Money Players: Inside the New NBA Review

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Money Players: Inside the New NBA ReviewPage-turning behind-the-scenes analyses of major NBA issues of the 1990's such as the Isaiah Thomas point-shaving scandal, players' union unrest, Micheal Jordan's gambling habits, the murder of his father and other issues the NBA proved to have little interest in investigating much less proving. The title of this book should be "Money League" as David Stern and his puppets are clearly more interested in doing whatever it takes to boost international exposure and television ratings while maximizing revenues, as this book accurately suggests, than doing their best to protect and ensure the compliance of the league's most valuable assets - the players.Money Players: Inside the New NBA OverviewThe high-stakes action you never get to see The New NBA is the hottest game in town, a showcase for big men and bigger money. But the real games have always taken place off the court. Now, three of America's top sports journalists have teamed up to create a fascinating, thoroughly documented behind-the-scenes portrait of the NBA. For the first time, Money Players tells the complete stories behind: How the Detroit Pistons superstar Isiah Thomas was said to be heavily in debt from dice games, raising questions about the depth of his ties to a sports-betting ring involving organized crime figures The murder of Michael Jordan's father, the superstar's retirement and triumphant return, and his high-stakes gambling with shady characters The rise of Commissioner David Stern, whose billion-dollar success story is now dangerously at odds with the reckless superstars it created The entrenched racism in the NBA; the power of agents over players and entire franchises; a new generation of players on the edge; and much more.

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College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy Review

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College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy ReviewEver since publication of the landmark work on college football's history by Allison Danzig in 1956 ("The History of American Football"), sport historians have been patiently waiting for another well-written work about college football's storied past which would bring the tale up to modern times. After any number of unsuccessful attempts by various authors, at long last we have that book with the release of John Watterson's "College Football" by John Hopkins Press; a work that is recommended by this reviewer.
Watterson, a professor at James Madison University, has previously delivered talks and written a considerable number of articles on the early history of college football, and to his book "College Football" he brings the same attention to research and an easy-to-read style of writing that has characterized his earlier work.
Rather than droning on endlessly about one season after another in college football's past that dates to 1869, Watterson has instead tackled football's history by using each chapter to examine the predominate and notable events through the years that served to gradually transform the game into what we see today. The result is a history of college football that provides an essential foundation for the novice historian, while still providing plenty of new and interesting material for the more experienced reader.
The author takes up his story with the origins of big-time football in the 19th century, including the major controversies of the 1890s that evolved from the game's increasing violence and serious injuries. After examining the crisis of 1905-1906 when college football faced the threat of being outlawed, Watterson moves on to review the more significant battles over the rules in 1910 that directly provided the origins of modern football. The struggles of 1910 ultimately overcame Walter Camp's continued opposition to forward passing and eliminated the mass plays that had evolved since 1906, a topic that is one of the most significant in the sport's history yet is frequently ignored in most attempts at football history.
Watterson continues the story of college football with the over-emphasis and abuses of the 1920s; then moves on through the hard times of the Depression, the war years, and the challenges of de-emphasis in the 1950s. A considerable amount of this material is the result of the author's tireless research, and again touches on significant material seldom seen in other football histories.
After examining the many areas that characterized the game's entry into the big-money days made possible by television, along with the NCAA's attempts at controlling the frequent recruiting scandals; the author sconcludes with chapters on African-American plays at predominantly white schools, and the revolt of the major universities against the NCAA that led to the formation of the College Football Association (CFA).
"College Football" by John Watterson is an essential work for anyone interested in the history of the intercollegiate game.College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy Overview

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The Game of the Century: Nebraska vs. Oklahoma in College Football's Ultimate Battle Review

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The Game of the Century: Nebraska vs. Oklahoma in College Football's Ultimate Battle ReviewI was 14 year old boy in 1971, living in Lincoln, Nebraska, we would ride our bikes to the stadium and sneak in games by crawling under and over fences. That season has always held a special place in my youth and this book brings back all of the memories and gives a deeper insight into that game.
Any fan of football will enjoy this wonderful book, even Sooners. It goes into history of the game and both programs and interviews members of both teams, giving a background of the game I never had.
and of course the best part is that the Huskers still win.
Now if only I can get a DVD of the game for Christmas...The Game of the Century: Nebraska vs. Oklahoma in College Football's Ultimate Battle Overview

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Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession Review

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Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession ReviewThis could well have been not only the definitive history of the Ivy League, but also one of the seminal works on the subject of football. The history of football by necessity goes through the Ivy League and the intrigues among Princeton, Harvard and Yale were to affect the college game for years and decades to come.
The Ivies have always been an enigma, an asterisk on the history of college football. Once boasting the most dominant teams in the country, the Ivies haven't boasted a national champion since Cornell in 1939. Finally, they were demoted by the NCAA to its Division I-AA in the late 70s. There would be no more national glory, and football became just another thing to do in the autumn, instead of being an obsession, which it is at Division 1-A colleges.
Bernstein does an excellent job of narrating the history of the Ivies. Every school is included, and there are loads of anecdotal sidelights that will delight the reader. The book is also thoroughly researched and is marked by a lively style not often found in university press publications.
Then why do I say that this could have been the definitive history of the Ivy League? One word: editing. One would naturally take for granted that a book from a university press would be well-edited, and a book from a press of the University of Pennsylvania being such should be a no-brainer. But the book is spoiled by numerous errors, errors that could have been caught by an editor's sharp eye. Other reviewers have pointed out some of the more outrageous errors as pertains to football, but I give you the most egregious of all:
"In many ways, the teens were a decade of Ivy prominence. Both presidential elections were all-Ivy affairs: Theodore Roosevelt defeated Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft in 1912, and Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes in 1916." (p. 95)
HOW'S THAT AGAIN? ROOSEVELT DEFEATED WILSON IN 1912?? This will come as some news to American Historians. Obviously, history is not a core curriculum course of the University of Pennsylvania these days. I don't blame the author (though he should know better, being a graduate of Princeton), I blame the editors. They're the ones who are supposed to catch these mistakes. I admit that a mistake concerning football history can slip by, but this is a basic fact of American history that slipped right past. Shame on the editors.
Nonetheless, I do recommend the book for its strengths and its well-written narrative and lively style. Perhaps the mistakes can be corrected for the paperback edition.
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Get Paid to Play: Every Student Athlete's Guide to Over $1 Million in College Scholarships Review

