|
He obviously showed up at a studio cold to record this and did no background work. I listened to this book on CD and thought it was really interesting. He narrates the story really well, but hearing him mangle "Steve Beuerlein" was an experience in itself. I think Michael Irvin's life deserves a movie.One note: The narrator of the audio edition is clearly not a football fan. You can tell because he absolutely butchers the pronunciations of name after name of the players. It partially became fun to see what he would come up with next, but it was also distracting from the story. and shockingly cheesey.If there was ever a football team that deserved a book about it though, this certainly is the one.
What a fascinating read. I would reccomend for anybody that wants to know what life as a professional athlete is really like. This book painted such a vivid description of just how different athletes are than regular people. I was amazed at how dysfunctional the Cowboys organization was during the 90's while still being considered the best franchise in sports during this time period.
I had heard all sorts of stories about the Cowboys of those years. It was quite enjoyable to get a detailed story of the various personalities on and off the field.One bone to pick, the book says the Herschel Walker trade to the Vikings was criticized nationwide by the media. My memory is just the opposite, everyone thought that the Cowboys made a huge steal by getting all those drsft picks for Walker.
You don't have to love, or hate, the Cowboys to appreciate Pearlman's provocative book. It is also an inadvertent study of the fans across the country who, despite their common sense leanings, accepted (often embraced) the behavior in exchange for Super Bowl parades. Equal parts hilarious, off-putting, revealing, and representative of our obsession with professional sports, "Boys Will Be Boys" begs as many questions as it answers. Such as, how is this team still called "America's Team." Pearlman's dissection of the Cowboy dynasty is a behind-the-scenes ethical indictment on the team that made "me first" a mantra, the ownership that discarded one legacy in favor of a decidedly more taudry one, and the professional sports league that watched it all happen with eyes intently focused on the league coffers. After reading "Boys" it's hard to imagine watching Johnson, Smith, and Irvin on their respective broadcast gigs without thinking about the ways in which they represented themselves, their families, their community, and their team during their best "football" years. At the end of the day, though, Pearlman makes us realize that most self-proclaimed heroes reveal their faulty manufacturing sooner or later.
This book provides unprecedented access behind the curtains of one of the most talked about sports franchise in the world. It confirms some of the rumors you may have heard about professional athletes. At the same time, this book opens your eyes to the hard reality of professional sports and how organizations are run truly as a business. Pick one up today.
|
