First thing this morning, I touted the greatness of Really Drew Bledsoe's latest post on his blog, TonyHomo.com. An hour later, Tim Rogers at FrontBurner outed the man behind the blog: Amir Blumenfeld, a 23-year-old Los Angeles native who now lives in New York writing for College Humor.
So, since I got nothing better to do, I figured we'd might as well interview Blumenfeld about precisely why, for the last two months or so, he's been writing a blog as a bitter, hamburger-obsessed Drew Bledsoe. That interview's after the jump, but first, Blumenfeld's really kinda bummed he's been identified as the man beneath center: "That's a disappointment," he says when told he was ID'd by FrontBurner. "I was sort of doing it anonymously." No longer, my funny young friend. No longer.--Robert Wilonsky
So, now that you've been outed, will you keep doing TonyHomo.com?
I don't know how many people read that random blog. What's FrontBurner? It is a big blog?
Sure, I guess. In Dallas, certainly. Far as blogs go.
Hmm. Kinda want to go see it.
So, you will keep doing it?
Yeah. Probably. How did you find out about TonyHomo.com?
A friend told me about it.
That's the answer everyone gives: "A friend told me."
By the way, I am a big fan of your College Humor stuff.
Oh, man, I feel like cover's completely blown at this point.
You couldn't have chosen a better guy to pick on. The whole town -- the whole country -- has a man-crush on Tony Romo.
Fuckin' Romo.
Aw, why do you say that?
Actually, I think he's a pretty good player. I have him on my fantasy team.
So how did the whole thing come about?
Honestly? I checked to see if the name TonyHomo.com. It seemed pretty funny. Turned out it was available, and I thought I might as well take advantage of it by making a blog out of it. And I thought, who hates Tony Romo more than Drew Bledsoe, and I developed the character of a jealous 4-year-old quarterback who's in love with hamburgers, and I took it from there.
I do love the simplicity of that.
It's very simple when you think of it, but it's been fun.
How long do you plan on running with it?
Till the season ends. I can't imagine sustained interest during the off-season.
I dunno. ESPN the Magazine, USA Today, all these media outlets from all over the country are at Valley Ranch every week doing long puff pieces about The Next Great Quarterback.
I actually freelance for ESPN the Magazine. I write jokes for them. They're running a TomyHomo-esque piece in the next issue.
Written as Drew Bledsoe?
It's written as a ... I don't wanna give it away, just in case.
So, besides the hamburger thing, really, how did you imagine Bledsoe as you began writing as him?
That's pretty much it. He's pretty petty. He's unfunny. He's sort of self-aggrandizing. He's overly proud of his accomplishments. And he's jealous.
This must be a big week for you: New York versus the Cowboys in New York for first place in the NFC East.
That's how it started. It comes full circle. It started after the Giants game, with the Sam Madison interception.
Were you watching it?
Yeah, yeah.
How long after the game had ended did this all happen?
The game was Sunday night, and Monday or Tuesday morning I bought the name, and Wednesday I started the blog. I posted about it on some Cowboys message board to get the ball rolling, and by the next morning I posted it on another message board, and they were like, "We already talked about it, you idiot." The name I used to post was Jose Cortez.
You know, the more I think about it, I don't know why you're bummed that people now know it's you behind TonyHomo.com. It's not like people thought Drew Bledsoe was actually writing it. At least now you can get the credit you so richly deserve.
I guess you're very right.