Those of you who read this blog and know me well are aware I’m a huge fan of Kissing Suzy Kolber. It was pretty much the main inspiration for this piece of crap 100 Yards of BS.
I had the chance to talk with one of the writers, Matt Ufford (known on the blog as Captain Caveman), about his beginnings and what its like writing for Kissing Suzy Kolber. Click the ‘play’ button below, or read the trascript after.
(transcript below)
100YardsofBS: At what point did you get the idea that you wanted to write for a blog?
MU: I moved to New York City in the fall of 2004, and I had a job lined up. I knew I wanted to be a writer, so I was like, ‘If I’m going to be a writer, I’ve got to move to New York City.’ I had this nice, white-collar job lined up — or pretty well lined up, as much as things could be. Then something just went wrong, fell through the floor in my second interview when things were going like sparkling, and I just never heard back from that company again.
That sent me on this downward spiral of unemployment and under-employment, and burning through my savings and being broke and hungry a lot. One of the two lousy jobs I had — I was working both a day and a night job — one of them I just spent time, killing time reading Deadspin and commenting on Deadspin. Eventually, [in] the early summer of 2006, I started a personal blog. I spent so much time on blogs that it familiarized me with the format. I was like, ‘Oh, let’s do this, I guess.’ From that personal blog came Kissing Suzy Kolber, which I started with Drew [Magery].
100YardsofBS: Did you approach [Drew] or did he approach you or how did that process get going?
MU: Well what happened was I had this little personal blog that had a very short time span. It was just about one series of events and stories to tell my life. When I finished that, I gained a couple readers from the Deadspin comments and I was like, ‘What should I do next with this? I don’t know what [to do]. I should blog about something else now.’ Drew was like, ‘Have you ever thought of writing a NFL humor blog? It seems like nobody really makes fun of the NFL.’ So, we tossed some names around; I think I came up with the KSK name, Drew came up with the idea. We went to Will Leitch, who was writing Deadspin at the time, and basically [wanted] the guys who made us laugh in the comments. [We said to Leitch,] ‘Hey, hook us up with these guys.’ They all wanted to join us.
100YardsofBS:How many hits do you guys get a day?
MU: When we’re in peak season — which is to say the NFL playoffs — I think we peak at around one million visitors a month.
100YardsofBS:What are some of your favorite posts you’ve put up on Kissing Suzy Kolber?
MU: Obviously, people like the mailbag a lot. I did one that was Photoshop-heavy for our Haters Guide to the Postseason. I’ve done two for the Steelers — one was kind of a history of the Steelers fans that got a good response.
But the year before, I actually did a little play where it was like a zombie movie, except the zombies were Steeler fans. Its like these bandwagon fans that were basically zombies and everyone caught Steeler fandom. I would say that is one of my favorite ones I’ve ever written because that was just a lot of fun to create and Photoshop all the stuff that I did.
100YardsofBS: How would you describe you’re own style of writing?
MU: I don’t know, I’m just trying to keep up. I honestly don’t know.
As far as people who write on the site go, Drew and Christmas Ape are the funniest, most original voices with this bottomless well of creativity to do these little fake plays that play out on KSK.
I’m more of a reactionary writer. I have trouble pulling things out of the ether and making them my own. I need to have a story to respond to and provide commentary on. I do a lot better with that than the creative stuff that Mike and Drew are able to do.
So, I don’t know. I’m just a hustler trying to make a living.
100YardsofBS: Have you guys ever heard from any NFL players or anybody from the league saying they either don’t like your posts or they do like your posts?
MU: There was a story recently– I’m missing the guys name right now — by a guy for [NFL.com] who read aloud the F- -k It. I’m Throwing It Downfield post from a couple of years ago; [he] actually read it aloud to Rex Grossman. [Grossman] thought it was funny, reflected on it, and that was a really cool thing for us to hear.
Other than that, we’ve heard not from actual players or coaches, but like people inside the Jets organization who are like, ‘Yeah, totally. We’ve read the Rex Ryan posts. We laugh about it everyday.’
[In HBO’s] Hard Knocks last year, the Jets actually called Mark Sanchez Nacho, after Rex Ryan had already been doing that in the KSK character version of Rex Ryan.
We get all sorts of hints and winks that it gets read around league offices and team offices. But, again, we don’t need that foundation — but, that’s kind of cool. It’s always nice to know you’re being read, that it’s not just going out into the ether and being forgotten.
100 Yards of BS 