Connor Toole
Connor Toole turns niche sports, food, and culture stories into sharp explainers built around studies, expert breakdowns, and offbeat details. He is the deputy editor at BroBible and has spent close to 15 years shaping coverage for the masthead across sports, culture, and food. His work stands out for the way it connects novelty snacks, fan obsessions, and league politics to the data, reporting, and media dynamics behind them.
Role at BroBible and editorial range
As deputy editor, Toole is a long-time presence at BroBible and contributes across multiple sections rather than a narrow beat.
His bylines appear in culture coverage that spans media mishaps, science explainers, and fashion trends, as well as in sports pieces that track how leagues, players, and broadcasters interact. He also writes in slideshow formats, such as a piece on the shortest NBA players who managed to hold their own in the league, which reflects his ability to package statistics and history for quick reading.
Across these different formats, he relies on outside reporting, league statements, and academic work, then reframes them for BroBible’s audience with concise summaries and pointed commentary. He frequently highlights the consequences of decisions made by institutions - whether a newspaper’s reading list editors, a sports league’s commissioners, or regulators pursuing alleged price-gouging - rather than centering himself. That editorial approach gives communications stories and research findings a direct path into fan-facing coverage.
Food, snacks, and the business of indulgence
Food stories in Toole’s portfolio focus on how brands, regulators, and consumers collide around indulgence and pricing. He covers enforcement actions such as Japanese authorities raiding companies accused of forming an “ice cream cartel” to gouge customers, treating the story as a blend of competition law and everyday dessert.[anchor] He also writes about novelty snacks, including a piece on Doritos that taste like Mountain Dew, where he leans into the nostalgia and extremity baked into that flavor mash‑up.
In these food pieces, Toole pays attention to how products are positioned and perceived, not just what they are.
His coverage of the ice cream cartel focuses on the alleged effort to keep prices artificially high for consumers, tying confectionary treats to broader questions about corporate behavior and regulation.[anchor] His Mountain Dew Doritos story uses a limited-edition chip to explore why crossover flavors resonate with people who grew up on both the drink and the brand’s reputation for over-the-top marketing. Combined, these articles show him treating food as part of culture and business strategy rather than a standalone lifestyle topic.
Sports, stats, and crossover entertainment
Toole’s sports coverage blends on-field action with league policy, analytics, and entertainment crossovers.
He reports on plans for a revamped NBA All-Star Game that would feature players representing their countries or regions, drawing on comments from Adam Silver and positioning the shift alongside other international formats in professional sports. He has covered discussions about letting NBA players wear custom social-justice messages on their jerseys, sourcing details from union and league conversations and explaining how apparel can be used to call attention to wider issues.
He frequently writes from a data and research angle. One article breaks down an academic study suggesting Patrick Mahomes receives more favorable calls in the playoffs, detailing how penalty yardage, first downs, and referee experience point to a different postseason pattern for the Chiefs compared with other contenders.
Another dives into how LeBron James scores more points when certain celebrities are in attendance, using that finding to explore the relationship between star power on the court and in the seats. His slideshow on short NBA players who succeeded in the league similarly distills height, performance, and career narratives into a quick statistical profile.
Toole also leans into the overlap between sports and entertainment media. He has covered Pablo Torre’s clutch final round on “Celebrity Family Feud,” treating the game show appearance as an extension of sports-media personalities into mainstream television. In a piece about a Missouri football coach warning about money’s impact on college football parity, he focuses on how economic realities and realignment shape the competitive landscape rather than simply quoting the soundbite.
His write-up of a Twitter fight with Darren Rovell over a “tremendous content” tweet uses that personal exchange to examine standards for sports-business commentary.
Internet culture, science, and fan explainers
Beyond food and sports, Toole writes explainers that sit at the intersection of internet culture, science, and fandom. He covered a newspaper’s AI-generated summer reading list that included numerous nonexistent books, using the case to illustrate how generative tools and lax diligence can produce errors that slip into print.
In another article, he walks through scientists’ attempt to pour cold water on the “Infinite Monkey Theorem,” summarizing calculations involving chimpanzees, keyboards, and the lifespan of the universe to show just how unlikely it is they would ever recreate Shakespeare’s works.
His interest in media realism and technology comes through in a piece where a security expert breaks down famous hacking scenes from movies and television, highlighting which depictions bear any resemblance to actual practice and which are purely cinematic. He has written an explainer on how long ago Star Wars actually takes place, using cosmology and galaxy formation to pin the saga roughly 4.7 billion years before modern times.
A culture story about “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” dedicating an episode to the Eagles’ Super Bowl win shows his eye for how TV writers respond to major sports moments.
Toole often brings fashion and nostalgia into this mix, as in his argument that cargo shorts deserve a comeback, where he frames 2021 as “The Year of the Cargo Shorts” and traces their journey from derided staple to functional favorite. His enthusiasm for television fandom is underscored by his appearance as an Entourage super fan on a podcast episode dissecting a mid‑series installment, reflecting the depth with which he engages with the shows he covers.
Across these pieces, he uses approachable language, humor, and precise sourcing to translate complex or niche topics into stories that resonate with readers who live online.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.