Meet The Defending Big D Writers

Managing Editor & Founder - Brandon Worley

Salem, Connecticut

Brandon Worley was born and raised in Dallas, Texas before joining the US Navy in May of 2001. Stationed in Connecticut for most of his adult life and still addicted to the Dallas sports teams he grew up loving, Brandon naturally migrated to the internet as team blogs and forum became more prevalent in the sports media landscape. After several years of trying his hand at personal sports and film blogs, he eventually became a full time writer for popular Dallas Cowboys website Blogging The Boys in early 2008. 

When the opportunity presented itself to start his own Dallas Stars website Brandon moved on from Blogging The Boys and launched Defending Big D, a Dallas Stars blog and website on SB Nation in January 2009. Since Defending Big D was founded, the site has grown to include over 600 members and has added three regular writers, two guest authors and a resident graphic design artist. Additionally, Defending Big D has been featured on Yahoo! Sports, USA Today, ESPNDallas.com, SI.com, AOL Fanhouse and NHL.com. 

In addition to his regular duties as managing editor of Defending Big D, Brandon is the league manager for NHL blogs on SB Nation and is the Lead Editor for NHL coverage on SBNation.com. 

Go here for a more comprehensive biography.

Email Brandon at defendingbigd@gmail.com.

Follow Brandon on Twitter.

Staff Writer - Art Middleton

Edmonton, Alberta

Well, I am Art Middleton... Nice to meet you. I am a 31 year old male living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada which as I am repeatedly told by Edmonton Oilers marketing is "The Heartland Of Hockey" and also "Oil Country." Despite that though I am not an Oilers fan. Sure they are an ok team but they and their fan base get on my nerves after a while. It's kinda like how Chris Tucker was ok in the first Rush Hour movie and then just steadily got more annoying with each passing movie after.

HA! The Oilers are officially the "Chris Tucker" of the NHL!

Anyway, I'm a hardcore Dallas Stars fan dating back to around the 89/90 season when I was 12 and when the Stars were actually North Stars and were playing out of a 3/4 empty Met Center in Bloomington, MN. with a fresh faced kid from the Prince Albert Raiders named Mike Modano having had just joined the club. They moved to Dallas a few years later of course and they even more importantly repeatedly made the Oilers their playoff bitches season after season a few years after that move (though the proud tradition of Stars whipping Oiler ass was actually started in the 1991 playoffs back in Minny) and with that I became a commited Stars die-hard.

Just to give you the run down on all the other sports and teams I root for... Calgary Stampeders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros (I'm think I'm allowed to have two teams as they are technically in different ‘leagues') and I have a special place in my heart for the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL since in a strange way I still call my "hometown team" even though I haven't lived in Swift Current since I was 5 years old (or something like that...)

Of course I have other interests outside of sports... I love music, stand-up comedy, video games, long walks on the beach and sleeping in when possible. I'm a single male (which means I still get to watch sports on my TV when I want without fear of having it interrupted by whatever drama it is women like to watch right now...) with no kids (*insert "that I know of" joke here*), but I do have a black cat named "Ninja" that pretty much acts like an attention starved child, so it all balances out.

Read Art's other sports blog, StarsScene.com.

Email Art.

Follow Art on Twitter.

Staff Writer - Brandon Bibb

Dallas, Texas

My name is Brandon Bibb, I'm 33 years old and I work for a title insurance company in their IT department.I got my start as a hockey fan during the 1986 Stanley Cup Playoffs on ESPN when highlights of the Easter Epic and Pat Lafontaine's goal caught my eye. After that, I asked my parents for a foosball-style hockey game for Christmas.

You know, one of those foosball style table hockey games? Anyway, as luck would have it, the teams that came with the game were the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers. Everytime I'd play that game with my brother, I played the Isles

As such, I was hooked as an Islanders fan. And then John Ziegler did something dastardly. He took hockey away from ESPN (and me) and gave Sportschannel America the national TV contract for the NHL. It wasn't until we moved to Oklahoma in 1989 and got a big satellite dish that I got to watch my beloved Isles, again.

It was also around this time that a team that played it's home games at the Madhouse on Madison caught my eye with players like Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, and Ed Belfour. You can also thank Frank Pellico, Wayne Messmer, and Stadium full of raucous Hawk fans for helping me fall in love with this team.

A few years later, Norm Green bought the North Stars and moved them to my hometown. I was thrilled, but this also proved a little problematic since I the wounds from the 1991 Norris Division Semifinal series upset were still fresh in my mind as a Hawks fan. I pulled for the Stars when they weren't playing the Islanders or Blackhawks for the first few seasons, then adopted them as my primary team when Chicago started to fall on hard times.

Outside of hockey, I also root for the Mavericks, Cowboys, and Rangers. And I'm also a Sooners fan, despite having been born and bred in the state of Texas. You can blame my dad for this as he's from Oklahoma and everyone on his side of the family root for the Sooners.

I'm also a Boston Red Sox fan. Bill Buckner, Calvin Schiraldi, and Bob Stanley are partially responsible. Along with all my elementary schoolmates who were pulling for the Mets in 1986. I'd also like to think my dad's fanship in the Boston Celtics might have helped out there a bit, too.

Oh yeah, since I hate the Dodgers, I also pull for the San Francisco Giants. It's a lot easier to pull for that team now that a certain <strike>'roider</strike> player with an expandable hat size has left the team.

Before contributing to Defending Big D, I maintained my own blog called Knee Jerk City. So named because of the knee jerk tendency of fans here in Dallas. At the time I named that blog, the Mavs had just lost Game 1 of their series against Golden State and I felt the fans around here were overreacting. Obviously, the fears being expressed by the fans around here were confirmed a scant five games later and an inspiration for a Dallas-sports themed blog was born.

Email Brandon

Follow Brandon on Twitter.

Staff Writer - Brad Gardner

Dallas, Texas

Email Brad.

Guest Author - Derek Bell

Editor and Guest Author - Mike Russo

Rochester, NY

I'm pretty embarrassed to say that I became a North Stars fan because I liked their sweaters. When I was in high school, I picked up a Sports Illustrated and read an article about how Dino Ciccarelli broke his leg and made a comeback in the NHL. I remember the picture of him holding a blow-up Dino the Dinosaur. When I played floor hockey in gym, I proclaimed that I was Dino - whenever I scored, my friends would yell out the name. My other favorite player was Don Beaupre. He stood about my height, so I related to him. The North Stars became a part of me. I wore the then away jersey - solid green - with pride. I rooted hard for them and was happy to see them reach the Cup finals twice - only to be defeated. That hurt. What probably hurt more was when Norm Green made the promise not to move the team. You know the rest. Despite the fact that Dino and Don were with other teams, I followed my team to Dallas and have been a Stars fan ever since.

The 1999 Cup victory was bittersweet for me. I was thrilled the Stars won the Cup, but had to hear (and still do) constant clamoring about how Brett Hull's skate was in the crease. I simply say 'Even so, the Stars would have taken it.' Still, I wish Hull's goal was from just inside the blue line so I wouldn't have to hear the whining.

Being an "anti homer", I refuse to cheer for  teams in New York. Everyone is a Sabres, Bills, and Syracuse fan. I could never figure out the logic behind rooting for a team just because it's close geographically. I still can't. I guess it's easier to pick a team that way, although it takes no imagination.

Chances are you won't actually "see" a lot of my work. My job is to look through posts and edit type-o's and minor errors. When I get a chance, I'll write an opinion piece or two.

Email Mike

Graphic Design Artist - Ryan Mendenhall