SS: According to your profile at the 303s Company Page on the AM 1510 web site, you graduated from Emory College in Atlanta with dual majors in Poly Sci and Journalism. You ended up a Sports Writer. How?

 LJ: My first job out of college (graduated from Emory University in 2003) wasn’t in sports. I covered K-12 education in a bureau for The Palm Beach Post and I quickly became an expert on standardized testing and school district diversity issues. About a year after I started, our paper’s sport editor posted a job internally for another high school sports reporter, I emailed him and told him I was interested, and a few months later, he called me for an interview. I told him at the time that I hadn’t written a sports story since college (I was the sports editor at my college paper and covered men’s soccer and women’s basketball, and did a semester-long internship at CNN-SI before it went off air) but that I really wanted a chance. He took a chance on me and hired me, and I am still grateful. I still have a hard time believing exactly how my career has played out, and try to remember how lucky and fortunate I have been.

SS: Youre a Fort Collins native. How stoked were you to be hired at the Denver Post?

 LJ: In a word? VERY, especially after being away for so long. I spent four years in Atlanta for college and then went straight to Florida for the next five years. I always knew I wanted to come home to Colorado but was never quite sure exactly how to make that happen, so it was all pretty amazing when this opportunity at The Post worked out. I actually didn’t even tell my parents that I had applied until after I had set up the formal interview because I didn’t want to get my hopes – or theirs – up for something like that until it had a real chance of happening. In all that time in Florida, I never felt like I was really home, but I truly feel that now. It has been amazing to be back within 100 miles of my parents and brother and living in the same city as my oldest friends.

SS: That Ben Hochman sure seems like a great guy. He covered hurricane Katrina, writes excellent Nuggets stories and does stand-up comedy. Nobody is that cool. Expose some flaws for us, wont you? Who is he keeping in his basement?

 LJ: It’s funny that you ask me about Ben. He’s become one of my closest friends in Denver, and we actually started a radio show together this fall with another sportswriting friend (Graham Watson, of espn.com). He would kill me if I spilled all his dirty secrets (and I hope he wouldn’t spill mine!).  I guess his biggest flaw is his taste in music (an undying love for Kenny Chesney and Huey Lewis), odd taste in TV shows (his favorite of all-time is Dallas) and that the only thing in his fridge is bottled water and cold-cuts (though maybe his new girlfriend has helped change that last one). He’s awesome at karaoke and pub trivia, he’s a great friend and confidante and he’s a hell of a writer too.

SS: Lets discuss the Elephant in the room. On Sundays after Broncos games you wind up in smelly locker rooms surrounded by naked and semi-naked sweaty dudes. That would be uncomfortable for most men. What’s it like for a woman? Are you ever uncomfortable?

 LJ: It can be uncomfortable, yes, but not really as much as you might think. It’s not like guys are parading around naked. They want to be dressed just as much as I want them to be dressed. I’m a professional, they’re professional, and you really can avoid seeing stuff that you really don’t want to see. As a personal rule, I always wait for guys to get fully dressed (depending on time, other reporters etc) or at least very close to it before even approaching to ask for a quick interview. It has yet to cost me an exclusive interview, and even if it does someday down the line, I’m probably OK with that.

SS: Which Broncos players do the best interviews?

 LJ: There were a lot of genuinely good guys in that locker room this year, so it’s hard to single anyone out. But I will anyway. As a group this year, you couldn’t beat the linebackers. Andra Davis, Mario Haggan, Darrell Reid, Wesley Woodyard + Elvis Dumervil – all have great personalities, are always around during the open locker room and give interesting and insightful interviews. Champ Bailey, Brandon Stokley and Daniel Graham are ultimate professionals who always have great to deal with – they all can speak with authority about team and league issues and are respected voices in that locker when it comes to needing quotes about other players on the team or on the opposition. Vonnie Holliday became a go-to guy this year because he’s 1) very, very well spoken and 2) he’s been around the NFL for long enough to have very good perspective on things in and out of the locker room.

SS: What do you think is the most tired cliche answer in sports?

 LJ: I guess it’s the whole “one game at a time” deal. Probably there isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t hear it, or some version of it.

SS: Does television work interest you?

