Welcome to Hreal Sports

Welcome to Hreal Sports. I’m Patrick Hruby, a longtime writer, reporter, and editor who has worked at places like VICE and ESPN and The Washington Times, and has published just about everywhere. (Thank you for the freelance check, Playboy).

Every week(ish), I’ll write something and send it to your inbox. Most of the time, that something will not stick to sports.

If you’re interested in how the NCAA is essentially running the same scam on college athletes that Uber is running on its drivers, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re curious about how the football industry’s response to brain damage compares to the fossil fuel industry’s response to global warming, or how the Sports War on PEDs looks a whole lot like the bigger War on Drugs, or 1,001 other ways the sports world acts as a funhouse mirror to everything else, then you’ll like it here.

If you think that sports are magic, an escape, a magical escape, or otherwise Narnia, this probably isn’t for you. But don’t panic: there’s an entire multibillion-dollar industry eager to sell you stuff!

This is a place for all of the stories and ideas and topics I want to cover but can’t always get to in a formal, big-J journalism way. It’s also a place to have a closer and more immediate connection with readers, which I’ve found tough to establish and maintain without a permanent publishing home.

Oh, and also, there’s very likely going to be a Hreal Sports podcast to go with this—I hope to have more details to share on that soon!

So: if all of that sounds good, sign up. Be a part of this. Reach out with comments, questions, story tips and suggestions. Tell me what you’d like to learn more about. Or just read and enjoy.

And for the record, the “H” is silent. You probably guessed that already.

Hreal Sports will launch in earnest in October. In the meantime, tell your friends!