Bigger Than the Game
Bo, Boz, the Punky QB, and How the '80s Created the Celebrity Athlete
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- ¥2,000
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- ¥2,000
発行者による作品情報
A mesmerizing look at the year when American athletics went corporate, villains replaced heroes, and sports stars became superstars.
Greed and excess defined the 1980s, and the sports world was no exception. Shifting from the love of the game to the love of money, athletes made the transition from representing honor and humility to becoming brash and branded. Capturing the stories of headliners who capitalized on this trend, Bigger Than the Game charts the rise (and sometimes spectacular fall) of four athletes over the span of one of the most dramatic eras in sports.
Meticulously researched, with stirring, you-are-there reporting, Bigger Than the Game assembles a cast that includes Jim McMahon, who took the Chicago Bears to Super Bowl glory despite his penchant for partying and his aversion to following the game plan; Brian Boswoth, the university of Oklahoma linebacker who mugged for the cameras while calling the NCAA a communist organization; Bo Jackson, who pursued promising careers in both pro football and baseball; and Len Bias, poised to ensure the Boston Celtics' dominance but died of a cocaine overdose just one day after the draft. Also packed with portraits of folk heroes such as "Refrigerator" Perry and Michael Jordan, Bigger Than the Game offers a riveting ride for every sports fan.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The mid-1980s introduced an unapologetic athlete archetype that captured headlines and airtime, taking advantage of a 24-hour news cycle and America's newfound appreciation of flashy, independent-minded heroes both real and fictional such as Ronald Reagan and Rocky Balboa. Weinreb expertly tracks this evolution via a quartet of athletes from that era: Chicago Bears headband-wearing, antiauthority quarterback Jim McMahon, who was more successful as a zeitgeist marketing tool than as a player; multi-sport star and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, who viewed his legendary athleticism as an investment; college basketball star Len Bias, whose fatal cocaine overdose hardened a sports-loving nation and led to its misguided obsession over illegal drugs; and flamboyant college football star Brian "The Boz" Bosworth, whose quest for publicity led him to the University of Oklahoma, where he consciously constructed an outrageous persona. In this lively and smart blend of essay and reporting, Weinreb (Game of Kings) details with conviction how seismic shifts in society and pop culture soon-to-be behemoths Nike and ESPN were just hitting their strides forever changed the conditions for attaining fame in sports, paving the way for the media-savvy athletes we know and (sometimes) love today.
