Professional Interview

Matthew Coller:
Matt Hjelmstad

chose to interview Matthew Coller, the creator and host of Purple Insider. Purple Insider
is a daily newsletter and podcast covering everything Minnesota Vikings, where

Matthew brings on a variety of guests to take a deep dive into every angle, analyze

every move and break down game film for the audience. I chose him specifically

because I am interested in a career that involves sports writing and podcasting and he

has successfully worked his way up the ranks in the sports reporting world. I reached

out to him through Twitter on February 22nd asking if he would be willing to do an

interview and he got back to me that night more than happy to help. We agreed to meet

virtually on zoom that Friday, February 25th. The meeting was just over thirty minutes,

but I managed to take a lot of good advice away and learned more about what being a

sports reporter is like in the real world.

Brief Biography

Matthew grew up in Western New York and after high school decided to attend a

local community college for two years. He continued his education at the University of

Brockport, where he did some internships in the local media and ended up having a

weekend radio show in Rochester, New York as his first career opportunity. A radio

station in Buffalo hired him as a part-time board ops/sports anchor position which led to

a self-made opportunity cover Buffalo’s team in the American Hockey League which

had not previously been covered by other media outlets. Eventually he climbed the

latter and became a producer on the morning show, hosted his own weekend show,

hosted Buffalo Bills pre and post-game. During this time he was also doing a podcast

for Hockey Prospectus, which led to a writing job for ESPN Plus covering all things

hockey. He was looking to take the next step in his career, searching for opportunities

within a larger sports market than Buffalo, when he applied for a position at 1500 ESPN
covering the Minnesota Vikings. He started there as the digital Vikings reporter,

producing two podcasts a week, written work on the team, and covering events open to

the media. During his time with 1500 ESPN, the company shifted management and

rebranded to Skor North, where he co-hosted the Purple Daily Show for over a year.

Skor North was taken off the air due to budget cuts during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so

he decided to start his own Brand for the content he produces called Purple Insider

which is his current occupation.

How did you land your first job out of college?

“I had a co-worker while I was in college. He went to one University, I went to

another, and he had interned for a sports radio station. He introduced me to the sports

talk host, and they brought me on as an intern. After I had worked there as an intern for

a while, I sort of discovered that if you want you can buy airtime to do your own show if

you can sell the advertising for it. So, on another small station in the same city, they had

an hour slot open on Saturdays. I went out to different places and picked up some

advertisers for the show, did my own sort of sales stuff and ended up putting together

enough money to basically do a six-month hockey show that was just one hour every

Saturday morning. From that the station in Buffalo heard what I was doing, interviewed

me, brought me up there, and hired me to work a couple hours a week at first. I kind of

had to knock the door down a little bit but that’s how I got it.”

What are your major job responsibilities now, or with any of the previous

positions that you have held?

“I will just take you through what I do on a daily/weekly basis. It’s a little different

between in season and not in season. In the off season I’m more of sitting on my couch
making up trades, but in season the workload picks us a bit varying from season to

season. I’m writing daily covering everything that the team does from every perspective.

That can mean a sort of different types of writing which could be from feature writing,

day to day updates, press conference recaps, fan question mailbags, and opinion

writing. I also do the daily podcast where I have lots of different guests, and I do

everything myself, from booking the guests to editing the audio. It’s usually thirty-to-

forty-five-minute episodes that I will record, edit, and publish. During the in season, do a

reaction to what happened on Sunday, a reaction to the press conferences during the

week, and the wheels just keep on turning.”

What are some of your favorite and least favorite things about you occupation

as a whole?

“Least favorite things might be hard. In terms of favorite things about the job, I get to

kind of play in the sand box here. I mean, its what I set out to do and the fact that I was

lucky enough to make it a career is a blessing that I am thankful for every day.

