Lars Anderson (1)

Full disclosure; I'm no Clemson fan, but the legacy of Coach Swinney is hard not to respect. Documenting his early life & career, Dabo's World manages to capture Dabo's love of football in a personal and passionate story. From a tragic upbringing to the hurdles he had to jump just for getting his foot in the door, this story is crafted around Dabo's love of the sport and the lengths needed to achieve his ultimate goal within it.

I thought this was a very good introductory biography into the show more life of Dabo. Dabo's World is a very brief read with some obvious omissions, but given its target audience is college football fans, it's very easy for the uninitiated to pick it up and learn about it. It does a good job of giving you the important history without delving too far into smaller details, so anybody who enjoyed this book can do some more research at their leisure without having to worry about its length.

If you're a Clemson fan, there might not be very much entirely new in these pages, though someone who doesn't keep up with the sport or follow this team could learn a lot. However, even as a fan who roots against the Tigers, I knew there were a decent amount of omissions, and this realization was solidified towards the end. Specifically, while the author touches on the infamous Donald Trump "celebration" in which Clemson was invited to the White House to feast on a pile of no-doubt gourmet McDonald's burgers following their championship victory, there's no mention of the players who refused to be hosted by Trump and declined to show up. There isn't even so much as Dabo's perspective on the matter in this book, which is disappointing. However, getting into the COVID-19 pandemic, a point is made to address a controversy surrounding statements he made about vaccines. To be fair, this was recent enough not to be included at all and excused from the end of the book, but it was acknowledged and appreciated that it was thrown in regardless.

Overall, this book is very informative to those who don't have much knowledge of Dabo Swinney, and there is much more to be researched if the reader so desires, but this is a solid introductory. I would have liked to see more sit-down interviews or a deeper dive, as Dabo's direct input feels sparce, but there is enough information contained in here to keep you interested in Dabo's really very fascinating career.

Whether you root for or against Clemson, or don't follow CFB at all, this is a good story about an interesting man whose career is well-respected within the league. Despite his victory over my team in the end, I had to acknowledge it kept me entertained throughout.

Thanks to Lars Anderson and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy of this work in exchange for an honest review, it was very much appreciated. show less

Most people who know me well know I don't cheer for NFL teams but rather for the players. Ever since Peyton left the University of Tennessee, I've cheered first for Peyton. After Eli graduated from Ole Miss, I told everyone I cheered for Peyton first and Eli second. Why? I grew up in Mississippi where Archie Manning was pretty much everyone's hero. Of course, as anyone in Mississippi could tell you, after he went to the Saints, he never had a team with talent. I was small when I followed show more Archie's career, mostly on a handheld radio broadcasting our home state team. I chose to follow his sons' careers. The author of this book does an excellent job of following Archie and his sons through their college years (and that includes Cooper's short-lived career). He even devotes considerable time to the decisions Peyton and Eli made concerning the choice each made to attend Tennessee and Ole Miss respectively. He does a fairly decent job talking about Archie's professional career, basically reaching the same conclusion that we Mississippians stated for decades. Where he fails is in discussing the professional careers of both Peyton and Eli. Both are given fairly scant attention. There is a wrap-up chapter detailing Peyton's injuries in his late career. If the book had been intended to cover only the college careers of the men, this would have been a 4.5 star book, but the lack of detail on their professional careers where they spent far more time tossing around a football than in high school and college combined weakens the book. In spite of the major flaw, this book will still garner a large audience because it is about the Mannings. Football enthusiasts everywhere, particularly fans of the Mannings and the Southeastern Conference, will want to read it. The book uses the "hidden footnote" system which I hate -- where footnotes exist but no one knows they are there until they flip to the back and see them keyed to specific phrases on certain pages. This review is based on an advance reader's copy e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes. show less

I have mixed feelings about this book. As a long-time Knoxville resident, I've been following Peyton Manning's career since his Freshman year at the University of Tennessee. The Peyton stories in this book are old news. However, I learned some new things about Archie and Eli Manning in this book, and I have a greater appreciation for Eli now.

I formed the impression as I read that the Mannings, or at least Archie and Olivia Manning, had authorized this biography. The book is filled with both show more direct quotations and descriptions of their thoughts and private conversations. I assumed that the author must have interviewed the Mannings as part of his research for this book. Then I read the acknowledgments, in which the author states that Archie declined his request to participate in this book project, except for some fact-checking. The author instead seems to have rehashed Archie and Peyton's 2000 autobiography.

Anderson credits the work of ten sportswriters as having particular weight in his research; most of these writers, like the author, are or have been at some point affiliated with Sports Illustrated. The Knoxville media has provided exceptional coverage of the Mannings, and Peyton in particular, for more than two decades. Regional sportswriters in Mississippi have been covering this family far longer than that. Anderson seems to have overlooked some rich sources of information by seemingly ignoring regional sportswriters in favor of sportswriters at national publications. This may explain the odd absence of significant events like Peyton's second-place finish in the Heisman voting in 1997 and the knee injury he sustained in the 1997 SEC championship game that limited his mobility in that season's Orange Bowl against Nebraska.

Recommended with reservations.

This review is based on an electronic advance reader's copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley. show less

On April 27, 2011, an EF5 tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, killing 6 people, injuring dozens more and causing millions of dollars in damage. Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama, known for it's football team, the Crimson Tide. Though football season was months away, the football team became a symbol of hope for the residents of Tuscaloosa.

In the detailed writing and in-depth reporting that accompanies Sports Illustrated, Lars Anderson write a poignant story of triumph show more over tragedy, of love, of loss, of hope, and of resistance. Just like the New Orleans Saints helped New Orleans after Katrina, like the Yankees helped New York after 9/11, and like the Red Sox helped Boston after the Boston Marathon Bombing, The Crimson Tide football team and head coach Nick Saban became a rallying cry for Tuscaloosa. As fate should have it, The Tide won the National Championship in 2011.

Anderson's writing is picture-perfect, and, though he doesn't mean to, some phrases stand out as humorous, adding some comedic relief to a heartbreaking story. show less