St. James vs. Calvary Baptist (11/30/07) w/ Joel Anderson of The Ringer

Joel Anderson of the Ringer was always someone I wanted to have on Regular Season and when I found out he spent two years at the Shreveport Times I knew, more or less, what I wanted to talk to him about.Joel is a writer at the Ringer where he also co-hosts The Press Box podcast with the delightful Bryan Curtis. Before that he worked at Slate, ESPN, Buzz Feed, The AJC, the Tampa Bay Times. He might be best known for his great work on the podcast Slow Burn where he did three seasons. One on Clarence Thomas, another on the Los Angeles riots after the Rodeny King verdict and the most well received was on the Tupac-Biggie beef..As a younger man Joel played college football, even spent one year backing up Ladanian Tomlinson at TCU.We talk about all that here but mostly we talk about Louisiana high school football, specifically St. James vs. Calvary Baptists from November 30, 2007. A game that was FAR from meaningless—for Joel who was working at the Shreveport Times, or for the fans of Louisiana high school football—but not a game that persists in the popular imagination. It was a 2007 LHSAA Class 2A Semifinal so they were playing for the opportunity to go to the Superdome where the finals are contested..it’s got plenty of Booty’s and Durons, a religious dispute, a hot shot quarterback who became a Broadway star…its’ Faulknerian for lack of a better term.