God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) (Hardcover)

by Will Leitch (Author)
Key Phrases: sideline reporter, fantasy team, fantasy sports, Super Bowl, New York, World Series (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In his third book, Leitch, the founding editor of the sports blog Deadspin.com, offers a collection of passionate, original essays about the good (fantasy football; the saga of the once promising pitcher Rick Ankiel) and the bad (ESPN, which he compares to the Imperial Forces from Star Wars; sports reporters' misguided attempts to become patriotic after 9/11) of sports, and how fans can navigate through the mess to enjoy the games and themselves. If we all realized that, hey, we don't need to listen to these idiots on television screaming at us... they'd be out of a job, Leitch writes in the introduction. The book sometimes strays off course from its stated purpose—memories of Leitch's popular blog subjects (Barbaro, Ohio TV reporter Carl Monday) and a host of cheeky sports glossaries are unnecessary and only disrupt the book's fervor. However, Leitch (who has also written for Playboy and New York) nicely balances potent humor with sharp and sometimes vicious insight without lapsing into clichés. He manages to be an astute sports critic while maintaining his enthusiasm as a fan, making his book an entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who roots for the home team a little too hard. (Jan.)
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Review
"If the truth is to be found in humor - and it is - then let Will Leitch lead our people’s revolution. He’s everything that’s right and funny and true in American sports." -- Jeff MacGregor, Sports Illustrated special contributor and author of Sunday Money

"The funniest sports book I have ever read. Yeah, as a member of the mainstream media I should probably despise Will Leitch. But God Saves the Fan is an uproarious, painful, pointed, skittish manifesto on all that’s warped in the world of Lucious Pusey." -- Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Guys Won!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061351784
• ISBN-13: 978-0061351785
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #245,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and accurate take on today's spoiled sports world, April 16, 2008

By	Timothy R. Sullivan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Will Leitch's book is a nice blend of laugh-out-loud satire, spoofs, and funny truth in the ridiculous, over-priced, ego-maniacal world of sports. The editor of the popular "Deadspin" blog is more than just funny, he's insightful.

I really don't read "Deadspin" very often, but the cover and title of this book -- not the blog -- was what drew me to it. I'm a huge sports fan, but I'm so tired of the overflow of cash and ego that if pro sports ended tomorrow, I wouldn't care. Sadly, Division I college sports now just mirrors professional sports, they're just less honest about the money. I'd wished Leitch would've addressed the greed of college sports, but what the heck, he lives in New York City, the worst college sports city in America. He's a pro guy ... though his take on interviewing a former University of Michigan basketball player was a complete riot.

Fans can be pretty dumb, too, as Leitch points out in his take on Barbaro. The article and hilarious drawing of the horse was very funny.

Some of Leitch's takes don't work -- does Scott Van Pelt's rejection of a date really need to be posted, is that news? Leitch found Van Pelt's phone message "humanizing." I found it boring. But Leitch is more often on target than not. And yeah, Chris Berman's "YWML" episode isn't news either, but if anyone needed to be a victim of "gotcha" journalism, it's Berman, who has become a caricature of himself. Yes, ESPN needed to be taken down a few notches and Leitch is just the guy to do it.

A quick and funny read, I hope Leitch has another book on the way. Will there be a fan revolution? Nah, fans are too emotional and gullible. If the NY Giants said tomorrow that end zone seats were $5,000 apiece, they'd get sold. Will ESPN's egos shrink? Are you kidding me?

Leitch is a little too much of a believer in the fan revolution and not a realist. I see no uprising from fans.

But hey, at least Leitch is trying, and having fun while doing it.

45 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK IS A BAG OF CHEEZY DOODLES, January 22, 2008

By	Scott T. Sanders "STEPHEN A. SMITH" (MATTOON) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I CANNOT BELIEVE SOMEONE PAID WILL LEITCH MONEY TO WRITE A BOOK. I WAS VERY SKEPTICAL. OBVIOUSLY HE JUST PASTED A BUNCH OF OLD DEADSPIN COLUMNS TOGETHER. HOWEVA, AFTER CURLING UP WITH A BAG OF CHEEZY DOODLES, THIS BOOK WAS OUTSTANDING. I AM NEVER WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING.

YOURS
STEPHEN A. SMITH

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious look at sports from a fan's perspective, January 26, 2008

By	Andrey Goder (Davis, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Will Leitch looks at almost every aspect of sports, from steroids to drunk quarterbacks, from a fan's perspective. And truthfully, fans take the game a lot less seriously than players or reporters. So when we see something like Roethlisberger pouring tequila down a girl's throat we don't get upset--instead we laugh.

Leitch uses examples like these to show what's wrong with the world of professional sports reporting, and what we can do to reclaim our sports.