ended, and I told him my dream was to be a national NBA writer. Over the course of that class, I somehow figured it all out. Then he told me exactly what I needed to do to fulfill my dreams, starting with attending a journalism camp that summer. I listened to him. He remains a trusted friend. Really, Thomas is like family to me. We’re the Paducah boys — along with my little brother, Kyle Hightower, who works at The Orlando Sentinel — who made it big as sports journalists.
Q: You became a columnist at 25, which is awfully young. Surely you ran into some folks who felt that nobody should be a columnist that early (paying dues, all that). How much static did you get from colleagues? And how much more challenging was being a columnist than a features guy or reporter?
Nobody expressed their beef, at least to my face. At the beginning, I heard whispers from time to time. Or people would tell me what someone had written on sportsjournalists.com or on the old sportspages.com when it had a message board. I wasn’t oblivious to it all, but I just let people say what they wanted to say, and I stayed focused on what I was trying to do.
The funniest story about that topic: My favorite college professor was at a journalism convention shortly after I got promoted to columnist at The Orlando Sentinel, and Michael Wilbon was speaking. He said he’d heard that some kid in Orlando had gotten a column job and that he thought it was a ridiculously young age to be a columnist. Of course, the professor was like, “I taught that kid!” and called to tell me what Wilbon said. I wasn’t mad at Mike, though. What can I say to Mike Wilbon? In many ways, he was right, which gets me to the second part of your question.
I think being a columnist is the ultimate challenge, regardless of your age. It’s tough for 45-year-olds who’ve all but mastered the craft of opinion writing. I used to say being a columnist at 25 was like jumping from high school to the pros. Actually, it was more like jumping from middle school to the pros. Also, my career being just a reporter was so short (three years) that I missed out on some development in favor of a meteoric rise.
When you’re that young, you don’t know crap, but you think you know everything. And I didn’t get into the business to be a columnist ASAP. I wanted to be a national NBA guy at first, and then I wanted to be like Gary Smith. To be perfectly honest, I still want to be like Gary Smith. But I love column writing, too. I’m 31 now, with six years of experience writing opinions. So I still have a young perspective, and I’ve learned a lot.
I used to file columns and nearly start crying because I thought they were so bad. I’d go out and drink the rest of the night, hoping to forget what I wrote. I don’t do that anymore.
