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Best Books of 2014
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Daniel J. Flynn is the author of numerous books, including Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America (2011). He writes regularly for the American Spectator and blogs at flynnfiles.com. He lives with his wife and children in Massachusetts.
Published around the same time as Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru's "League of Denial," Daniel Flynn's work comes off as a knee-jerk reaction to the growing concern of player safety and long-term health in the game of American football. Flynn is greatly biased in trying to portray his beloved sport as the one lone possible savior to the issues of obesity and "wussification" that he believes the country is enduring. Flynn frequently tries to ridicule other sports, particularly baseball, and make them look more dangerous than his game in his attempt to tell people that football is the only athletic endeavor out there than can promote health and confidence. No mention is made of the abusive crimes and other similar actions being committed by football players in recent years. Daniel Flynn's bias toward football and against every other sport in the world glares through in this work that tries to pass the buck of blame for the growing deaths and debilitation of football players on everything except football.
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Okay, this has to be one of the most poorly written book ever. This guy makes the following claim:
"concussion doctors push “science” that benefits their hidden business interests "
Does anyone really think that doctors are hyping up football injuries for money? Flynn fails miserably to convince readers of this assertion. If doctors were in it for cash, they would want football injuries to continue wouldn't they? Read this book if you want a good laugh at some bitter conservative's conspiracy hypothesis.
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10 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Listening to Mr. Flynn talk about people taking advantage of a situation to profit is like an echo chamber. If you have people like Brett Farve who is indicating symptoms of memory issues to the extent he answers the question "would you let your child play football?" With a resounding "No, if I had a boy I would not have him in football." casts something of a shadow on Flynn's claims that only players that played a couple of games on a professional level say they have damage in iffy. I like football. I don't like the targeting of players and suspect behavior that turns it from a competition between atheletes to a dirty tricks to win sport where there sometimes seems to be more emphisis on thuggishness that ability. "It's part of the game" should be considered bull. This rant is at best in a similar category.
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15 of 24 people found the following review helpful
And so the backlash against the emerging science begins. Give me a break. Suuuure doctors researching concussions speak out so they can have more customers. Of course! The money made by people who don't ever touch a football in the NFL couldn't be at ALL corrupting. I worked for a neurologist 20 years ago, and he said then, the research will be done eventually, but I don't need a study to tell me that I don't want my kid to have repeated concussions. He said that even small concussions, unnoticed, are harmful. When the head of a child (disproportionately larger than their body) slams against the ground or player or object, making the soft tissue of the brain concuss against the skull, interrupting the neural circuitry that is the basis of our thinking process, this is never good. The argument that other sports are as bad or worse is disingenuous. No one is saying that injuries don't happen elsewhere. But that is not the discussion. Football is the #1 sport in this country.
When the brain is concussed, damage is done to your child's mind and it takes time for the brain to recover. Is your child crabby because they are tired, or because they can't think straight? Injuries happen, risk is part of life. But do you want to send kids out to hit their heads intentionally, over and over, in play and training, in a manner so unlike other sports? Do you want to spend your own money (tax dollars) to fund this at our universities, where the corrupting influence of money has made our universities free farm teams for the hugely profitable NFL? Football is not the only sport or activity where "school spirit" and all the other benefits touted by football defenders can take place. Football is not a sacred thing, but many seem to think so.
I'm an average sports enthusiast, maybe a little less so compared to most of my demographic. I watch the important football games - whatever is on during Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl, and whenever it's convenient for me to watch the hometown team. I'm not the type to purchase a sports book, much less write a review about one. When I heard about this book, it sounded so far out of my reading zone of interest that I thought I absolutely must read it and am glad I did.
I loved this book because it spoke to American lessons, values, and history and used football to do it. I think folks who are sports fanatics will appreciate it because of the not-so-widely-known facts and details Flynn presents. I think folks who aren't fanatics will also appreciate it because it's in plain English and tells an excellent story that can be understood without getting inundated with football stats. Best of all, it’s about more than football.
Flynn did an impressive job telling the story of America’s game and shedding light on the dangers of misinformation and ill-informed (or even intentionally misleading?) media and academic proclamation. He clearly conducted extensive research to make this book what is essentially an exposé on the industry that profits from the football industry. It’s a fun, quick, and informative read for all audiences.
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