Monday, September 30, 2024

Review: The Price (2024)

By Armen Keteyian & John Talty

Taken a look around college football these days? It's a mess. 

Players have started to make money, and they often aren't satisfied with what they get. Throw in the fact that if someone is benched because of a bad game, he starts to look into the transfer portal the first chance he gets. The rosters often change greatly from year to year. 

Meanwhile, the coaches often can't wait to move along to the next big job. Merely the threat of that switch is enough for their current employers to rewrite their contracts with some more zeroes involved. 

And scheduling has become a minefield. Rivalries that have been taking place for many decades are thrown by the wayside as conference affiliations seem to be rewritten on a yearly basis. That's led to such oddities as Stanford playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Mountain West Conference courting Northern Illinois to join as a football-only member. Bowl games are played before mostly empty seats with several players refusing to play because an injury might threaten their NFL draft status.

There's no rhyme or reason to all of this. It's a good idea to examine what's happening, and Armen Keteyian and John Talty help with this solid, long look at where we are in their book, "The Price." 

This sort of explosion was a long time in coming. The rules involving student-athletes had been exploitive for years. Their performances pulled in millions and millions of dollars to the universities, and all they saw out of it was a full scholarship. If they were in a bad situation for one reason or another, they had to wait a year to transfer ... which the coaches that picked them to receive grants-in-aid had no such restriction. The class example of the situation was when Doug Flutie walked around the Boston College campus in his playing days, and saw classmates wearing Flutie jerseys. His take from that purchase was $0. 

A group of lawsuits eventually worked their way through the system, and some of the rules disappeared. The phrase "Name, Image & Likeness" or NIL became ever-present around college sports, as there was a race to cash in on the opportunities. But any sort of system to standardize the rights of athletes hasn't been worked out. So no one knows what's legal, and no one knows what they can do. As Clemson coach Daby Swinney said, "There's no rules, no guidance, no nothing. It's out of control. It's not sustainable. It's an absolute mess and a train wreck, and the kids are going to be the ones who suffer in the end."

Keteyian and Talty have come along with a series of good-sized snapshots on events that have taken place in the sport recently. Some of the big names in the business are profiled nicely. Nick Saban, arguably the greatest coach of all time, was one of the most driven personalities in college football. Even he was worn down by everything around him, and retired from Alabama. That set off a chain reaction of coaching moves that affected several universities including the University at Buffalo, which lost its coach well into the offseason. Speaking of big names, Jim Harbaugh left Michigan right after winning the national championship, with something of a dark cloud following in the form of investigations. Jimbo Fisher was paid more than $77.6 million to go away. The way that coaches' agents try to manipulate the hiring process also gets a long look here.

The "haves" share some time with the "have somes." Maryland and Arizona can't keep up with Ohio State and Michigan under most circumstances, but it at least can have a winning record in the right circumstances. The catch is that if someone succeeds at that level as a coach, he may wind up elsewhere as soon as the season ends. And the midrange schools - Macy's instead of Sacks Fifth Avenue, in the authors' words - have to start over.

That's a lot to cover, and it certainly took some work to put it all together. Kudos to Keyeyian and Talty for their legwork. There's probably only one thing missing here. The subtitle of the book is "What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos." That concept isn't really answered here, and it would have been nice if the authors had tried to guess what a workable system would look like eventually. 

We'll probably get to that point in the relatively near future. Still, "The Price" is a good snapshot at the state of college football today. 

Four stars

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Monday, September 23, 2024

Review: Globetrotter (2024)

By Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob

The Harlem Globetrotters have a heck of an origin story. 

Sometime in the late 1920s, when basketball was essentially in its infancy on a national scale, a group of African Americans started barnstorming around the country in an attempt to make a living. They'd drive from city to city in cars that usually had a short shelf life, and take on all comers. They were good, really good - to the point that they usually beat most of their opponents handily. In fact, they sometimes had to clown around once the game was decided in order to keep the interest of the spectators. 

And the leader of the "band" was a 5-foot-3 Jewish immigrant named Abe Saperstein. There were a handful of sports promoters in those days who made a name for themselves, and Saperstein was as good as any of them. Somehow, the Harlem Globetrotters became nationally - and then internationally famous. 