 LJ: Yes and no. In college, I would have told you that my dream job was to be the producer of SportsCenter (did you ever see that awesome show Sports Night? With Felicity Huffman and Peter Krause? I wanted to be Dana). I still sometimes think about that. I would love to someday land a long-form type of sports TV job (along the lines of the work on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, or the HBO’s Real Sports) but I can’t really see myself, at least right now, in any other sort of broadcast role, beyond what multimedia stuff I’m already doing. The radio gig we’ve got going on right now is very fun and it certainly can’t hurt to diversify the things I’m able to do.

SS: Whats the difference between a writer and a journalist?

 LJ: Well, there’s a lot of different forms of writing as well as plenty of types of journalists. And for me (and everyone else in my profession) the two are completely intertwined. I can’t write anything without first doing my job as a journalist – observing, asking questions etc; and I can’t relay the information that I get or what I see without being able to write well. I guess the goal is to be great at both.

SS: The Washington Times is shuttering its Sports Pages. Do you sometimes worry that you have worked hard for years to penetrate a dying industry?

 LJ: It is very scary, and those of us here in Denver better than anyone just how bad this industry is. Throughout 2008 and 2009, it seemed like a week (a day?) didn’t go by that you didn’t hear a story about this paper or that paper having buyouts or layoffs or restructuring or closing altogether. The Palm Beach Post offered buyouts to everyone with five years of experience a month after I left. I was 26 years old, and would have been eligible. So yes, I do worry about it. A lot. The guys I work with have been in newspapers for 20, 30 years. I’m hoping to make it to 10.

SS: What do you believe the future holds for newspapers?

 LJ: There is always going to be a place for good writing and reporting, and the people who are still going to have jobs and make money are going to be the ones who adapt to whatever changes happen the fastest. Who knows how long we’ll still be printing the hard copy of The Denver Post (a long, long time, hopefully) but I believe there will still be some sort of place for local reporting in an electronic media. As everyone knows, the biggest question is how to make money off it? Newspapers have given so much away for free online for so long now, it is really hard to see how to go back the other way. I’m not nearly smart enough to have the answers.

SS: You apparently intend to run a marathon this Spring. Dear God, why?

 LJ: Oh I’m running a marathon this year. It’s going to happen. I’m about to start training, actually. I’ve been a runner pretty much all my life, and it is finally time to do one. I ran three half marathons last year and did three triathlons, so the full marathon is my 2010 goal. I love having something to train for, I love having a new challenge. I run with some of my best friends so it is also a social thing for me, and it is also a great escape from my work life. This is a job that can consume you if you’re not careful, and having something to train for gives me something else to obsess about.

SS: Who are your favorite Sports Writers?

 LJ: A quick list, and I’m sure I’m leaving out far too many people I admire: Wright Thompson (espn.com), Karen Crouse (NY Times – Olympic sports, amazing profiles), Gary Smith (SI – the gold standard in this business for features), Pete Thamel (NY Times, college news), Pat Forde (espn.com, college news/columns), Bill Simmons (espn.com – he’s not a traditional sportswriter, but I’ve been reading – and mostly loving it – since college),

SS: You’re the new Broncos G.M.. What moves do you make to improve the team for the 2010 season?

 LJ: Lock up Elvis Dumervil long-term; see if the Brandon Marshall problem can be solved, if it can’t, you better find a way to replace him – should be a good draft for wide receivers, but WR (especially in McDaniels’ offense) is a tough transition; Get bigger on both offensive and defensive lines – it’s the only way to play the type of game consistently that McDaniels is trying to implement. Right now team has one pick in each round of the draft – other than WR, seems like most of those picks should go to the front 7 on defense (particularly the defensive front) and the offensive line.

SS: What was your favorite Sports story of the previous decade?

 LJ: It’s been quite a decade, hasn’t it? Especially with the way that we cover sports. It is pretty amazing how different the sports landscape is now than 10 years ago because of steroids, so it is hard to think of a bigger and more important story. It isn’t just a baseball issue, either. Not sure that means it has been my favorite, but it sure has been interesting.

SS: Besides running a marathon, what’s your goal for 2010?

 LJ: What, a marathon isn’t a big enough goal? Professionally, my goal is to continue to get better at my job every day. I’ve been on the Broncos beat for about 18 months now and need to continue to be a better beat reporter. That includes working on my writing, continuing to develop my writing voice, developing better sources for my stories, becoming more and more knowledgeable about the team and the league I cover.