It’s been a busy week, and we’ve fallen a little behind on our series with Texans beat writer Aaron Wilson. However, today, before the week is out, we wanted to wrap up our discussion between ITL’s Mark Skol and the Houston Chronicle’s Wilson.

Today’s segment focuses on real talk for the aspiring football journalist. Like any writer, if we really pressed Aaron on the question of what are the perils of the business, he could probably speak for days (I know that’s true of myself). However, Aaron gives a good overview of the ‘downs’ of the biz here, and that suffices for today.

Take it away, Mark and Aaron.

What are the downs to the business?

“Obviously, there are the things you would expect. The pressure. The stress. Even sometimes (I’m) worried (about) if I’m going to get this story or that story. There are some stories that you hope to get that you work on for years. You have to deal with a lot of sports agents and other people who are close to a player to get a story like that. It’s something you have to make a large investment in with time and resources, and then it’s frustrating if you don’t get that story. You want to be first, but most importantly, you want to be right. I’m not rushed to put out a rumor because reputation is all you have. Some other tough things about the business are (that)  there’s some favoritism shown. There (are) some conflict of interests within the press. There are some things that are unfair, but life is unfair.”

What advice do you have for aspiring journalists?

“Beyond reading a lot, read the New York Times. Read the Wall Street Journal. Read books. I would say that it’s really important to gather the office. Go out and talk to people wherever they congregate, whether it’s a football field or a gym. Get in there and talk to people face to face. Try not to do many phone interviews. If you can do it, meet in person. I think it’s very important to talk to people in person. It’s very impersonal if you talk to people over phone interviews and conference calls. I would be a tough editor on myself and tell people to accept constructive feedback. You want to have mentors. You want to have people who will let you know what they think of yourself. You need people to give you some reads on if a lead works or if transitions work. Think about the details. But at some point, you have to let the story tell itself.”

Before we go forward, I want to make something clear: Aaron Wilson has little to no ego. He never goes around talking about how cool he is, or how cool his job is, or anything of the sort. However, I asked my assistant, Mark, to specifically ask him a couple of questions related to the fun part of his job, and when he’s thought, ‘wow, this is something I’m really glad I’m doing.’

It might not be necessary, but I just wanted to offer that disclaimer. Here’s Part Two of our interview with Aaron:

When was the moment when you thought to yourself, “I’ve got a cool job?”

“I’ve had that feeling a few times, and some times it will sink in during an owner’s meeting. I remember, this was when Steve Bisciotti bought the rest of the Ravens. I was at the meeting when he was being approved as the majority owner. The owners had to sign off on Steve, and it was just a formality. I was sitting there with Steve in Palm Beach, Fla., and we are just hanging out at the Breakers Hotel and I see (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones and (Redskins owner) Daniel Snyder walking by, and I am just hanging out with Steve, who is just a regular guy who started a business and made a name for himself. Right then it kinda sunk in, “hey, you are doing something pretty cool.” I can remember another time, since I’m thinking of Steve, who is just a great guy, with my high school teammate from Washington D.C., Kevin Plank, who founded Under Armour. I was hanging out with Kevin and Steve at Ravens training camp practice a few years back at the Naval Academy where they were having a practice for the fans. It was nice sitting there talking to those guys who are two respected and accomplished people. They kept talking with me over articles that I wrote, or they thought was interesting, and they weren’t trying to butter me up. They were just really genuine and cool. It was a good feeling.”

What makes the job fun?

“I like the relationships that you build and getting information. I’m very competitive. I like to get the story out first, but I also like to get it right. Like when you get a long-term relationship with someone, you are going to get good stories with them. I like to think of it as a win-win. You get information from someone and someone gets their story out there. Human-interest stories are always good to work on especially with something compelling. I just wrote about (Texans DT) Devon Still and his daughter who beat cancer, and I had a lot of fun talking with Devon and his family about her. They were very proud of her.”

My first experience with the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson, who covers the Texans and who is one of the finest beat writers in the nation, was years ago. At the time, I think he was blogging for Pro Football Talk, or maybe it was during his stint writing for the National Football Post. Though he was covering the Ravens then, he was always passing along real news and info from his Twitter account.

That was unusual. So many other beat writers were simply pointing their recorders at the star player, copying it down, and then sending it out there, or maybe tweeting the odd political opinion or pop culture reference. Blah blah blah. Aaron never did that. I mean, everything that he was posting was legit news. It kinda pissed me off, because a lot of it crossed over into the kind of stuff I did (NFL scout comings and goings, agent terminations, personnel trends, that kind of stuff). I guess there was a fair amount of jealousy there, but never on Aaron’s end. From the first time we crossed paths at the Senior Bowl, Aaron was not just cordial but friendly, which is frankly pretty rare from an established person in the print media when it comes to someone like me. It was refreshing.

Last week, I asked Aaron if he’d let my crack intern, Mark, interview him about his experiences. What we got was gold, whether you’re simply a football business fan, an aspiring sports journalist, or simply the kind of person that likes to hear about good guys having success. Today, we’ll start with Aaron’s story of how he broke into the business, and next week, we’ll continue with plenty of other good stuff about his experiences.

From here, I’ll turn it over to Mark and Aaron.

“The way I got into the sports journalism business is I started off playing football as a linebacker at Eastern Carolina University. I injured my shoulder and stopped playing after three seasons. I had surgery on my shoulder and thought sports journalism would be a lot of fun and a safer route for me, so I joined the school newspaper.

“I started covering the football team that I played on, so I had a piece of insight on the team and how the team operated. I started getting stories from the people I knew and who trusted me with what was going on with recruiting, transfers, or anything that was going on with the team. At a young age, I got to cover a Division I football team that was going to bowl games and in came a lot of valuable experience. I covered the football team, the basketball team, the baseball team, and that was my start.

“(From there,) I started doing internships. I interned for a news journal in Florida, where I covered some Florida State football, minor-league ice hockey, and of course high school football, which is big in Florida. My first job was with a small paper called Hernando Today, which is owned by the Tampa Tribune, and covered high schools and local sports there. I also covered the Florida Gators and high school sports.

“The first time I got to cover a NFL game was with this small paper called the St. Augustine Record, where I covered the Jacksonville Jaguars. That was when Tom Coughlin was the coach and they had Fred Taylor at running back and Mark Brunell at quarterback. It was a pretty good team. It was a valuable experience for me to learn how to work a locker room. I had some mentors like Pete Prisco, who now works for CBS Sports. At the time, Pete was a local reporter and asked Coughlin all of the tough questions and never backed down. He was a bulldog. Pete definitely set a good example. I was watching him and asking questions.

“I went on to Baltimore, where I worked for the Carroll County Times and the Baltimore Sun. I covered the Ravens when they won the Super Bowl, and just this last year, I moved to Houston. John McClain from the Houston Chronicle recruited me to come down here and I started covering the Texans. I work for one of the largest and best newspapers in the country and I really enjoy that.”

More from Aaron next week.