Today we’d like to introduce you to J. Sam Jones.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started interning at the Marietta Daily Journal and I remember begging my editor to let me go cover Atlanta United at their training ground right down the road. He used to say, “I don’t need to watch soccer. If I wanted to watch 11 guys not score for 90 minutes, I’d go to the bar with my friends.” I hated that joke. So much. But one day, I finally convinced him to let me go over.
Somehow I got to keep coming back after that and I met a couple of folks at Dirty South Soccer. Eventually, I reached out to join and eventually got asked to by DSS founder Rob Usry to report on games, practice sessions, guided tours of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and anything else related to the team. I loved it. I didn’t have any money at that point, though. I had to couch surf and car sleep just to stay in Atlanta and be near the team. To be near the community of it all. I hadn’t really seen anything like the Atlanta United community before and I wanted to be a part of it for as long as I could. It felt like a direct connection to the heart of the city.
Writing for DSS has made me part of that connection. I’ve been able to have a voice within the community and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to use it to do some things I’m proud of. For example: Through DSS, we’ve raised over $10,000 dollars for Fugees Family, a non-profit that uses soccer to connect with and educate refugees. I also got to meet LeVar Burton. No, seriously. He invited me to a live show of his podcast. It’s amazing what you can do when you bother people on Twitter enough. It helps when Atlanta United fans are helping me say hello to LeVar as well.
Nearly all of the coolest things I’ve done are because I’m lucky enough to have had people in the Atlanta United community respond to the weird and strange and overly earnest things I’ve made for DSS. I’m exceedingly grateful for the opportunity they given me to be a small part of the city’s culture.
Has it been a smooth road?
The first summer was definitely the hardest. I remember I was basically homeless and I refused to live with my folks because they were hours and hours away from Atlanta. I had just started covering the team and now I had to leave? Not happening. I did some couch surfing and had nothing to eat but warm cereal a couple of times but my friends kept me afloat. Eventually, I couldn’t hold out any longer and left the city, but I’ve worked hard and worked my way back. Other than that, it can be tough when so much of your job is centered around social media. Stop being jerks. Jerks.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Dirty South Soccer is a website devoted to covering soccer in Atlanta and the southeast. We largely work off contributions from volunteers who don’t earn much but love the city, love soccer and love Atlanta United. Our goal is to provide a fan-centered voice that understands that sports, at their heart, are actually supposed to be fun. In a world where so much sports coverage is centered around who can yell the loudest or be the most cynical, we try to enjoy ourselves and make it enjoyable for everyone else. Even if that means getting weird sometimes. Like. Really weird.
Not everyone has to get it, though, just the right people. We’ve been lucky enough to have an audience that usually gets it. Whether that’s tweets, podcasts, articles, features, videos, or anything else you can think of, we’ve been doing it since before Atlanta United even had a name and we’re proud to be not only a unique voice in Atlanta soccer but one of the unique voices in Atlanta sports.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We can work from anywhere, but if you’re going to be a website that covers Atlanta United, Atlanta is a good place to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: dirtysouthsoccer.com
- Email: dirtysouthsoccer@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirtysouthsoccer/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dirtysouthsoccer
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DirtySouthSoc
Image Credit:
Nick Landon
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