When I first read Ian Joy's tale I was struck with just how personal Joy allowed himself to be. He
told his story of depression with no shame and truly opened himself up to what he went through. His
candid approach led me to reach out to him.
Initially, I had absolutely no intentions of interviewing him.
In the past few weeks we've two impressive stories of professional soccer players battling off
field problems. The first was David Testo who made public the fact that he is gay. That is
challenging in and of itself, but it takes that much more courage to come out when you're a
professional athlete. As impressive as that story was, I was struck by another.
You know Ian Joy right? The former St. Pauli & RSL defender who's now under the employ of the
Portland Timbers? The one with the big, f*** off skull & bones tattoo on his back next to a
completely questionable 'lil devil tattoo? Yeah that guy.
He's doing a 4-part series of posts for Dropping Timber chronicling his journey from a childhood
with a father as an ex-pro to his time in the Man United youth academy/meat grinder to St.
