sports

Nov 26 2011

Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football by John U. Bacon

This review was originally posted at National Review Online’s sports blog Right Field.

Five years ago, the University of Michigan football team was headed into its final game of the season 11–0 and ranked No. 2 in the country, facing 11–0 and No. 1 ranked Ohio State. “The Game” had become “The Game of the Century” and everything was on the line: a chance to beat archrival Ohio State; a national-championship-game invite; and an opportunity to put the capstone on Lloyd Carr’s Michigan career (one that had steadily lost its glow since his 1997 national title).

On what seemed like the precipice of greatness, however, the program instead fell into darkness with wailing and gnashing of teeth.

With eerie symbolism, legendary coach Bo Schembechler died the day before The Game. The next night, Michigan lost in heartbreaking fashion, 42–39, and then lost again to USC in the Rose Bowl, 32–18.

The following season, the Wolverines (ranked No. 5) lost to Appalachian State in one of the most stunning upsets in college-football history. This downward spiral was briefly interrupted by a 9–4 season and a win in the Capital One Bowl. But the next three seasons would prove to be perhaps the ugliest and most difficult in the long history of Michigan football.

And John U. Bacon found himself with the kind of access unheard of in modern athletics. The result is a remarkable book: Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.

Lloyd Carr retired at the end of the 2007 season and Michigan eventually hired West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez. In one of those quirks of fate, a former student of Bacon’s worked for Rodriguez’s financial adviser. This connection led to the idea of Bacon’s writing a couple of articles about the spread offense coming to Michigan, and then maybe collaborating on a book.

It is the height of understatement to say things did not work out as planned. Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct 24 2011

Tarnishing an Icon: the perils of biogrpahy

Walter Payton

Image via Wikipedia

Jeff Pearlman‘s biography of Walter Payton has stirred some controversy. Shocking, I know, in this culture of celebrity and shock marketing.  But I also thinks it raises some interesting questions. Do we really want to know the history of iconic figures?  In particular, do we want to know the ugly details of our sports heroes?  Obviously, there is a market for books that offer salacious gossip about the lives of the famous. But is there something wrong with publishing the unseemly details of the life of a football player that is a hero to many; someone that seemed to represent all that is good about professional sports?

Sports Illustrated writer Peter King weighs in with his thoughts:

When the furor over the Walter Payton biography Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton surfaced last month, I told you I’d pass along my thoughts when I’d read it. Now that I have, I can tell you it’s terrific.

The painstaking detail is what makes this one of the best sports biographies I’ve ever read.

[...]

You pass judgment on whether a book about a beloved figure that both glorifies and tarnishes him should be written. My judgment is it should. Payton was a superstar, a public figure of national significance for 25 years. Were we demanding to know he used drugs and philandered and at times was a bad teammate with the Bears? No. But figures of renown are subjects of books all the time, and Payton’s life, as it turns out, is beyond interesting. It’s compelling. It’s most often riveting, particularly the parts about his formative years in the Deep South. It’s real history, not the gauzy stuff.

Oh. And the prologue of Sweetness … The first page of the book is jarring. It can’t get better than Pearlman’s meeting with Walter Payton. But the rest of the book lives up to the promise of the first page. It’s that good.

I am torn. It sounds like a fascinating book and full of great details about both Payton and the NFL, but I am not sure I really want to know the truth at this point. Perhaps I prefer to keep my unsullied view of Walter Payton. Perhaps I want to hang on to my icon rather than the real person behind it (flawed yes, but also compelling and real).

What about you? Do like to read iconoclastic biographies?  Do you prefer to keep your heroes on a pedestal?

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Feb 14 2011

The Ones Who Hit the Hardest by Chad Millman & Shawn Coyne

Cover of "The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: T...

Cover via Amazon

The sting is beginning to wear off from the heartbreaking Super Bowl loss of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers – but that game is likely to haunt Steeler fans for a while.

Continuing my attempt at topical or themed reading, I decided to read an appropriate book in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV.

And one that was in the TBR pile fit perfectly: The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the ’70s, and the Fight for America’s Soul.

Steeler fans, those intersted in the history of the NFL and those with a connection to Pittsburgh will want to check this one out.

While at times the differing threads sit awkwardly together, and it is certainly a Steeler focused perspective, but I found it be an engaging and interesting read.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun 6 2010

In the Mail: What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports

What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports by George Allen

Synopsis

There’s a reason you like sports more than politics.It’s because sports make sense and Washington doesn’t. In sports, you have to play by the rules, but in Washington they constantly change the rules to reward special interests they like and punish those they don’t. In sports, referees know how to stay out of the action; the players are the stars. But in Washington, congressmen, senators, and bureaucrats think they’re the stars, and that regulation, not freedom and competition, makes America work. In sports, players know you win or lose as a team, but how many politicians think of “Team America” rather than their petty self-interests?

No one knows sports and politics better than George Allen. The son of a Hall of Fame football coach, and a college quarterback and rugby player himself, Allen has also been a United States Senator and Governor of Virginia. He’s seen the worlds of sports and politics close up, and he knows which one he prefers— it’s the same one you do, because sports work and Washington doesn’t. In What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports, Allen blends sports anecdotes—memorable, funny, and nostalgic—with the political issues we face, drawing out the principles of sports that have real world applications to our national life and politics.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Oct 29 2008

War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg

War As They Knew ItFew sports fans would argue that we needed yet another book about the “Ten Year War” – the intense rivalry between the University of Michigan and Ohio State football teams and their iconic coaches Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.  The subject has been covered voluminously in books, magazines, newspapers, and videos (I have reviewed a few myself).

So I have to credit Michael Rosenberg for coming up with a new angle to approach this classic subject.  His book, War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest, uses the backdrop of the protest movement in the era of Vietnam and Watergate to situate this sports rivalry within the culture and history of the time.

This allows him to portray the players and coaches as human beings with opinions and emotions beyond the football field while reminding the reader that the university, and the surrounding community, obviously had to deal with a lot more than just the success of the football team.

But while this background is interesting – the different levels of political agitation on the Ohio State versus Michigan campus for example – what really makes the book shine is Rosenberg’s portrait of Woody Hayes.

By placing Hayes in this historical context and by connecting his work as a coach with his unique personality and background – his inspirations, dreams and deep seated beliefs – Rosenberg captures Hayes as a multidimensional person rather than simply as an icon or caricature.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 2 • Tags: , ,