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seanmckenna's review
3.0
There's no doubt about it: the premise of this book is great as there is clearly a lot of messed up stuff when it comes to football in the US. It also opens very strongly with examples of good and bad college football programs, Virginia Tech being the poster child for "good" and almost any other college football powerhouse filling out the "bad" side of the ledger. In this section of the book, Easterbrook is methodical and detailed in contrasting the way things should be and the way that they are at most schools.
The problems come after that, with chapter after chapter of plausible but poorly argued and unsubstantiated assertions about the negative impacts of football upon the US. There is, for instance, a long discussion of the impact that huge football players have on the health of the nation's children. Early in the chapter, Easterbrook throws out a hypothesis that glorifying 300+ pound NFL linemen serves to tell American youth that being fat is OK or even desirable, thus causing the obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, he presents zero evidence of this connection and in fact glibly closes the chapter with something to the effect of "Even children who don't watch football have become heavier on average in recent years so increased consumption of fast food and sugary drinks is perhaps mostly to blame... but showing heavy linemen succeeding in the NFL every Sunday certainly hasn't helped." These are the types of ideas that should be pursued by an author writing a book with this premise but when no provable connection pans out, they should be cut to make the book tighter and more consistent.
There are a lot of strong points in this book and it is worth reading for the contrasts between good and bad college football programs. Just be prepared for a lot of unsatisfying assertions.
The problems come after that, with chapter after chapter of plausible but poorly argued and unsubstantiated assertions about the negative impacts of football upon the US. There is, for instance, a long discussion of the impact that huge football players have on the health of the nation's children. Early in the chapter, Easterbrook throws out a hypothesis that glorifying 300+ pound NFL linemen serves to tell American youth that being fat is OK or even desirable, thus causing the obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, he presents zero evidence of this connection and in fact glibly closes the chapter with something to the effect of "Even children who don't watch football have become heavier on average in recent years so increased consumption of fast food and sugary drinks is perhaps mostly to blame... but showing heavy linemen succeeding in the NFL every Sunday certainly hasn't helped." These are the types of ideas that should be pursued by an author writing a book with this premise but when no provable connection pans out, they should be cut to make the book tighter and more consistent.
There are a lot of strong points in this book and it is worth reading for the contrasts between good and bad college football programs. Just be prepared for a lot of unsatisfying assertions.
fdterritory's review
4.0
If you're a fan of Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN.com, then you're going to be very familiar with _The King Of Sports_. You know that he's going to jump around from topic to topic, he's going to (too-frequently) inject his political views in places where they don't belong, and he's going to suggest reforms in places where they could be used. If you take these three habits, and extend them to 300+ pages rather than a website, you have this book. Therefore, it succeeds and fails in the same ways.
Easterbrook produces here a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the sociological, anthropological, and economic influences of football on American society, and of American society on football. Some of the chapters, therefore, are truly enlightening; for instance, his observations on the growing size of football players and inside looks into the 'elite showcase' recruiting culture were truly enlightening. Some, however, are more obvious (the fact that some good football players do not succeed in life is pedestrian and similar to every other area of elite performance...if you did interviews with every kid in your HS honor band or math bowl, I daresay you'd find the same stories), and the chapter on "What a Sport Says About America" is nonsensical liberal speculation.
Thankfully, Easterbrook does not avoid suggesting solutions. And, again, these are hit-and-miss. Better helmets and pads are a great idea for younger students, and six-year scholarships for football and men's basketball players are a great idea (although Title IX would never allow it), but suggesting a graduation rate component to college ranking systems is Pollyanna-ish.
In the end, I initially gave the book three stars for being disjointed and brilliant at the same time. But I added one simply because I'm still finding myself considering many of his points, and a book that makes me think for this long should be read by more people. But I also imagine that the average reading may find this muddied beyond recognition. If you're willing to wrestle with his ideas and reject the ones that don't follow, by all means pick this up. If you're not, it may be more trouble than it's worth.
Easterbrook produces here a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the sociological, anthropological, and economic influences of football on American society, and of American society on football. Some of the chapters, therefore, are truly enlightening; for instance, his observations on the growing size of football players and inside looks into the 'elite showcase' recruiting culture were truly enlightening. Some, however, are more obvious (the fact that some good football players do not succeed in life is pedestrian and similar to every other area of elite performance...if you did interviews with every kid in your HS honor band or math bowl, I daresay you'd find the same stories), and the chapter on "What a Sport Says About America" is nonsensical liberal speculation.
Thankfully, Easterbrook does not avoid suggesting solutions. And, again, these are hit-and-miss. Better helmets and pads are a great idea for younger students, and six-year scholarships for football and men's basketball players are a great idea (although Title IX would never allow it), but suggesting a graduation rate component to college ranking systems is Pollyanna-ish.
