Colin CowherdRecensioni

I enjoy Cowherd's sports show on FS 1. He offers perspective, primarily on sports, that I may not have thought about. He also blends in a little history, culture, psychology and politics into his thinking. He's not afraid to name some names – – for example, he said that Bobby Knight treated his ESPN staff the way that he treated some referees. He also has some interesting things to say about other high profile athletes like Aaron Rogers, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Pete Carroll and others that the reader may find interesting. Very enjoyable read. Looking forward to future books by Colin.

One of my few non-fiction reads. Over the forty years that I’ve been reading for myself (as opposed to required by school or work) I’ve only stepped outside of fiction because I was a fan of their work, either at the time (Linda Ellerbee, Phil Gordon) or lifelong (Waylon Jennings, Craig Ferguson [so far]). It remains to be seen where Cowherd will fall. This book is an expanded and more detail look at topics he’s already covered on the radio. Essentially, nothing new but worth my time.½

I had an uninformed but mostly negative opinion of Colin Cowherd before I started this book. From what I had heard, he sounded like kindof a jackass. (Of which there are many on the radio. So he certainly isn't alone in having that reputation.)

He's less of a jackass in writing. I disagreed with him on some things (I'm not nearly as bothered by attempts to be politically correct as he is), but agreed with him surprisingly strongly on others (sports generally would benefit from having more female participants on all levels, including coaching). Mostly he just doesn't soft-pedal his opinions, and I can respect that.

Also, title and cover photo notwithstanding, be forewarned that this is emphatically not a memoir about how he took his sports media job and somehow discovered a passion for butchery or slow food or farm-to-table or just a love of tartare. There's really nothing about food or cooking or ingredients here. (Oh, was I the only one who was misled? Everyone else figured that out from the subtitle? Okay, fine.)

My only other criticism would be that this series of essays (some of them quite short) aren't really linked thematically or any other way. It pretty much seemed like he gathered up a bunch of articles or columns that he'd already written and submitted them as a book proposal. Which, maybe he did. That's not to say some of them aren't worth reading, but it doesn't feel like they're meant to be read one after the other in a single sitting, or even in any particular order.


Note: I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Colins' second book, much like the first with his heavy dose of Cowherdism. You either like Colin or you hate him. No one is neutral, except me. I generally tune in daily because I like to hear what he has to say on some of the hot sports topics. Some of his viewpoints I could care less. He is spot on with some of his takes and in the ozone on others. But that is just my opinion. Not a sports nut but follow a lot of them. Colin has his pet themes, loves the Patriots and Brady, has a hard on for Aaron Rodgers, likes soccer, does not like hockey, heavy into basketball, etc. etc. At times his views transcends sports into the political or social arena and some of those topics are certainly interesting, he could easily evolve into a general talk show type host but for now is about sports. He is at times provocative and controversial, which draws attention and as I have said makes him interesting.

For those who follow Colin on his daily sports show not a lot new will be revealed here as he puts into writing his core beliefs and takes on sports and at times on life. I don't agree with some of what he espouses but he is never dull and makes his points well. I particularly liked his closing chapter on his solitary nature in a world that never disconnects. Overall a worthwhile read certainly for sports fans.

I’m a fan of sports. A casual fan, not a fanatic that lives and breaths for their teams. Sure I love the teams I root for, but my weekend, even if it is the Superbowel, isn’t ruined if the team doesn’t come away with the victory. That is to say I want to be entertained by the athletes not live through them.

That’s probably why I enjoy listening to Colin Cowherd’s daily radio show. For Cowherd sports are business and the athletes who play them are people. Sport is not religious metaphor and the athlete’s gods. In a culture that values athletic achievement far too high, Cowherd even with bombastic Type-A personality is voice of reason in world of sports talk radio. With a common sense approach Cowherd is able to cut through all the emotion driven hysteria that is universal across the dial. It’s this same approach that Colin has brought to his first book, that’s mostly about sports, or how we should view sports and the athletes who play them.

Basically the book is a distilled version of what you get from his radio show. Normally his points are bit chopped up by the radio format and can be redundant at times. With the book Colin has the time and space to fully develop his ideas without the repetition. And even though I’ve listened to Cowherd for years and have heard him make similar points over and over again I still found myself nodding along in agreement. My one major sticking point with the book is that Cowherd uses almost exclusively modern sports and athletes to make his points. This aspect of the book will become dated fast as new and upcoming figures replace his examples. It doesn’t make what he says any less true but I think he should have relied more on his own writing talent and less on making parallels to current events.

So in summation it’s retread for regular listeners to his show, but it’s a good retread.½