Customer Reviews

The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a must read for any female or male who wants to know how sports (doing not watching) can help improve your life in all areas. Reading about each of the men and women one better understands how they became whom they are, both good and bad. I think it is a book that parents of pre-teen and teen agers would be wise to buy as well, since statistics show that young women who take part in sports as teens, succeed better in school and put off sexual activity.

And for an adult grappling with some major challenge in their life be it work related a disease or loss of a spouse, reading the stories may well help them re-focus and succeed in the challenge as well. I speak from experience.

Growing up in a family of engineers, physicists, educators, to homesteaders and homeschoolers, sports have always played a big role in small and big successes, because they teach team work, accountability and priority making skills as well as how to think quick or what I call triage thinking.

And as a young girl growing up ion the fifties my Dad would often use shooting baskets, casting a fly fishing line, golf, or hitting a baseball, or skiing to teach me skills that would serve me well be it building a house, working on a car, or being a good wife and mother. Or surviving widowhood and illness.

Kilmeade's seventy-some interviews of world leaders, politicians, celebrities, and business moguls are great reading, insightful, and very entertaining. I learned a lot about the how the lives of George Bush, Gerald Ford, John Kerry, Condoleeza Rice, Henry Kissinger, Jack Welch, John Bon Jovi and many others were affected by what they learned in sports; how a game, a coach, or a significant event impacted their lives.

I participated in a wide variety of sports growing up: judo, skiing, target shooting, archery, hunting, football, baseball, and mountain climbing to name a few. The lessons I learned from the individual competitions made me stronger while the team sports helped me get along better with my friends and coworkers. All these activities helped mold my character and improve my self-esteem. Before reading this fascinating book I had not realized how great an impact such activities can have in all successful people.

In a time when a majority of American's are overweight, schools are cutting back on physical education, and more and more youth sports take competition out of the game, this book is a compelling argument that we ought to pay more attention to the way sports used to be played. Through the thrill of victory and the humiliation of defeat we can learn to set high goals and achieve great things by participating in sports. The author poignantly states how competition has enriched the lives of our best and brightest. Great book!

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

I read this book from cover to cover in a record amount of time. Each story is more inspiring and moving than the next. Even though I never played team sports, I learned how the smallest win in school could lead to the biggest successes in life. I'm so glad Brian got his celebrity subjects to open up as much as they did. You'll be suprised how candid some of the stories are. I can't wait for book #2 to come out.... !

JUST A REALLY GOOD READ! Brian does a great job in retelling the sports stories of so many interesting people. Each person in this book is more interesting than the next. I really enjoyed reading about how sports influenced the presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry, but I must say that the stories of the 9/11 heroes from flight 93, as told by their loved ones are worth buying the book alone.

There are should-reads and then there are must-reads. The "Games Do Count" is the latter. It's very simple, we're all looking for a basic formula where the result is success. Brian Kilmeade finds that formula and his common denominator is sports.

The beauty of this book is that the inspiration is not rooted in the stories of athletes who conquered their sport, but those who didn't. Success for Brian's subjects was born out of the failure to achieve greatness in sports on a professional level, the benchmark by which we judge a truly successful athlete.

Whether adult, or child, Kilmeade's 70+ vignettes show success is achieved through a series of life's lessons. Whether you're looking to be inspired, or just entertained the book offers a bit of everything... most of all a reason why you should get off the proverbial couch.

Most successful people that I know have a background in sports. A history with competition prepares one for some of the harsh realities of life both mentally and physically. This book does an excellent job of supporting this idea. The only other book that I've seen that uses a similar premise is The System by Roy Valentine. The ability to prepare oneself mentally as star athletes do is necessary to be successful in the game of life.

Great book for adults and children with a vast array of contributions. My husband is an avid sports fan and former lacrosse and football player who just loved the idea of this book. Our pre-teen soccer daughter was able to read and appreciate it. Some of the celebrity types are better known than others, from our President George Bush to Fox News hosts and many in between. The stories are interesting and motivating. I recommend this title as one of the few books that truly can be read by the entire family!

This is a great book, easy to read and tells it like it is from playing sports to changing your life from playing the games. I have always thought of life just being one big game, some know how to play and others just haven't found the play book. Kilmeade takes you on a tour of people that have entered the game of sports and found that sports was the foundation of there success. A must read- Larry Hobson- Author- The Day Of The Rose

Does playing sports make a difference in the lives of a high
school student or college student? According to more than
70 celebrities, politicians and top business people, the answer
is a resounding YES.

I found that out by reading THE GAMES DO COUNT by
Brian Kilmeade, cohost of Fox News Channel's FOX &
FRIENDS . . . in his very entertaining book, Kilmeade collected
a series of vignettes from a wide range of people including
Henry Kissinger and Tony Danza, as well as Condoleezaa
Rice, Robin Williams and a whole host of other folks who
have not often shared their memories publicly.

Many of these I even found quite inspirational, such as this
one from Roger Ailes (the television producer and political
consultant):

I once talked to a guy who was one of Richard Nixon's coaches.
I asked him, "Was Nixon any good?"

He said, "No, he was the worst player I ever had."

I said, "Well what's the story?"

He said, "He showed up first for practice every day. Guys would run
over his position and stomp him into the ground, and he always
got back up. I finally put him in a game, so he'd win a letter, because
the guy never quit." You could see that in the man. You could also
see it in Reagan by the way he walked and handled himself. It's
true . . . people who win never quit.

In addition, the book helped me to see what drives others who
are successful . . . for example, there was this passage from
Pat Williams (sports executive and motivational speaker
who I've always most admired because he has raised
19 children):

Through sports, I've discovered in life that if you've got drive
and desire and ambition, one goal simply leads to the next. There's
never that point when you've arrived, because in sports there's
always another game, another series, another season. You really
can't rest on your laurels or look back in sorrow or in triumph,
over anything that happens, because things are changing so rapidly.
At this point in my life--I'm sixty-three years old--I want to live
fully till the end. I don't think at any point you can simply say,
"Well, I've done enough. My life is over, and now I'm just going
to watch the sunset." I don't think that's the way we're meant
to live, and sports, I think, offers us that lesson.

Lastly, I loved this final bit of advice from the author himself:
TV Brian changed this line of thinking. I had a thick New York accent,
so I saved my money and took speech classes. I wanted to get better
at memorizing, so I bought taped courses. I wanted to refine my
comedic skills and test this new memory, so I took a class and spent
five years doing stand-up wherever and whenever I could. I also
found a way to get to know and at least talk to everyone who was
doing a job I aspired to have--Matt Lauer, Jim Caldwell, David
Letterman, and Regis Philbin, to name a few. It all helped, and
now it all makes sense.

And oh, yes, I always wanted to write a book, and I've just done
that, and I'm honored that you read it.

You'll be likewise honored if you choose to read THE GAMES DO
COUNT . . . you'll also get a kick from seeing the photos of each
personality, many of them taken from when they were in
school.

And methinks the book would make an ideal gift to give this
upcoming holiday season.

I originally purchased this book for my husband. After reading it myself, I decided that it would also make the perfect Christmas gift for every guy on my list. I gave 11 of these books that Christmas. I have never received such heartfelt and enthusiastic thank you's for my gifts as I did from gifting "The Games Do Count". My son and nephews in college especially appreciated this book, as it (1) consists of many great, short,individual stories and (2) with their busy college schedules, this book was the perfect choice for some quick, enjoyable down-time reading.