A Note On Kyle Boone’s Leap To CBS Sports

I was listening to an interview on a podcast the other day with the CEO of Automattic which coincidentally makes the software (WordPress) that powers this blog (although not for long — more on that later).

His name is Matt Mullenweg, and he was asked what he looks for when he hires someone, and he said he looks for qualities that cannot be taught. The four he mentioned were as follows:

1. Taste
2. Integrity
3. Work ethic
4. Curiosity

If you’re going to sum up our head of recruiting/editor Kyle Boone, you could do a lot worse than those four.

Kyle, as you know by now, was recently hired by CBS Sports to cover college hoops. This is a thrill for him, of course, but I think it might be an even bigger thrill for me.

He has been writing for PFB for two and a half years now, and has been one of the best things that has ever happened to this site. His fervor and excitement have often been reinvigorating signposts for me and for the trajectory of our business which can often be a slog.

When I told Mrs. Pistols that Boone was going to post about his graduation to CBS Sports she got super panicky. He’s not leaving PFB, is he?

No, he’s not. But if he did, that would be OK because I think PFB has become a little bit bigger than all of us now. I told another one of our writers this week that I would love it if everyone from this site got hired at national sports sites. I’m excited to have been a co-worker with Boone for the last few years and now to double down on that reality.

He has earned everything coming to him and more. That’s an encouragement to everybody out there grinding away in their niche whether it be a blog, a podcast or a Periscope show. Own your lane. Make it informative and funny. Do it every single day.

Anyway, I just wanted to say how proud I am of Boone. He’s an Every. Day. Guy. who doubles as a terrific taste merchant with a monumental work ethic. All of our guys are every day guys, really, and I’m proud of the team we have rolling here.

It’s an oddity to interact with avatars every day as many sportswriters I know do (including me), but people like Boone (and others on our squad) — hanging with him in real life, getting to see his career trajectory — make it worth it.

As I told him after he got this CBS Sports gig — I remember back four years ago when I was hired by CBS Sports — it felt like starting the blog, grinding through days and nights, writing posts at random places like my car, all manner of coffee shops, and even the Stillwater Best Buy one time (!) was all worth it.

With Kyle’s life changing starting this week, it feels like that all over again.