Best American Sports Writing 2018, Jeff Pearlman guest editor

Will this book be available in a more digestible Bumpers format?

 

Bumpers went belly up.

 

(Clasps hand to mouth)

Our sweet, dear beloved podcast disruptor has been disrupted?

RIP.

 

He's said multiple times he doesn't really like sports anymore and is glad he's not covering them on a daily basis. Here are a couple recent question from his Quazzes:

J.P.: How do you keep your interest during a 162-game season? I mean, I get 16 NFL games. I even get 82 NBA games. But one hundred and sixty two. Jesus. Are you still interested in, oh, Reds-Brewers? Do you really find Mike Trout and Bryce Harper interesting? Can you maintain the upbeat spirit from February thru October?

J.P.: You’ve been covering the NFL and the Titans for a long time. And here’s something I don’t get, and I mean no disrespect: How do you still give a shit? I mean, the names change, the uniforms might add elements every so often … but the storylines and narratives generally stick. Over and over again. Rookie free agent’s fight. Veteran holding on. Good-looking young quarterback. Fresh start veteran. Coach on the hot seat. Following the GM thru draft prep. The kicker’s insecurity. The local kid from Nashville. How are you not over it?

I have no problem with this, at least he's honest. But I'm sure Stout loves that he doesn't seem to like sports a whole lot.

 

That's not a question. That's a mid-life crisis.

 

Stout is still the series editor? Would have thought he’d be shitcanned after that Longform clusterfuck.

As someone who shares those same sentiments as JP toward sports, I have no idea why he’d want to edit the BASW series at this point. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging you’re beyond things at a certain age. Frankly I think it’s sad and suspiciously disingenuous to care that much when you’re, say, the age of a Bill Simmons.

 

Always felt the vanguards of these kinds of things don't really give a hoot about sports.
Pearlman loves sports when he can sell books about things that have been written about extensively by better stylists and better reporters.
I think it's sad not to care about something to which you've already committed your youth and working life.

 

I agree with most of this, though I would argue book writing is taking the work of others and forming it into a narrative that tells a broader story that wasn't necessarily obvious in real time. I think Pearlman's books are fine in this regard, though I believe his USFL book--about a long-forgotten topic that was not well-chronicled in real time--will be the real barometer of him as a writer and author.

As for not caring about sports--I like sports just as much as I did when I was a kid, even though I'm down to one rooting interest. I can watch last year's Super Bowl and be enthralled by the drama without caring who wins. That's pretty much the textbook definition of sportswriting.

 

I understand their gravitational pull because they are about wildly popular subjects, but he is like the Michael Bay of sports book publishing.
You don't need talent, wit, charm or skill to do just fine appealing to common enthusiasms.
He takes safe bets, often retread material, and cashes in.
Now he wants to sit on the elders council.

 

I'd say this is pretty accurate. Jeff is great at what he does, but he's not a huge sports fan. Which is perfectly fine for what he does.

 

Haven’t ya ever gotten burned out on something? That’s how I was with covering sports. Not covering it as a job has allowed me to enjoy it as I did when I was younger and there wasn’t a paycheck or professional stature attached to it. Obviously everyone is different in their relationship to it, that’s just my two cents.

 

Oh hell yeah I have. That's life.
But I would never ask someone who ostensibly takes a lot of personal and professional pride in covering the NFL whether he's tired of such banality.
This is a person who has regularly overshared on his blog (once writing about blood in his stool) - so he is clearly above writing about sports. Except when he has a book to sell.