Mark Fainaru-Wada

Watch any football game and you'll wonder how the National Football League could ever have the temerity to claim in a scientific paper that "professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis." Big players making big hits is a significant part of the game, and the players are paying dearly in creating this spectacle. As far back as the 1990s, doctors were noticing that many former football players were exhibiting signs of brain damage at a show more rate much greater than that of the general population. The frequent collisions, coupled with a "play through the pain" culture that made undiagnosed concussions even worse, made players more vulnerable to developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia later in life. League of Denial is the story of the conflict between the status quo promoted by the NFL and the urgent need for corrective action advocated by the researchers. It is an eye-opening book. show less

This was an excellent, excellent book. I don't even know if it's acceptable to use the same adjective twice in a row like that, but, there you have it. Exceptionally written, researched beyond anything I could imagine, absorbing, moving. I read [b:Concussion|25387552|Concussion|Jeanne Marie Laskas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1443628393s/25387552.jpg|44740135] prior to reading this one, and I loved that book as well - but while Concussion was focused on one doctor's experience, League of show more Denial presented the whole issue from a multitude of angles. I'd recommend both and if you do intend to read both, I'd read Concussion first, because it's interesting to know that story before getting to the bigger picture. And no, my sons will not be playing football as long as I am physically able to shred the sign-up sheets. show less

I love football. One of my earliest memories (and one of the very few I have of my maternal grandfather) is sitting in the living room, watching the news, and learning that the Bengals (my team) had just drafted Boomer Esiason. I live orange and black on the professional level (scarlet and gray on the college level - O-H-!). My sister and I, although we root for different teams (she somehow picked up the Browns), do nothing but talk about football during football season - which games were show more surprises, which ones weren't, who the best quarterback is, if Manning is actually going to not choke in the post-season this year, if it's possible for Andy Dalton to throw more touchdowns than interceptions in a post-season game (hint: no), etc.

So this book was very difficult for me to read.

I knew that football players got concussions. I also knew that multiple concussions could predispose them toward dementia or maybe, even, violence. But I'd not heard much about Iron Mike Webster; he was "before my time," and I had somehow I had missed most of what had happened after his death. And the other players who had killed themselves were mainly off my radar, old names that I couldn't connect with teams or faces. That is, until Junior Seau. And the horrible events that led to Jovan Belcher putting a bullet into his head in front of his managers and coaches after killing his girlfriend.

My sister, the fellow football nut, is the one who recommended that I read this book. She'd read it for a paper she had written for a college class. "I didn't know it was this bad," she'd said. "Now I feel guilty for watching football." Feeling guilty for watching football? What?

Yeah, now I do too.

It's incredibly disheartening to see how the NFL went out of their way to protect their brand at the expense of their players' health, families, well-being, and lives. And now, as in the case of Jovan Belcher, to realize that CTE is affecting even young players (he was only 25 years old)...well, what can I say? Suddenly I realize how deadly the sport that I love can be. Suddenly I understand that while I'm rooting for the big plays (I can't even remember how many times my sister and I were like, "oh man, [insert player's name] just MURDERED [other player's name]! Did you see [player's name]'s head whip back?" and thought it was just, well, football) and, consequently at times, the big hits, that might be the concussion that knocks that player out or irreversibly damages his brain. Well shit, man.

The book is incredibly readable and has a lot of information that I'll be ruminating over for a long time. show less

When GAME OF SHADOWS arrived on the scene, the clamor was to know about Barry Bonds and what, if any, illegal drugs he took to fuel his pursuit of Major League Baseball’s all time home run record. To a lesser degree people wanted to know why. Those questions are answered painstakingly throughout the book. In fact, the presentation of Barry Bonds in this book is so brutal, like a villain from a penny dreadful novel, that if it wasn’t true he would have sued. Truth be told, I have been a show more Bonds hater since he signed with the San Francisco Giants---rival to my LA Dodgers. But even I often blushed at the broad strokes of distasteful behavior that he is shown to be capable of. That, however, is the prurient part of the book. What makes GAME OF SHADOWS a book of historical note is the depth it plumbs into the entire performance enhancing drug culture. The book was criticized upon arrival for not being all about Barry Bonds—as if the rest of it were just padding. Bond’s outsized personality is used to shine a light on the rest of what was going on at the time. Tempting to just use the term steroids when talking about performance enhancing drugs as a short cut, most people have some sense of what those are, but the book reveals that the many different drugs used come from many different places and medical disciplines. Following the drugs from creation to distribution to use is fascinating and the extent to which they have permeated the sports world—including to a very large degree our Olympic athletes who seemingly should have held themselves to a higher standard—is astonishing. Basically an extended newspaper article, the book remains fresh and lively throughout by deftly dropping one story line for another so by the end there is the feeling of having followed the story for months and staying on top of it the whole time. Don’t be scared off if you are not a baseball fan. Or a sports fan. The book reminds us that we may think we have air tight characters, but one wrong decision and we sink like stones. show less