That's the story that Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob tell in "Globetrotter." It's billed as the first biography of Saperstein, which makes it a worthwhile enterprise right from the start.

The Globetrotters are still around today, which gives this story more relevancy. The fans who are still turning out to see the Trotters may not know just how good the team used to be. 

Let's face it - there weren't many opportunities for Black basketball players to earn a living in the pre-World War II era. There were some very primitive leagues back then, but they were mostly for white players only. Saperstein, once he formed the team, had his pick of some of the best players in the country who happened to be Black. And if you take a team like that and play several nights a week, you're going to have a very competitive squad in no time at all. Saperstein made it all work financially, setting up the games and publicizing the team as word spread about its exploits.

The Globetrotters were good, and at one point in 1948 even knocked off the powerful Minneapolis Lakers, who at the time were the defending champions of the National Basketball League. The Lakers had Hall of Famers such as George Mikan and Jim Polland on the roster, so that was quite a notch on the Trotters' proverbial revolver.

The National Basketball Association was created by a merger of two leagues soon after that, and African Americans started to show up on rosters in 1950. So the Globetrotters had to adapt, emphasizing entertainment first and basketball second. With the Cold War going on, the team even played a role in international relations. America's racial laws were the subject of a heavy dose of propaganda from the rival Soviet Union in those days, and the Trotters became something of ambassadors for the USA as they played overseas. They also spread the gospel of basketball along the way, helping the sport become second to only soccer in international popularity. 

Running the Globetrotters should have been enough for Saperstein, but he couldn't help himself. He was involved in an attempt with Bill Veeck in the early 1940s to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and turn them into an all-Black baseball team. Abe helped Veeck sign Satchel Paige for Veeck's Cleveland Indians in 1948. Saperstein was the guiding force behind the American Basketball League in the early 1960s, which introduced the three-point shot to basketball. The book tells about how the NBA offered Saperstein a franchise in San Francisco if he'd fold the ABL. He unwisely turned the deal down, and the new league lost a bunch of money before folding. 

The authors deserve some major credit for bringing up the major issue surrounding the Globetrotters, which concerns their role in the entertainment picture.  Some writers have described the team's antics as a modern-day minstrel show, in which Black performers travel around the country in performing for white audiences. On the other hand, there were few aspects of life - particularly in those early days - when Blacks could make fun of white authority figures like referees and opposing players and not start a riot. No matter where you stand on this issue, few people have anything but good memories of attending a Globetrotters game, particularly if they bring children along. 

If there's a small drawback to this book, it's that Saperstein has been dead for more than 50 years. That means there aren't many people alive today who worked with him. The authors did get the cooperation of family members, which helps, and uncovered some correspondence and records. But the story feels a little thin in details in spots, which is very understandable. 

Even so, Saperstein's life was a unique one, and deserves to be told. "Globetrotter" serves as a good way to catch up on a memorable character in sports history. 

Four stars

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Monday, September 16, 2024

Review: That Deserves a Wow (2024)

By Chris Myers

It's hard to say if sportscasters as a group are more interested in promoting themselves or their stories' subjects. I'd guess the latter, simply because I tend the change the channel when the other type comes on my television. But there are a few that certainly like to hear their own voice ... loudly.

That makes me predisposed to like Chris Myers, someone who has been on my TV set for more than 30 years. And that means a book by him is going to be pleasant to read.

That's the obvious reaction to his book, "That Deserves a Wow," which covers his broadcasting career to date in an easy-going way. And if you're wondering, the title is taking from one of the catch-phrases that he used when he was anchoring SportsCenters back in his days with ESPN in the 1990s.

Myers starts at the beginning, which was almost when he was a tyke. He used to call into talk shows in the Miami area as a teen, and turned that into some part-time work. Myers even had the chance to ask Muhammad Ali a question at a news conference in one of his first assignments, and he's still thrilled by that idea. One thing led to another, and Chris found himself on the air regularly. You probably know someone from high school that you said to yourself, "I know what he's going to be doing with the rest of his life." It's rare that such predictions come true, but it worked for Myers. Many years later you can tell he's more than happy about the way things turned out for him.

