Former Southwest Virginian, and current Philadelphia sportswriter, Les Bowen covers the Eagles beat for the Philadelphia Daily News. Bowen also candidly discusses Philadelphia sports reporters Dick Jerardi, Bill Conlin, and John Smallwood on Daily News Live, a nightly sports broadcast on Comcast SportsNet. Bowen also has many connections to the Virginia Tech community; his uncle is a Hokie alumnus and he attends every home and away football game.

Q: Growing up in southwest Virginia, what sparked your interest in the mass media?
A: Actually, I grew up in Charlotte, N.C., though I was born in southwest Virginia. I think I always wanted to write, to work with words, and newspapers seemed the most viable way of achieving that.

Q: What was your first job as a reporter?
A: Well, I wasn't really a reporter in my first newspaper job. I answered phones and took high school scores over the phone at The Charlotte Observer, starting my sophomore year at UNC-Charlotte. Eventually they let me cover a game. I covered mostly high schools there until I graduated and got a job doing that full time, with some "clerk" duties thrown in. The clerks answer the phone and do the scoreboard pages.

Q: Did you always love the sports arena for your work, or did another branch of news reporting catch your eye early?
A: Like a lot of people in the mid-'70s, I was very impressed with Woodward and Bernstein. I liked sports but had never really thought about sports writing until the sports editor of the Charlotte paper called the student newspaper at UNC-Charlotte and asked if anybody there wanted a job answering phones in the sports department. Until then, I figured you had to be a big-time former athlete or a coach or something to be a sports writer. I didn't have that level of expertise. Once I started doing it, I realized it fit my talents ... I think there's more color and "storytelling" in sports writing than in most news writing.

Q: What is it like working in the Philadelphia market? I have always dreamed of working in that environment; is it really difficult for you at times, especially with our impatient, critical fans?
A: It's very different from the South. I think people here care more about pro sports than any fans anywhere else. That can be good and bad. They can be over the top at times. People other places see fandom differently.
In fact, two years ago I was at the Temple-Virginia Tech football game at Lincoln Financial Field with my uncle and aunt, sitting with Hokie fans. Va. Tech was favored by about 100 points, but ended up playing poorly and winning a real close game. Lots of Virginia Tech fans were upset. At one point, somebody sitting near me started to boo. A guy dressed in Hokie colors then turned around and informed him, as if ashamed: "You don't boo your own team."
People sitting around us nodded in agreement. Obviously, Philadelphians see it differently. They think the players need to hear that they haven't done well; they think you're a sucker if you accept poor play from your team.
Generally, I like working here because people really do care so much. You know a lot of people read every word you write.

Q: We could talk about the Eagles for hours, but what was your favorite story to write about covering the Birds?
A: Probably the Super Bowl, having a team in the Super Bowl was an amazing, exhausting experience. But I also was really fascinated with the Rush Limbaugh situation two years ago, how quickly it blew up, Limbaugh losing his ESPN job. A lot of African-American Eagles players expressed really deeply felt, well-articulated opinions during that controversy. It was a glimpse behind the curtain of professional sports. And I got to go on CNN and talk to Paula Zahn. She's hot.

Q: You and I both know that Terrell Owens is not a true Eagle, both in spirit and heart. Why does everybody classify me as a "T.O. Lover" just because I love the Eagles?
A: Got me there. Maybe because he's still on the team, and they think that's a good way to tease you, like Eagles fans tease Redskins fans about what an idiot their owner is  ... I do think a lot of Eagles fans took his side last year, didn't see what he was really like, during the various controversies re Jeff Garcia, Ray Lewis, etc.
T.O. is an individual sport guy in a team sport. I'm not sure what a "true Eagle" really is, though. I think fans have a lot of illusions about that. None of these players grew up following the Eagles. They'd all pretty much be just as happy playing for the Patriots, or any other good team that would pay them just as well. It's a job. They play for each other. Many of them like the city they play in, but they could like another city very quickly. It isn't at all the same deal as being a fan.

