And I wrote a couple of pieces in it too! Again, this gives you an excuse to buy the magazine with the hot chick on the cover, by saying you’re only buying it for the sports articles.



The people at UNO and Rogue actually emailed me for a picture and a short “About the Author” blurb on the same day; I ended up sending both magazines the same photo and write-up, because I’m lazy.

Of course, Rogue screwed up the contributors’ profiles, mixing mine up with those of Noel Zarate and Cedelf Tupas. That’s how writers know how important their contributions are to the magazine (that is, not nearly half as important as the hot chick on the cover).



They asked me to write a list of ten of the biggest Philippine sports scandals, which was a sidebar to Bill Velasco’s piece on the top ten greatest athletes of all time. Of course, I get the scandals assignment, right? It finally fulfilled my lifelong dream to be published in a sidebar to a Bill Velasco article.



Cedelf, whom you probably know from his excellent work covering the Azkals for the Philippine Daily Inquirer , had a nice piece on the team that felt way too short; he said he had so much more to say, but was bound by a 1,500-word limit. That’s always been an issue with print, especially with a publication like Rogue, which emphasizes the artwork and photography.



In fairness to Rogue, it looks absolutely gorgeous; it might be the prettiest magazine out there, in terms of graphics and layout. Some of the spreads are downright stunning. But yeah, I dunno, maybe it’s geared toward people who like the idea of magazines, but aren’t really into all this reading business.

My other piece in the magazine is an interview with controversial former Philippine Football Federation president Mari Martinez, where he tells his side of the story. I originally wrote in the headline “Sympathy for the Devil” like the Rolling Stones song, which told history from the point of view of Lucifer – I thought there was a parallel.



A curious note about my interview with Martinez: he kept saying that he had a witness for his transactions with Indonesia’s football federation during the Suzuki Cup, one who could vouch for his trustworthiness. The witness? Ronnie Nathanielsz.

Oh, one last thing: If you’re a fan of Pacific Rims author Rafe Bartholomew, Tiyo Paeng has a six-page fashion spread in this issue. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. I was going to post scans here to clown him, but then he might take offense and quit writing guest posts for FQ that rile up Azkals fans.