God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) - Hardcover

Leitch, Will

3.72

1,678 ratings by Goodreads

9780061351785: God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061351784 ISBN 13: 9780061351785

Publisher: Harper, 2008

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ESPN thinks its viewers are stupid. The Olympics claw at your inner sap. Barbaro, after all, was just a horse. So says Will Leitch, founding editor of Deadspin.com, whose God Save the Fan is your new manifesto.

Arch and unrepentant, Leitch is the mouthpiece for all the frustrated fans who just want their games back from big money, bloated egos, and blathering sportscasters. Always a fan first and a journalist second, Leitch considers the perfection of fantasy leagues, the meaninglessness of the steroids debate, and the aching permanence of loyalty to just one team. He'll tell you why, long before that dogfighting mess, Michael Vick's undercover STD clinic name was Ron Mexico; why athletes persist in publicly praising God; and what the beer companies really think about you. Share Leitch's dread as he spends twenty—four hours watching ESPN. Sit and have a beer with John Rocker and his surprising girlfriend. Be inspired by Rick Ankiel's phoenixlike rise, and fall.

With a voice strengthened by the success of Deadspin and its chorus of commenters, Leitch has written all—new material for God Save the Fan. If you or a fan you love is suffering from the sense of listless dissatisfaction brought on by the leagues and networks, this is your restorative tonic. Packed with lists, glossaries, confessions, and rages, Leitch's manifesto sings a rallying cry for fan empowerment. The games, after all, belong to us.

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About the Author:

Will Leitch, founding editor of Deadspin.com, is a contributing editor and columnist for New York magazine. He has also written for the New York Times, GQ, Fast Company, Slate, Salon, and Playboy, and is the author of Catch, a novel, and Life as a Loser, a book of essays. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Review:

“If you can’t find something to laugh at and be offended by on the same page of this book, you aren’t reading carefully enough.” (Washington Post Book World)

“R-rated, spectacularly irreverent, often mean and just as often piercingly insightful” (Newsday)

“A witty poke in the eye to the entire sports-industrial complex...A fanfare for the common fan and, if you’re stuck in the cheap seats, easier to read than a website.” (Sports Illustrated)

“Leitch balances potent humor with sharp and sometimes vicious insight without lapsing into clich�s. He manages to be an astute sports critic while maintaining his enthusiasm as a fan, making his book an entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who roots for the home team a little too hard.” (Publishers Weekly)

“If the truth is to be found in humor - and it is - then let Will Leitch lead our people’s revolution. He’s everything that’s right and funny and true in American sports.” (Jeff MacGregor, Sports Illustrated special contributor and author of Sunday Money)

“The funniest sports book I have ever read. Yeah, as a member of the mainstream media I should probably despise Will Leitch. But God Saves the Fan is an uproarious, painful, pointed, skittish manifesto on all that’s warped in the world of Lucious Pusey.” (Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Guys Won!)

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