Paul Gerald grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and still has an NASL Memphis Rogues pennant somewhere. He had a very brief career as a decent goalkeeper until around the age of fifteen, at which point his strong tendency toward laziness kicked in and he decided to write about sports instead of playing them. When he got to Southern Methodist University, he started writing in sports for the student newspaper. He eventually had jobs at the Dallas Times Herald, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and the Memphis Flyer before fleeing the southern summers for Portland, Oregon in 1996. Since then, he has written sports, travel, and outdoors articles for publications all over the country and is the author of five guidebooks for Menasha Ridge Press, including Portland's best-selling hiking guide, "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Portland." He has guided hiking trips in Oregon, California, Colorado, Italy, and Nepal. Along the way, since writing never really pays the bills, he has also worked for nonprofits, restaurants, tour companies, an insurance company, Radio Cab Company in Portland, and on Alaskan fishing boats. And that's just what he can remember. Since his first English soccer game in 2011, he has seen 103 contests at 64 different grounds. Back at home, he's a Portland Timbers season ticket holder and a dues-paying member of the Timbers Army; he hates nothing in life more than the last ten minutes of a game when the green and gold are ahead by one goal. His neighbors in section 217 can attest to this.
