Customer Reviews

The Playboy Interviews: They Played The Game

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Every guy who has ever owned a Playboy issue has said it, " I read it for the articles," but believe it or not many men do. Such is the case with the legendary interviews. My father subscribed to the magazine his whole life and I can recall reading many interviews growing up and later he would pass them on to me, for the interviews mind you! Especially intriguing are the Playboy interviews, a monthly feature that brings candid interviews on a range of subjects, usually not found in the mainstream press or media to light. This book is very good if you like straight ahead, candid conversations with the top atheletes from different sports. Take a look at the editorial for a glimpse of a who's who in the world of sports entertainment. I say entertainment, because that is an underlying theme running throughout this book. Many of the atheletes refer to themselves as entertainers, especially when the subject of money is brought up. In retrospect it is funny and interesting to hear some of the older interviewers talk about their salaries that were thought to be really high at the time. Listening to some of the legends of the game speak about the issues of their times was great. Jim Brown was forthright when he speaks to the issue of race and how he had to deal with it growing up in the South. He tells of an incident when he was training in Alabama in the Army in 1957. He recalls driving with some buddies, in a convertible and was pulled over and told "Get out niggers." Brown was besides himself and replied "I don't know what a nigger is" and his retort was met with a gun in his stomach(left there throughtout the incident) and the cop said "Nigger don't you know how to talk to white folks"? This confrontation went on for awhile until another officer who pulled up recognized Brown from Syracuse(Brown had said the "fancy" car was given to him when asked)and said that "the boy played football there." After further racial diatribes they were told to move on, slow down and not get any dust on the white folks when they drove by, which was the original reason given for pulling them over! Brown said he tries to bury such incidents but they are a part of him now. This is the type of dialogue you find in the exchanges here in this book, but be warned, sometimes they are even more graphic. Such is the case with Mike Tyson who goes off and hurls a montage of F words , interlaced with MFers throughout his interview. His inexorable tirade was predictable so therefore not offensive; it was Tyson being Tyson without the bleeps you hear on TV. Some of the interviews are not for the meek or those easily offended by language. The most interesting interviews I found to be with the older atheletes. That would include Joe Namath, speaking about the game of football and his bachelor life and his alleged ties to the mob, Pete Rose(1979& 2000)about his take on the money he was paid, his outlook on women, how he played the game and the inevitable betting on baseball issue ,Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who speaks out about many issues despite his usually being rahter reclusive, Henry Aaron on racism and what it was like chasing the Babe and growing up when blacks were seperate and not equal, OJ Simpson(1976 & 2003)whose first interview is a totally different man from the second when his famous trial was over, Michael Jordan in 1992 reagarding his effect on the game and the future of b-ball,1993 Barry Bonds and his outlook on the game of baseball and how he is perceived (prior to steroid allegations)and his contribution to the game are just some of better interviews. The Jim Brown interview by Alex Haley was probably the most riveting. The other interviews were very good as well with more contemporary atheletes like Brett Favre who 11 years ago(still si playing) when the interview took place wasn't sure if he would be playing much longer, Iverson the b-ball enigma is revealed to be a pretty nice guy despite the bad press he gets and Lance Armstrong on his magical feats in the world of cycling. This book is really a fascinating read that is controversial in scope but honest in it's appraoch to some of the more difficult subjects to deal with in our times. Recommended for sports fans old and new.