Sometimes there are annoyances of course like there are in every job but there is no

reason to ever complain about this because I remember when I was in college, we went

around the room in a journalism class asking what we wanted to do. There was like

thirty or forty people in the class and they all said, ‘I want to work for ESPN.’ Person

after person saying they want to be in this industry, and I don’t know if any of them are

sports reports today. It took a lot of people to help me along the way to achieve what I

have, and I am always appreciative of that. There is so much energy in the job that you

never really get tired of doing that. I always feel like I am up for it and I try to make that

reflective in my work. I also always try to come up with new ideas. I will be walking the
dog and a thought pops into my head that I take note of. The fact that I have a platform

to put these thoughts and the fact that a lot of people want to view or read it is very

rewarding. There is really no part of my job that I can complain about. Challenges, that’s

the way I would put it. It takes an incredible dedication to do it. You will always be

working, seven days a week. Also, people in these jobs normally don’t leave them so

you will have to be comfortable changing location when you are looking for an opening.

The daily requirement for being on top of stuff is crucial. The sports world never sleeps

so you always must be ready to be on top of your game. I mean, I did a post cast a

couple weeks ago on my lunch break from jury duty, which just shows you always must

be ready. There is no vacation for this, and it is not for everyone. You have to sacrifice a

lot to be able to compete at the highest level in this industry. One of the biggest things is

you have to enjoy writing and talking more than you like anything else. You can’t be a

fan of the team if this is your profession.”

Have the classes you took in college prepared you for your career and if so,

could you recall any classes that stood out to you?

“Well one, I took a sports writing class, and I was lucky enough to take it with

someone who had been a longtime columnist, news paper columnist, who I became

very good friends with. He helped me with just very basic stuff, asking him to read some

of my stuff, to asking ‘is this how you do it?’ Reading his work and seeing how he

approached things. Having a mentor in that way, grooming me for what was to come

really helped my career and making that connection in college was the first step. The

other thing is, I would say everything. A good example is my jury duty. It became

content, and it became a fun conversation that people follow in my pod cast. Everything
that happens to you, everything you learn in college is something that might work for

you in some way that you never expected. You just never really know that someone you

come across or something that you learned is going to play a role in something that you

cover.”

What advice would you give to a college student like myself that is majoring in

communication and is interested in possibly becoming a sports

journalist/reporter?

“If you want to be a writer, write every day because that’s how you get good at it. No

one who has X number of hours writing is going to be great at writing unless they’re

some sort of little freak. I will still write things that will never get published just for

practice. It is a real skill, organizing words and putting together the puzzle. Practicing

over years is the best way to really find your voice. Take every single professional

opportunity. There are certain blogs and sites that you have to be careful writing for

because some of them can make you look bad from unprofessionalism. There are a lot

of people in today’s world who are just complete frauds so make sure you line yourself

up with the right people. Sometimes you might be better off just starting your own

articles and sharing those with your friends that will give you honest feedback. Be

honest with yourself about your path. Always try to take that next step forward in the

position that you currently hold. Like for me, when I was young, I was always writing for

the school newspaper, and then I was interning at a radio station, then doing a weekend

show, and getting hired in a good company, trying to climb the latter. Don’t tie your

success as a human being to your success in this industry. A lot of it is random.

Sometimes you get the breaks and sometimes you don’t. Putting heart and soul into
something and tying your whole success as a person to that is not true, just do the best

you can do and always strive for that next opportunity.”

Summary

I am glad that I got this opportunity to meet and form a connection with someone in

the career field that I might select as my own. I was very nervous for my interview with

Matthew because he is well known, and I am a huge fan of all his content. Once the

meeting started and I had introduced myself, I became very comfortable. Matthew made

the interview process very easy by being friendly, honesty, and informative.

After completing this project, I have much greater knowledge of what it is like to be a

sports reporter and I am very interested in pursuing this path. All the questions I had

about this field were answered and being a sports reporter/journalist seems like

something that suits me well. I am great at seizing opportunities presented, developing

good connections, writing, and producing other types of content. This project was very

useful and will help me decide my

future career path.

Matthew Does not have a business

card, told me to use his twitter profile,

as he does it the “modern way.”