Buzz Bissinger: One angry man

[SportsDude]

I'm a younger guy and I loved watching him trash Leitch. Deadspin's pseudo-celeb tabloid-trash bull**** sports coverage should be the bane of every journalists existence.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

i agree that his book is easily the finest sports book of the last 50 years.

let's not get carried away. Twas a good book, but here have been many great sports books over the past 50 years.

Really . . . not to mention that BB's another guy (Exhibit A: George
Won't) who got sucked into the LaRussa hero-worship horse****.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I'm a younger guy and I loved watching him trash Leitch. Deadspin's pseudo-celeb tabloid-trash bull**** sports coverage should be the bane of every journalists existence.

It would have been fine if he trashed Leitch. But he wasn't able to, and Leitch sat back and watched, and Buzz looked like a frothing-at-the-mouth imbecile, not like a guy capable of trashing Leitch.

And that said, he still has a body of work that is impressive as anything, from the Pulitzer on down. It's not getting carried away to say that Friday Night Lights is one of the finest sports books ever written. I believe when Sports Illustrated did a list in the early 2000s, they put it in the top 5. I'd be inclined to agree that it is at least in the top 10.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's a great book. I don't think it touches Season on the Brink or Ball Four. I liked Leahy's book on Jordan better. I'm sure there are plenty of others.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Ball Four and A Season On the Bring are fantastic sports books, too. But you are basically compiling a list of the greatest sports books and of course reasonable people can disagree on the order. Here is that SI list. They put Ball Four at 3, Friday Night Lights at 4 and A Season on the Bring at 6.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/features/2002/top_sports_books/1/

 

[AD]

all this may be true about fnl. but the opening page of the book about la russa is one of the worst written of any sports book i've ever read....

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I liked When Pride Still Mattered better than FNL. I liked Into Thin Air better than FNL.

But even to call it the best sports book ever isn't that much of a stretch. I've read a good chunk of the books on the SI list and FNL is probably fifth or sixth.

 

[goalmouth]

i agree that his book is easily the finest sports book of the last 50 years.

let's not get carried away. Twas a good book, but here have been many great sports books over the past 50 years.

Really . . . not to mention that BB's another guy (Exhibit A: George
Won't) who got sucked into the LaRussa hero-worship horse****.

Second that. They'd give LaRussa a Noble Prize for Sports, if it existed.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

After a few weeks following his rants on Twitter, I blocked him last night. Just too much hate for this world. Ha!

 

[leo1]

i agree that his book is easily the finest sports book of the last 50 years.

let's not get carried away. Twas a good book, but here have been many great sports books over the past 50 years.

Really . . . not to mention that BB's another guy (Exhibit A: George
Won't) who got sucked into the LaRussa hero-worship horse****.

Second that. They'd give LaRussa a Noble Prize for Sports, if it existed.

so you guys are knocking FNL down a couple of pegs because his larussa book sucked. that doesn't make any sense.

 

[Sleeper]

Bissinger's Twitter stuff is fantastic. The man knows how to rant.

In regards to Leitch, a couple days ago Bissinger actually listed him as one of the writers he respects.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

i agree that his book is easily the finest sports book of the last 50 years.

let's not get carried away. Twas a good book, but here have been many great sports books over the past 50 years.

Really . . . not to mention that BB's another guy (Exhibit A: George
Won't) who got sucked into the LaRussa hero-worship horse****.

Second that. They'd give LaRussa a Noble Prize for Sports, if it existed.

so you guys are knocking FNL down a couple of pegs because his larussa book sucked. that doesn't make any sense.

Nope. FNL was very-well-put together, with an inspired choice of subject.
for which Buzz gets full marks. I'm simply not prepared to canonize the guy,
because his judgment (i. e. the "Who? Me? Asleep at the wheel?" lawyer)
isn't bulletproof.

 

[leo1]

i agree that his book is easily the finest sports book of the last 50 years.

let's not get carried away. Twas a good book, but here have been many great sports books over the past 50 years.

Really . . . not to mention that BB's another guy (Exhibit A: George
Won't) who got sucked into the LaRussa hero-worship horse****.

Second that. They'd give LaRussa a Noble Prize for Sports, if it existed.

so you guys are knocking FNL down a couple of pegs because his larussa book sucked. that doesn't make any sense.

Nope. FNL was very-well-put together, with an inspired choice of subject.
for which Buzz gets full marks. I'm simply not prepared to canonize the guy,
because his judgment (i. e. the "Who? Me? Asleep at the wheel?" lawyer)
isn't bulletproof.

ok, that makes sense. my point was just that writing a mediocre book about a boring subject and being a d-bag doesn't tarnish FNL - or the skill it required to produce FNL - in the slightest for me.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Buzz has been going crazy on Twitter lately, and this morning is no exception. He just tweeted that he has given Boobie Miles, one of the guys he wrote about in FNL, $80K over the years.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Bissinger and Simmons had a really good podcast last week. Lot of talk about Twitter, Buzz's rage, newspapers and Friday Night Lights.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2864045

 

[Shaggy]

Buzz has been going crazy on Twitter lately, and this morning is no exception. He just tweeted that he has given Boobie Miles, one of the guys he wrote about in FNL, $80K over the years.

He had admitted in the past that he gave Boobie money over the years. Interesting to hear a dollar figure.

 

[SportsDude]

He also said he gets $13,000 a year for rights to the FNL TV series.

 

[exposbabe]

Buzz's own account of his trip to Twitter and beyond ...

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/75671/why-buzz-bissinger-tweets

Just read that. Funny as ****.

 

[YankeeFan]

Buzz went off on both Tucker Carlson (re: Vick should have been executed) and Ed Rendell (we're wussies for not playing in a blizzard) on CNN's Reliable Sources this morning.

Both of them deserved criticism for their over the top statements, but then Buzz's criticism is in itself so over the top that it's ridiculous.

He called out Rendell for serving in the Reserves and not serving in Vietnam for God's sake.

I think Bissinger would hate Bissinger if he weren't Bissinger.

 

[AD]

i actually think buzz does sort of hate bissenger...