Game Over

by Dave Zirin

• ISBN13: 9781595588425
• ISBN10: 1595588426
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-05-10
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

Summary

Legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell dubbed it "rule number one of the jockocracy": sports and politics just don't mix. In this timely book, Dave Zirin, author of hits such as A People's History of Sports in the United Statesand The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World(just nominated for an NAACP Image Award), lends his incisive, engaging voice to expose how this rule is a myth and what this will mean after the whistle is blown. Today's sports fans are led to believe that playing the game, and playing it well, is all that matters. Yet history has taught us that the game is never merely a spectacle--in fact, sports have always reflected and shaped societal norms. In this book, Zirin vividly illustrates how sports today are suffused with powerful displays of nationalism, machismo, and capitalism that seem nothing if not political. When fighter jets fly over the Super Bowl or General David Petraeus tosses the coin, we don't blink; when Lebron James decided to follow an astronomical contract to the Miami Heat after a protracted media frenzy, nobody was surprised. Zirin includes hard-hitting analysis of recent controversies--including the Penn State sex scandal, Tim Tebow's evangelism, and the dire economics of sports in the age of the lockout--to illustrate how today's mix of sports and politics is tantamount to ideology. This exploration of the good, the bad, and the ugly in 21st century sports will enlighten and delight fans everywhere.