Q: Deadlines are an issue for every reporter. Have you mastered the art of never missing deadlines, or do you sometimes find yourself on the wire?
A: My first job was writing high school games on deadline. I've always been pretty good at it. When you're covering a night event, you're always close to missing deadline. You just do the best you can before you have to hit the button and send. I've always seen it as a challenge, like a board game or a quiz show; you get to show off how smart you are, how facile.
Really early, when I was in college, I got a great lesson in the importance of getting it done on time. I was laboring over a silly, unimportant college basketball story. It was time for it to be edited. The editor kept asking me if I was done. I kept putting him off. Finally, he walked over, swung my computer to where it was facing him, read what I'd written, wrote a quick ending and sent the story to be printed, without saying another word to me.
I've never really had a bad deadline bust, knock on microchips.

Q: I have seen you on the television show Daily News Live, on Comcast SportsNet. Do you find yourself receiving more feedback from the fans in that medium, or more with column-writing for the Daily News?
A: Way more feedback from TV. Almost everyone who recognizes me on the street recognizes me from TV, though my picture is often in the paper.
I'm scared to death that nobody in your generation ever reads the newspaper, which is how I really make my living. Please tell your friends to read the paper, buy the paper. I look at some Eagles fans message boards, and it drives me nuts when somebody puzzles over something, and nobody on the board has an answer, and I wrote about it the previous day, all they had to do was read the story.

Q: You have written opinion articles for years. How have you defined yourself as a credible sports voice in the city?
A: I don't know that I have, but if I have, I think I try to be a reasonable, honest guy who isn't driven by an agenda. I don't set out to be "The pro-Donovan guy" or the "anti-Donovan guy" or any of that, which I think you see a lot in the media today. I try to look at both sides and write what seems to make sense to me. That doesn't mean you don't ultimately come down on one side or the other, but you try to be fair.
The business seems to be more and more dominated by one-sided, shrieking, shrill people who strike dramatic poses, just to be controversial. Frequently it seems to me that what these people have to say is gibberish, that if you ever take the time to compare what they said yesterday to what they said today, they often directly contradict themselves, but many of them are rich and famous and I'm not, so maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way.

Q: One reason I love the idea of working in the mass media is quality of life in the workplace. Your career is centered on a sport you love watching and analyzing. What is better than that?
A: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, and you're right, to an extent. I always say I love having a job that doesn't entail going into an office and sitting at a desk from 9 to 5.

I thought the same way you do when I was your age. One thing I'll warn you about though, you won't always be in your 20s. I liked covering the Flyers very much, did it 12 1/2 years, but it got to where I just couldn't take the travel anymore, I was always away from my wife and kids, missing kids' birthdays, having to leave get-togethers because something happened and I had to write about it.
Football travel isn't quite as bad (though the Eagles play in Arizona this year on Christmas Freaking Eve). But just Sunday night, I was out at dinner with my 16 year-old son and I got a cell phone call, the Eagles had removed the franchise tag from Corey Simon. We got up and left the restaurant without ever ordering. I had to send him up the street from our house for takeout. He was disappointed. It often seems like I can't count on ever really not having to work.
It's something to think about. I don't want to discourage you, but there's good and bad in every job. If I had it to do over again, I'm not sure I wouldn't have become a teacher, something my wife is doing now after many years as an editor at the Inquirer. Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. There are a lot of things I still like about this, as I said.
I think about somebody 50 years from now wanting to know about the year the Eagles went to the Super Bowl, in 2005, and maybe reading something I wrote, on whatever type of computer-thing people have in 50 years. Other than my kids, I guess that's what I'll have to show for having been here.

Q: What is your best advice for a rising college junior pursuing opportunities in your specific career field? I have published about 25 articles in Collegiate Times, and even worked for ESPN Radio in Blacksburg a little bit, but I really want to work in print media.
A: God help you. Our business is in terrible shape right now, and I don't see it getting better. Obviously, there are jobs, but not many, papers seem to cut budgets every year. People read the papers online, don't subscribe, advertisers don't feel they're getting good value.

But that little problem notwithstanding, my advice would be to write and get published as much as possible. You're on the right track with the Collegiate Times. I'd try to apply for summer internships, in the Philly area or at the Roanoke Times or wherever. People in this business tend to hire people they know (much like other businesses, probably). If you're the bright young intern the editor remembers, that's better than a snazzy cover letter and a resume he can't place a face with.