What's Wrong with Sports: An Unexpurgated Look at American Sports in the Age of Big Money, Easy Drugs...

Being a little too young to remember live broadcasts of Howard Cosell, I read this book in an attempt to gain insight into why this sports figure was so controversial. Whether you love or hate him, it seems that there are very few people without an opinion about Howard. And rightly so. The man clearly has a huge ego, and his self-aggrandizement oozes off every page, often with hollow qualifiers like "I don't mean to brag, but..." He claims to be a close friend of nearly everyone. And he makes weighty accusations and statements in the name of telling it like it is. One particularly egregious one (though correct, in my opinion), regarding the toll a baseball superstar's gambling scandal took on the late baseball commissioner and good friend of the author- "There's little doubt that Pete Rose was a factor in the death of Bart Giamatii." Ouch.Kudos to Cosell for attacking sacred cows. It really was refreshing to read someone put athletics' big-mouths and butt-kissers in their places; I just wish I could have seen and heard Cosell do the same live. Cosell was a champion of a lot of important aspects of sports and sports reporting that are resolved nowadays, unpopular, or foregone conclusions. For example, Cosell advocated that sports reporting is as important as other news reporting, and demands the same scrutiny and lack of bias. He was a tough critic of college sports programs and coaches, particularly those which turn a blind eye to the delinquency of their players, and those whose reverence of sports undermines their institutions' dedication to academics. He was a staunch promoter of minority representation in sports management and ownership. He believed boxing suffered from a lack of consolidation of leagues, and from the influence of crooks like Don King. He squawked about the mob's influence in professional sports.I wish Howard was around today to give the world his take on the current state of sports, but- alas- he passed away not long after this book came out (1991). That this book is so dated is a sad commentary on today's sports scene- everything Howard lamented more than 10 years ago in print (outrageous sports salaries, gambling and numbers in sports, sports figures engaged in criminal pursuits, biased reporting) exists tenfold today. Heck, Mike Tyson alone is enough to make any sports enthusiast wince and long for the good old days... [Incidentally, in Howard's words re. the biting one circa 1991, "I think [Tyson] needs professional help from persons expert in the field of mental health."]

Anyone interested in sports beyond the scores should read WHAT'S WRONG WITH SPORTS, the last(published 1991) of four books by the late great journalist Howard Cosell. It's almost as good as his COSELL (1973) and I NEVER PLAYED THE GAME (1985), two others you should seek out. For as much impact as Cosell had in his sports broadcast career, does anyone have tapes of his radio and TV announcing? You've got to read Howard Cosell's books, as they are pretty much all we have left of the man's courageous commentary.