About Me

One day a professor at the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications told me that I need to treat myself as a brand. The next day the persona The_JLab was born. Gotta love that underscore...Anyway, a few weeks later a close friend said that I needed to start a blog called "The_JLab." At the time I was already maintaining a blog about pizza called "Tossing the Dough" in addition to being the editor-in-chief/co-founder of Extra Point Sports Magazine, the most fulfilling endeavor I have ever embarked on, and my course-load.

But you can only write about pizza for so long. After a few weeks I wanted a place where I could write about whatever peaked my interests, so it was time for the blog to debut. "The_JLab" sounded too stagnant. The name needed something to make it pop. Hence the "Lounge."  

This site is written for guys (but we throw in a few general interest pieces from time to time) in an informal manner. I try to touch on the topics that matter most to me like entertainment, health, leisure, and sports, so don't expect any political essays. It's the lounge, so come in, grab a drink, and chill for a while. 


Like my stuff? Shoot me an email at jflaboon@syr.edu
Hate my stuff? Who cares, no one asked you anyway.




Jeff Laboon (pronounced lə  bün) is a senior at Syracuse University (SU) studying magazine writing and nutrition. Growing up in a large Italian family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he had three main interests — eating, watching sports (although he played basketball in junior high) and writing about them.

At SU during his freshman and sophomore years at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Jeff covered a sports beat for The Daily Orange, the independent newspaper on the Syracuse campus which is published weekly in print and daily online. 

In the fall of 2010, Jeff and Pete Gegick, a fellow SU, Newhouse student who also hails from Pittsburgh, founded Extra Point Sports Magazine. Extra Point presents sports in an entertaining and positive style with plenty of 80s movie references and witty comments. As the editor-in-chief, Jeff manages a group of creative writers who always are willing to share their opinions.


Jeff lives by the words of Dickens, “Reflect upon your blessings, of which every man has plenty, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men has some."