In the end, I initially gave the book three stars for being disjointed and brilliant at the same time. But I added one simply because I'm still finding myself considering many of his points, and a book that makes me think for this long should be read by more people. But I also imagine that the average reading may find this muddied beyond recognition. If you're willing to wrestle with his ideas and reject the ones that don't follow, by all means pick this up. If you're not, it may be more trouble than it's worth.
annakmeyer's review
3.0
Quite interesting but so many typos. And made me feel guilty about loving football.
wellington299's review
4.0
The king of sprts. The king has no clothes! Every week during football season I look forward to reading Tuesday Morning Quarterback. I wonder about Gregg Easterbook. He loves football and makes his living from football....but has no qualms pointing out the ugly side of football. He has no problem telling everyone the king has no clothes.
Part of me loves football. Part of me also knows, especially after reading this book, there's an ugly cost and risk to the game. While trying not to think too much of how people make them, I also enjoy hot dogs and hamburgers. I also calculate that out of the thousands of hands I have shook someone didn't wash their hands ... Sometimes you just have to enjoy thing rather than try to make them perfect.
Football has a lot of shortcomings to perfection. I do like a lot of Greg's suggestions for improving college and profession football. We don't have to stop the parade of the naked king because it is fun. But hey, the key could at least acknowledge that he's naked.
mathstalio's review
2.0
Good and interesting information. Glad that he prefaced it with the disclaimer that he would have a positive chapter at the beginning and end and put a lot of the negative stuff in the middle, or I might not have made it to the end. While the info were good and he put some good points across, the writing was sub par. He constantly pushed "solutions", which were presented as natural conclusions from all the statistics and anecdotal evidence he had presented the problems with,but were actually just his opinions and were not backed up with the same hard evidence. So that got repetitive. Also the book leaned towards sexism a lot, which is unfortunately common in a sports piece. It was obvious that he assumed any reader would be male, any hardcore football fan would be male, and anyone really involved in the game would be male. He occasionally "complimented" women by making points about academics and other things (which were true and supported by fact), but they read more as dismissals of women as consumers of sport than compliments.
In all, there was some information that would be considered "insider" to this book that I'm glad I got to read, and parts were well researched, but definitely not the best book looking at the phenomenon of football that I've read.
In all, there was some information that would be considered "insider" to this book that I'm glad I got to read, and parts were well researched, but definitely not the best book looking at the phenomenon of football that I've read.
sdbecque's review
4.0
So, I was raised in a non-football family in a not really big college football town (though I was raised with two sports-crazy brothers, and have visited my fair share of sports hall of fames) and then I went to an all women's college without a football team (naturally). By the time I got to Syracuse, I felt like the passion people had for football was like another language I found interesting, but would never be fluent in.
That being said, I wish real football fans would read this. Easterbrook is clearly someone who cares about the sport of football, he is clearly a fan. The reforms he suggests throughout the book are mostly modest to anyone not crazed by the idea that their team (and only their team) be constant winners. At the college level, Easterbrook is most concerned with graduation rates, which are abominably low. Many coaches instead feed college players with NFL dreams at the expense of classwork and diplomas, even knowing the NFL odds are slim. Two things could be done that would have little effect on the games fans love (or the money the schools are able to generate) while placing value on the education these students should be receiving - factoring graduation rates (of the football team) into BCS rankings (thereby providing coaches with a real incentive to mandate players keep their grades up), and allowing NCAA Scholarships to be for 6 years (five years of eligibility and an extra year to fix grades and graduate if necessary, especially if the NFL has not come calling). Those two things largely leave the largess of boosters and coaches out of it while making things better for the players, those who ultimately, we should care about.
At the professional level, I can not believe that the NFL is allowed to run itself as a non-profit organization. A very distinction that mocks that term. Certainly, I think that fact should be announced at the beginning of every NFL game. More than that, team owners are allowed to extort states and cities for tax money to build stadiums - hundreds of millions of dollars - of which they pay back nothing (or next to nothing) and keep all of the money from ticket sales, concessions and merchandising. At the same time, states are cutting funding to education and social programs that could do some real good, while football team owners with billions of dollars sit back on their wealth. Certainly taxing the NFL - which can we all agree is a FOR PROFIT organization - seems like the least we could do in the general betterment of society.
Perhaps it would be too much to ask for all of us to take a step back and gain some perspective about the sport of football. Could we all just remember for two seconds that every game has a winner and a loser, and if your team happens to be the loser it might not be cause to call for the coaches head (and his buyout) on a silver platter? Maybe? Would that be too much?
allisoncc's review
4.0
A great read for football fans who realize there are problems in the system. A detailed account of how concussions, money/funding, college scholarships, broadcast rights, and more, effect football from the NFL through college and high school all the way down to Pop Warner leagues. Quite eye opening, while still written by someone who loves the sport. Highly suggested to any football fan who never lived being a football player, and is aware that something needs to change.
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