You started off as a media person – how did you make that transition to the “others side” into PR and then authorship?
It was just an opportunity that came up. The Penguins reached out to me a few years earlier and it didn’t feel like it was the right time. They reached out again a few years later and I figured they wouldn’t reach out a third time. I was 40 years-old and I figured “Why not?” I Might like it or I might not – but I figured if not I could always go back to the media.
Teams now tell their own stories – now that the internet has exploded. At the time they wanted someone someone from the media to run their media. I didn’t have a PR or marketing background -I didn’t have that experience – but we all do the job in our own way anyway. I relied on my background and hopefully I did some good – I’m sure I screwed up sometimes too. The landscape changed so much over those years – in 1996 I couldn’t imagine all of the social media outlets that arose. It was an exciting time. They said I was smart for taking the job when I did but I didn’t see that all coming, honestly.
How do you navigate that team information gatekeeping perception?
I always found that criticism silly. It’s the team telling its own story – that’s the job. We wanted to be one of the four-or-so outlets fans read – but of course as the team we weren’t going to criticize ourselves. I thought that was rather obvious. We got access to the team others don’t have – that let us do some cutting edge stuff for fans. There is something for everyone.
Was it difficult redefining those relationships with media peers now being a PR person who’s job was to mete out information instead of obtaining it?
Sure – I don’t think any friendships were broken though – we had enough respect for each other to understand it. Over time I did less work on what was going on on the ice and more on the business side – the staff started taking care more of the comms work. At one point I remember saying to someone “I’m not just 30 years older than Sidney Crosby – I’m older than his dad!”
When I first started with Dave Molinari as a reporter, we were not much older than the players. As you get older, those relationships change.
Is there an overlap in media, PR and storytelling to book/author form – was it a bit of a natural transition in a way?
Absolutely – we all write differently. I saw myself as a storyteller versus a hard-nosed reporter. So the transition worked well for me. If I could write in one genre I thought maybe I could write in another – some can, some can’t. When I was a columnist I didn’t like it – I wasn’t cut out to be someone writing opinions.
When I wrote my first book on Flight 93 the editor told me he could tell I was a newspaper writer. I didn’t know what he meant – I think it may have been about how I researched and organized the book and approached it as a storyteller. You can overwrite a book if you’re not careful. I liked the 250-300 page length – larger books can get intimidating. I was always taught as a journalist to condense your writing – especially as a newspaper writer where you have limited physical space.
Is it almost cathartic to have the burden lifted of not having to hold things in, so to speak?
I wouldn’t say it was a burden – we were engaged in what we were doing and strategized to tell the team’s story. It was fun – it was just a different kind of writing.
Your books mostly cover American history – what fascinates you generally about covering that?
History was always a passion for me. Most use sports as an escape from life and their jobs. If you work in sports you need an escape too, and history was mine.
I always loved history. In high school I took one of those career tests and it said number one was newspaper reporter and two was history teacher -they got me exactly! Now that I am retired it’s what I do. When I was with the Penguins, whenever they played their last game my family would go to Gettysburg afterwards – that was my sign the offseason was here. Now my wife and I split our time each year between Pittsburgh and Gettysburg.
Why this new book – Justice for the Forgotten Families of 9/11 – what prompted you to cover this?
My first book was a reasonable success – that made me feel like I could do this. I wrote my first few books while I was still working for the Penguins. Now it’s easier since I’m retired.
I volunteered a lot in working with the 9/11 families. I stayed close to many of them. In the Summer of 2024 a couple of things happened. The Guantanamo cases and lawsuit by the families were both stalled. But no one was paying attention at that point. I called some of the families and asked if there was a story there and they said “Yes!” No one had written about this before. As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 comes up, I realized that most people don’t realize it’s still unresolved and the families never got justice. Most people don’t remember that now.
How did you research it and what surprised you most as you did the work?
I wanted to tell the story sequentially – on how we got here. I dug into government reports and reporting and interviewed some family members too. It’s been 25 years since 9/11 – one-third of the country wasn’t even born when it happened. 40% were either not born or too young to remember anything about it. So I included a chapter on 9/11 and made put it all together to show how we got where we are today.
I was astonished at what I didn’t know. So much has happened since 9/11. I was talking to my friends about the book and they weren’t even aware Guantanamo was still open. No one ever covered it all sequentially like this before.
Looking back, what are some of toughest issues you faced in Pittsburgh?
With the Penguins it was the bankruptcy – it was a world I knew nothing about. People were afraid and the media didn’t understand it either. I had to educate myself. It was emotional – all of our jobs were affected – it’s rare when that happens – we didn’t even know if the team would stay in Pittsburgh. Nothing else compares to facing that. It ended up with the best occurrence at least – with Mario Lemieux buying the team. But it was a tense time and it could have gone either way.
I’d say the best occurrence was Mario’s comeback!
What about in the writing of the book?
This book was the most invigorating of all the ones I wrote. I felt like someone really needed to tell this story. When the editor talked to their bosses about the book, the said they’d feel more comfortable at first if someone from the New York Time or Washington Post wrote it – but they weren’t wiring that story.
As a history nerd it’s a completely different challenge writing about contemporary history. On my books on topics like the Civil War there’s no one to remember what happened. With this book it’s about people who’s lives are still being affected. You have to really make sure you get it right. When I write about Gettysburg there’s no one alive to say you got it wrong. But with this – you get your conspiracy theories too – it’s more of a challenge.
It’s funny. When I go to Washington, D.C. or Philadelphia now to talk about the books, when they introduce me as the former VP of Communications for the Penguins, I often get booed. I tell them the biggest challenge I have then is deciding which Stanley Cup ring to wear!