First of all, I would like to welcome you in during your Internet browsing time and thank you for getting away from pictures of cats doing stuff to check out my blog. If you’re actually reading this and you’re not a friend or a family member of mine, you obviously are generally interested in sports. As this being my first post, I would like to take the time and introduce myself and let you know what I plan on doing with this blog.

My name is Jesse Varner and some of you may already know me as Wes McElroy’s producer. I have been with Sports Radio 910 since 2010 and my first day was actually the day after Super Bowl 44 where the Saints beat the Colts. I consider myself a Richmond transplant as I was born and raised in Western Maryland. I finished my high school years in the Richmond area at Meadowbrook High School, which features some alumni such as: the Orlando Magic’s Justin Harper, UVA tackle Morgan Moses, Former MLB pitcher Cla Meredith, and our very own Sports Director and my mentor “the Czar” Gary Hess. After high school, it was off to VCU where I started off studying political science, but then switched over to broadcast journalism after I started working at VCU’s radio station, WVCW.

I have been a sports fan since birth. Some of my earliest memories are sitting with my granddad when I was younger as he would watch baseball on one TV and would have football on another. A normal Thanksgiving conversation at our house would be him trying to debate me and my dad about why Johnny Unitas was a better quarterback than Brett Favre ever will be. I still remember him telling me one of the saddest days of his life was watching the Baltimore Colts move out of Memorial Stadium in the middle of the night and still to this day he refuses to recognize that there’s a football team in Indianapolis. To this day, I still remember the ’93 World Series and how Joe Carter seemed like a giant as he blasted that game winning 3-run shot. Growing up, I played quite a bit of sports as well. In high school, I ran cross country and wrestled.  Also, I have been playing soccer since I was 8, so I’m warning you now: there may be a soccer post or two. I also looked up to athletes like Cal Ripken, Jr. and grew career inspiration from anchors like Dan Patrick and, before he got political, Keith Olbermann. 

Even though I chose to work in sports media, deep down, I am just like anyone else:  I am a fan and that’s who I want to speak to with this blog. Instead of bogging you down with stats and numbers, though they help validate some arguments, I want us to discuss sports as fans. I’m hoping through Facebook and Twitter, we can discuss each post and get a good debate going. To let you know where my fandom comes from, a few teams that I am still a diehard fan for are: the Washington Capitals, the Baltimore Ravens and my VCU Rams. On top of posts and interviews, I am a big fan of lists, so you might see a few on here…and hey: who doesn’t love a good list? Also, I will be covering a little bit of Richmond Spiders football and during basketball season, I write a blog for VCU, so you might see a few of those posts on here as well…GO RAMS! So let’s have some fun and get a good sports debate going like we’re sitting on a couple of stools somewhere with a few cold ones in front of us and the game is on in the corner. Who knows? Your responses might get read on the air and they might win you prizes and who doesn’t love free stuff? So stay tuned to our website and Facebook page and of course to the airwaves from 3p-6p. GAME ON!