Last week I started a new series here at Aaron Torres Sports called, “How It All Started” where I track down prominent sportswriters, bloggers and television personalities, and do a long-form question and answer, and essentially ask: “So, how did you get started.” As I mentioned last week, as I continue to have my own success in writing, I find more young people asking me how I got started, and since I never have a good answer, I decided instead to put the question to some of the most successful people in their respective fields. In the process, it’s my hope that these interviews become a good resource for anyone looking for quality information, or an inspiring story on how to get started.

Anyway, after the success of last week’s interview with best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, I am back today and this time talking to Yahoo Sports National Columnist Dan Wetzel. Beyond just his work with Yahoo, Wetzel is also known for his book “Death to the BCS” and has been a major part of Yahoo’s increased investigative coverage over the last few years.

Dan was nice enough to answer a bunch of my questions on his background, his time at Yahoo, and some of his hardest hitting interviews… including with the Fake Dan Bebee.

So how did it all start for Dan Wetzel? Let’s ask him.

As I continue to gain traction in the sports writing world, one question that continually gets asked of me is, “Aaron, how did you get started in sports writing?” It seems like everyone wants to be a sports writer, reporter or TV personality, yet no one is entirely sure how to go about getting there

For me personally, it was easy. I wanted to write about sports, thought I had some valuable opinions, and when no one would hire me to do it out of the gate, I decided to start this very website that you’re looking at right now. I know, I know, that’s not a very good or inspiring story. Then again, I haven’t really achieved all that much success yet either.

So with that, instead of trying to answer the question myself, I took a different approach, and decided to start a series of long-form interviews with some of the most successful people in sports media. These won’t be podcasts (since some folks can’t listen at work), but instead, written out interviews, which you can read, digest, and then if you find something valuable, be able to go back and reference them at a later time. The ultimate goal is to teach anyone who wants a start in the sports industry that there are a lot of different paths to success, and you don’t need to go to Syracuse or get hired by ESPN right out of school to get there.  What’s much more important is being smart, creative and resourceful; something that I suspect will be a common theme in these interviews.

No one personifies that last point better than the first person I’m interviewing for this series, former Sports Illustrated staff writer and current best-selling author Jeff Pearlman.

Jeff is interesting, in the sense that not only did he decide at an early age that he wanted to be a sportswriter, but that he actually declared it to his parents, telling them in his early teens “I will write for Sports Illustrated.”

Eventually he did, but not without taking several unique turns along the way, including entering his name into the 1993 NBA Draft after his junior year at the University of Delaware (despite having never played college basketball), and working as a fashion and food writer as his first job out of college. From there he got to Sports Illustrated, and is now a best-selling author, with five books out, including the recently released "Sweetness" about Water Payton. Maybe my favorite sports book of all-time, “The Bad Guys Won,” was also written by Pearlman.

So how did it all start for Jeff Pearlman? Let’s take a look: