“Thank God for granting me this moment of clarity, this moment of honesty … the world will hear my truths.” – Jay-Z

In this case, I should also be thanking Mr. Castle for the opportunity to potentially sabotage what could have been the start of something brilliant.  I’m joking, of course.

First and foremost, let me begin my introduction with who I am and how I got to know Ryan Castle, a.k.a. Rydog, b.k.a. That Dude.

My name is Ahmed Salazar.  I’ll give you a few moments to soak it in before I explain …………… OK?  I’m not Muslim, I just have an Arabic first name.  I’m actually Panamanian by blood (both parents were born in Panama) so that explains the last name.  And yes, I am Black.  What’s that … you say you’re confused?  How do you think I feel after 27 years of trying to break this down?  On the bright side, you could not ask for a better ice breaker when it comes to meeting new people, believe me.

My fondest and earliest memories of sporting lore began as a child watching Lakers games with my parents.  At that time, I never really understood the ritualistic nature of the family sitting around in dim lights, listening to Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz on the tube while Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Byron, Coop, A.C., and Rambis ran circles around their opponents, earning the moniker of “Showtime”.  It was even entertaining seeing Jack Haley riding the pine, cheerleading from the bench like no one else could at the time [LeBron has easily surpassed that level of sideline enthusiasm, but in those days it provided a different kind of entertainment for my sister and me, since we didn't fully grasp the concept of the game yet].

In the following years, I grew an affinity for most other American sports as well.  The sheer athleticism of Bo Jackson drew me in as a Raiders fan, but I guess the inability for him to be stopped in Nintendo’s Tecmo Bowl added to his awe factor (try checking out some YouTube highlights if you are not aware of his freakish abilities).  Bo’s short stint with the White Sox and my love for Frank Thomas, dating back to the days when he was crushing balls on MTV’s Rock ‘N Jock Softball, is what made me a lifelong South Side fan.  This is coupled with the fact that, as a California kid looking to be different, I wasn’t down with following the Dodgers, A’s, or Giants like everyone else did.  Aside from the three major American sports, I’m an avid follower of MMA and Boxing, and to a lesser extent, I also like college football and basketball, and I have a wee-bit of knowledge in futbol, or as we silly Americans refer to it, soccer.

Before all this, however, was the Golden Era of the then-WWF.  Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Andre The Giant, and so on and so forth.  I was as big a wrestling fan as I was any other sport, but as time went on the characters got stale.  Around the turn of the century, I began writing for a wrestling site called PowerWrestling.com, which actually had a short stint of being backed by FoxSports, apparently before they realized there was no point in having a pro wrestling page.  It was at this site that I met the man you all know as Castle, and a friendship was formed.  We attended a couple functions together in person, and the rest is history.

So now that you have enough back story on my evolution into sports writing, I’ll provide some more personal information.  I currently sell legal insurance (bet you didn’t even know it existed, huh?) and have a beautiful daughter who is right at the two-and-a-half years mark.  I might be just as knowledgeable in the field of music as I am in sports.  I listen to pretty much everything.  To put it in perspective, The Who is one of my favorite bands of all-time.  If you can find me another Black male in his late 20’s who likes The Who, I will personally pay both of our way to Super Bowl XLIV so we can stand front row singing along and jamming out like Paul Rudd and Jason Segel’s characters in I Love You, Man.  I’m dead serious about that too.  I don’t know how I would come up with the money, I am just that confident you cannot find another guy like me!

In all seriousness, though, I want to deeply express my appreciation for Mr. Castle showing enough faith in me to give me a column on his website.  I have not even finished college yet, but English has always been my best and favorite subject, and writing is a passion of mine that overshadows bong rips, keg stands, lazy days with rain pattering all over the house while empty pizza boxes clutter the view of football on TV, and seeing nude women.  Well, maybe not that last one, and in the event my girlfriend runs across this column, I want to point out that I meant only seeing HER nude.  You would think with editing I’d be able to cover up these sorts of gaffes (shaking my head).  As you can see, it’s hard for me to be serious even when I’m TRYING, but that is merely another element to the insanity that I will be bringing to the table here at CastlEntertainment.  Once again, thank you Ryan for giving me this moment of truth, and thank you all for taking
the time to read what I hope will become a regular routine in your online time-killing rounds.  This is Brotha Ahmed signing out.

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