there are a lot of guys his equal in accomplishments out there who are not getting the column space -
but he has a good friend who is a writer, & so always do articles about him...
I mean really. It's no different than Alli Dorey. Not that great a photog but she's Jason Kehl's gf and always taking pix of him on noteworthy stuff so they get printed where if she was sending in pictures of Joe Noname, not a chance would they get printed...
Thats the way the mags work.
In fact you can even PAY Gripped magazine to print your article, sort of like the vanity press. Pope, ya want to be in the mags? I think their rates start at $50 for a paragraph. If you send them $2500 they'll prob say you climbed 15b on natural gear.