With that, we're off on a series of adventures. Myers landed a TV job in New Orleans, and then took a position with ESPN in 1988. That's where most of us were introduced to him. He did some work in California, and the network liked him enough to bring him to headquarters in Connecticut. That's where we got to know and like him as a viewer. He replaced Roy Firestone on the interview program, "Up Close," where his best moment might have been a long interview with O.J. Simpson shortly after the football player was involved in a couple of famous court trials. Interviewing challenges don't get much bigger than that. 

The chance to move back to California proved too tempting for Myers to refuse in 1998, so he accepted an offer to work with Fox Sports. He's been there for more than a quarter of a century. Chris has filled in a variety of roles with Fox, with play-by-play and sideline duties on NFL games, and some other duties concerning baseball and auto racing. 

The best part of the book are the areas that we know nothing about, which isn't surprising. Who knew that Myers was actually a friend of Bill Murray, to the point where they'd see each other on occasion socially? Charles Barkley also is in that category. Myers also writes about an unimaginable tragedy in his family, as his son died in an accident at a young age. 

Other sections of the book don't work quite as well. When Myers is recounting what it was like to be at certain famous events like the Super Bowl, the earthquake at the 1989 World Series, and the bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he's fine. Other portions consist of what feels like transcriptions of interviews from the past. There aren't many surprises disclosed that way, and that might cause some people to turn the pages a little quickly. 

Put it together, and "That Deserves a Wow" probably doesn't deserve a wow. But that's all right. It's an interesting look back at a solid career done in the right way. 

Three stars

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Monday, September 9, 2024

Review: The Lions Finally Roar (2024)

By Bill Morris

It's a lesson that should be learned by all fans of sports franchises. 

All teams lose for a reason. The more difficult part is trying to figure out what that reason is, and how to fix it. 

For example, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs were awful in the 1950s and early 1960s because they were slow to integrate fully, giving opponents a huge advantage in acquiring talent. Closer to my home, the Buffalo Bills probably suffered at times because Ralph Wilson was too loyal to certain members of his organization. Loyalty isn't a sin, but it can get in the way. The current Buffalo Sabres team changed the culture of the franchise by tanking in an attempt to draft Connor McDavid. It didn't work, and the Sabres are still paying a price for that years later.

All of that brings us to "The Lions Finally Roar," by Bill Morris.

The Lions won a championship in 1957, the end of a nice run in that decade which is ancient history to some football fans. Since then Detroit has been better than mediocre occasionally, average at times, worst than that more often, aimless most of the time. 

So what's gone on with the Lions over the years? Morris answers that question here. If I were writing a blurb for an advertisement, I'd describe the book as "wildly entertaining." Because it is. 

The biggest problem through most of those years, according to Morris, is the business practices used by owner William Clay Ford. He's the grandson of a guy named Henry Ford, who you might have heard about - particularly in the Detroit area. The Ford make a stockpile or seven of money over the years, leaving Bill Ford living a rather privileged life. He had a role at Ford, but he didn't play the internal politics game particularly well there, and wanted to something a little more fulfilling on the side. 

Therefore, he eventually decided to buy the Detroit Lions, the local NFL franchise. The problem over the years that he relied on his friends, who may or may not have known much about how to put together a winner in the NFL. Mostly it was the latter. Ford and Company were often making it up as they went along, and it showed.

A major stumbling block was represented by the 22-year tenure of Russ Thomas, the veteran general manager of the team. He became something of a scapegoat for the team's problems, and probably deserved it. Thomas was a tough negotiator who didn't seem to realize that you need to spend some money (relatively speaking) to earn some money in the football business. While Morris doesn't say so, based on the era it is certainly possible that Thomas received bonuses for keeping the payroll down. 

The Lions kept churning through coaches during Ford's tenure. While most of the players thought he was a nice enough person, it was quickly obvious that Bill wasn't going to figure out how to get it right. Some of the team's best players - Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson - retired early rather than put up with the losing any longer. Meanwhile, Detroit's fans remained loyal during those years, even though the team was on a shrinking list of franchises that never reached a Super Bowl.

Just to add some drama to the story, Morris has some fascinating details about life among the executives at the Ford Motor Company. There's probably a good book out there about that part of the story, but Morris does a fine job of summarizing the situation here. Let's just say Shakespeare would be proud of some of the twists and turns of the story. 

And the Detroit area is a member of the supporting cast in the story. The city fell on some hard economic times after 1957; they didn't call it "The Rust Belt" for nothing. The Lions were one of the few unifying forces in a city that became greatly divided along racial lines. 

