Paul Tenorio, The Athletic’s senior soccer writer
episode
Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
45 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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How did Paul Tenorio first fall in love with soccer and journalism?
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Breaking In with Kevin Fishbane, the podcast that tells the origin stories of your favorite sports media personalities. It's episode 61, and my guest is Paul Tenorio, senior writer at The Athletic covering soccer. My fellow Northwestern grad is also the author of The Messy Effect, How the Global Legend Changed the Future of American Soccer. I have wanted to have Paul on for a while, and there's no perfect week than this, with the World Cup approaching and with the release of his book. As Landon Donovan said, no one is better positioned to tell this story than Paul Tenorio. He has been an authority on the MLS and soccer in America, and he will be following the U.S. men's national team during the World Cup.
On this episode, you'll learn about how Paul first fell in love with the beautiful game, thanks to his father, and then what eventually led him to Northwestern. We'll talk about his internship at the St. Louis Dispatch, what he learned at my first stop, Pro Football Weekly, and how he became an employee at the Washington Post after college. He's got great anecdotes about the start of his career and outstanding perspective for aspiring sports journalists. Before we get to Paul, a reminder of recent episodes. Last week was the TV voice of the Chicago Cubs, Boog Shambi, a very fun episode. Before Boog was FS1's Danny Parkins, and then Minnesota Twins play-by-play man Corey Provis. Here's your weekly reminder to leave this pod a review on Apple.
It helps the show grow. All right, here's how Paul Tenorio broke in. Paul Tenorio, my colleague at The Athletic and my fellow Northwestern grad. Paul, I had a string of Syracuse grads in May. This episode's running in June, so we needed to get the cats back on here. So thank you for bringing the purple back to the pod.
That's right. You got to set things right. Let's get this going back in the Big Ten direction here.
I want to start. We're going to get into a lot of different stuff. We're going to talk about your upcoming book, which is right behind you if you're watching on YouTube. But we got to start at the very beginning. When did you first gain an interest in sports journalism, sports writing?
I would say, you know, third, fourth grade, really, but not in kind of I didn't know what I was falling in love with. You know, I we got the Sunday Washington Post at my house. I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and my parents subscribed to the Sunday edition of the Post. And so I'd get that and I would every Sunday look forward to like reading it, eating my cereal. And over time, like I, you know, it became the thing I looked forward to every week. And so I've told this story a lot, actually. There was, you know, you get those cold calls from the newspaper subscription circulation people. And I answered it and realized who it was. And they said, are you Ricardo Tenorio? Which is my dad's name that the account was under.
And I was like, yes, I'm Ricardo Tenorio. And they were like, we'd like would you like to move to seven days a week? And I was like, yes, please. Seven days a week. Yes. So my parents got very confused as to like why all of a sudden we started to get the newspaper every day. And it's because I wanted to read it every morning with my cereal. So that was kind of the genesis of it. That's where it started. Just reading all things about the what we call now the commanders like every day in the paper. Um, and then when I, when I got to high school, I kind of learned like, oh, this is actually something I can do. And I had an amazing journalism teacher. Her name was Mrs. Joanne Marino. And she kind of guided me through those early stages of like loving something, but didn't, you know, didn't know I could actually do it to learning how to do it.
And, um, and, and then that led me of course to Northwestern. So that was kind of like how I fell in love with, with sports journalism and with newspapers.
Yeah.
I'm glad you mentioned your dad because I have your article up from 2022, which is really just a beautiful piece you wrote when you were covering the World Cup in Qatar and how much soccer meant to your relationship with you and your father.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Paul Tenorio first fall in love with soccer and journalism?
0:10–5:19
2
What role did Paul’s dad and early childhood experiences play in his soccer passion?
5:19–13:04
3
How did Paul’s Northwestern education shape his reporting skills and career path?
13:04–18:00
4
What lessons did Paul learn from his internship at the St. Louis Post‑Dispatch and the Jim Edmonds story?
18:00–22:11
5
How did Paul break into the Washington Post and what was his first big‑league moment there?
22:11–26:49
6
What challenges did Paul face covering the NFL’s early days and the Sean Taylor shooting?
26:49–32:22
7
What advice does Paul give aspiring sports journalists about covering high‑school sports and building sources?
32:22–38:43
8
What insights does Paul share about writing ‘The Messi Effect’ and the future of American soccer?
38:43–45:44
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
Mike Hall, Big Ten Network studio host
Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman, hosts of "Waddle and Silvy" on ESPN 1000 Chicago
Adam Schein, host of "Schein on Sports" on SiriusXM
Christine Brennan, USA Today columnist and author of "On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports"
Brittany Ghiroli, senior MLB writer at The Athletic
Ross Dellenger, Yahoo senior college football reporter