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Get Paid to Play: Every Student Athlete's Guide to Over $1 Million in College Scholarships ReviewNancy Nitardy has poured her extensive knowledge as a collegiate athlete, coach and recruiter into this wonderful book. I have had the opportunity to attend a couple of her seminars. This book follows her presentations and organizes the information into an easy guide to help you through the whole college recruitment process and beyond.
This book is a must-read for any athlete with the goal of playing sports in college, as well as their parents. Nancy points out the vast amount of opportunites available for athletes and how to go about living their dream.
Get Paid to Play: Every Student Athlete's Guide to Over $1 Million in College Scholarships OverviewThis book is a handbook for college-bound high school athletes that are interested in playing sports in college. The book will help athletes get recruited by colleges that best match the athlete's level of play, whether that level is NCAA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Division I, II, or III, NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), or NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association). Detailed information about athletic scholarship opportunities, as well as tips on matching students (and marketing them) to appropriate coaches and programs, will be presented in plain language with an appealing, accessible design.This book combines Nancy Nitardy's extensive coaching, recruiting, and admissions counseling expertise, Kaplan's test preparation and admissions strategies, and Dr. Gail Schlachter's (of Reference Service Press) robust scholarship data. It demystifies the process for counselors and athletes alike, presenting four-year plans for both academics and athletics, and walking student athletes through the recruiting and college application processes. The most unique section of this book is a comprehensive list of athletic scholarships, provided by Reference Service Press. Our listing will include approximately 500 scholar-athlete scholarships, and other "portable" scholarships that are not tied to a particular institution (making our book the only one on the market to do so). Each listing will look like those presented in Kaplan's Scholarships book, including contact information, eligibility requirements, financial data, and important deadlines.

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Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit Review

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Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit ReviewdeMause and Cagan take us on a roller-coaster ride through the zany and malfeasant antics of baseball team owners, particularly corporate ones. Your town is probably covered, and you're probably getting screwed. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I was nonetheless riveted by the lurid tales of how my money ends up in the pockets of the already super-rich.Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit Overview"Are you a sports fan distraught over your home team's move to another city? Or someone whose city has just lured a team to your home turf with a brand new stadium? Or maybe you don't follow sports, but as a taxpayer are outraged over cutbacks in school funding and other services."--BOOK JACKET. "Forget about the false tales of "welfare queens" who supposedly rode around in Cadillacs. Field of Schemes introduces you to some real welfare kings."--BOOK JACKET. "A used-car salesman turned baseball owner promises to pay for a new stadium out of his own pocket, if the state government just agrees to move a highway to clear the land. Several backroom deals later, the state is raising a quarter-billion dollars towards the stadium costs - and the team owner is getting his stadium scot-free."--BOOK JACKET. "The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft wants to buy a football team, but only if the state will build him a new stadium first. So he pays the $4 million cost of a referendum - even as his camp spends millions more in advertising to make sure he wins. In exchange, he gets at least $300 million in public money to build his team's new home."--BOOK JACKET.

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Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics Review

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Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics ReviewWe're all accustomed to hearing too many stories about badly behaving college athletes, many of whom might flunk a basic literacy test, and lavish college sports facilities. Even as many of us roll our eyes at these shenanigans and examples of misplaced priorities, we still tune in religiously to follow our favorite college teams -- a paradox that is at the heart of this intriguing book about the business of college sports.
I can easily see that nobody engaged in this world will be happy with what Mark Yost finds after he turns his keen eye on it. Those boosters who claim that the current system is a win-win, giving colleges great teams and youngsters a chance at an education, will be infuriated by Yost's damning indictment of an educational system that encourages young people to believe that they have a real shot at going pro via a college team (in fact, in a too-often repeated statistic, he notes that 3% of high school athletes will get a college scholarship; only 2% of those will have any kind of pro career) and then after coddling them and sheltering them from reality, abandons them to sink or swim when they tear a ligament and can't generate any revenue for the institution. On the other hand, those on the academic side will likely not enjoy Yost's even-handed analysis: he points out that a lot of the revenue from successful and profitable athletic teams actually helps subsidize academic programs and that so far, there is little proof that athletic donations are cannibalizing those to academic chairs and other programs.
This is an intriguing look behind the scenes at some of the top coaches, the top donors, the administrators and the boosters. Throughout it all, Yost makes clear his sympathy for those he sees as the biggest victims of what may be a gigantic hoax perpetrated by colleges in their own interest, at the expense of the 'student-athletes': that the latter are playing for the love of the game and the institution, even as the college profits from their labor.
I read this toward the beginning of the March Madness of 2010; I'll find it hard to look at that or any other collegiate sports program the same way again. Well-balanced, and well-researched, this is a great book to read for any sports fan, or even for someone curious about the extent to which elite athletes have become celebrities and what that means for our society. Yes, it's published by an academic press, but this is immensely readable, and highly recommended.Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics Overview

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