After all that, Morris - the son of an associate of Bill Ford - probably was relieved to see the Lions rebound in recent years. They reached the NFC Championship game in 2024, shortly before this book was published, and they have competent people in place in the key positions under ownership that is allowing them to do their jobs. 

Morris has written about the history of Detroit in the past, and even sat down with his father and recorded a long interview about the senior Morris's dealings with Ford. His writing style works extremely well. He's like most of the fans there. Morris isn't afraid to have fun with with the horrible turns the franchise has taken - it's almost felt like a curse was in place at times - but there's a rooting interest for for Detroit and its Lions too. 

There probably won't be a more entertaining book about football written this year, and even non-Lions fans will enjoy every page. I certainly did. 

Five stars

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Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Review: Out of the Darkness (2024)

By Ian O'Connor

Aaron Rodgers represents one of the great puzzles in American professional sports. 

Let's start with the fact that he certainly ranks as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Rodgers will skate into Canton's Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is a four-time Most Valuable Player in the National Football League, which puts him in very rare air, and he's a 10-time Pro Bowler. Aaron owns some NFL records, and he does have a Super Bowl ring - although it wouldn't have taken much for him to have many more. Rodgers is bright and articulate, making him a media favorite during large portions of his career. 

But there's a flip side. Aaron isn't really even speaking to most of his family members, and no one (besides Rodgers) seem to know what went wrong along the way. Lately he's never seen a conspiracy theory he couldn't embrace, and his anti-vaccination stance during the pandemic - and the way he handled it - certainly was an odd episode.

Does all of this add up to something? That's difficult to say, so full credit to Ian O'Connor for trying. The author of worthwhile books on such subjects as Bill Belichick, Derek Jeter and Arnold Palmer/Jack Nicklaus is here with "Out of the Darkness," a biography of Rodgers. Perhaps the subtitle is more interesting in a sense: "The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers."

O'Connor certainly put in a lot of effort to decipher Rodgers' behavior over the years. He went back to California to find people who could talk about Rodgers' childhood, which was dominated by sports. Nobody wanted it more, and there are plenty of stories about how he'd do whatever it took to get to the proverbial next level. That meant that if Division I college football programs weren't interested in him, well, he'd go to a junior college for a year and show what they missed. He did exactly that. Then it was on to California, where he surprisingly took no time at all to win the starting job, and then no time at all to become a star. 

That led to a very curious moment in Rodgers' life: the 2005 NFL draft. The San Francisco 49ers had the first overall pick, and the decision came down to Rodgers or Utah's Alex Smith. O'Connor does some of his best work here tracking down what exactly happened. While opinions differed on the two future pros, the Niners went with Smith even though Rodgers - who played a few miles from their offices - would have loved to have stayed close to home. Still, there were other picks in the first round, right?

But as the first round progressed, Rodgers' name continued to be unheard. With each pick, Rodgers became the talk of the draft. A chip developed on his shoulder that reached boulder proportions in no time. Finally, at No. 24, the Green Bay Packers ended the long wait and took him - which put Aaron in the midst of some new drama. Brett Favre, another sure-fire Hall of Famer, wasn't too happy that the Packers drafted his probable replacement and complained loudly. Rodgers had to sit and wait for his turn, and eventually Favre was traded to the Jets. Rodgers showed that he was worthy of the tam's faith.

The dramatic part of the overall story, of course, is that Rodgers wound up in the exact same position as Favre. At the end of a great career, he saw the Packers take a quarterback (Jordan Love) in the first round. Eventually, Rodgers needed to go elsewhere to play and he was traded to the .... Jets. Then Aaron suited up for Opening Night with New York, and he tore his Achilles in the first series of the season. His year was over almost before it started.

O'Connor couldn't wait to see how the last act of the story would play out. The author plays it up the middle, relaying stories about Rodgers' personal generosity and along with tales of beliefs in, shall we say, less-than-mainstream concepts. There's no solving this mystery.

"Out of the Darkness" will provide some insight into Rodgers' never-boring career (the book mostly avoids the personal side of the story, except about the family rift). But biographies often come down to how much the reader likes the subject, and Aaron Rodgers remains a strange figure after the last page. 

Four stars

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