Why Are Sports Fans Like That?
I loved a recent Michael Lewis story for the Washington Post. That shouldn’t come as any big surprise, as he’s a brilliant writer and storyteller and finder of interesting people.
But I’d sort of declared Lewis bankruptcy after his most recent book, Going Infinite, was met with some rocky reviews. I don’t think a single one of them would have cut against those three descriptors I listed, as the critics’ complaints had little to do with the quality of the reading experience.
The book, about Sam Bankman-Fried and his crypto empire FTX, was being published right as the rest of the world was properly learning that the whole thing was a house of cards. And the reviews didn’t like the book’s framing or ultimately Lewis’s takeaways: There were many, many, many, many critical reviews.
And it sort of bummed me out. I sort of just let these conventional-wisdom takes be enough for me, without investigating it myself, despite a good friend, whose news judgment and literary acumen I trust, said, “No, no; it’s a good book, and I don’t think the criticism is all that fair.” I just passed on the book.
Unrelated to this book, there was another reappraisal of his work prompted by the seemingly out-of-the-blue lawsuit by former NFL star Michael Oher against the Tuohys, the family that was made famous for their connection to Oher through Lewis’s book, The Blind Side, and more accurately, the film adaptation of the book.
Lewis told the story in the first place because he knew Sean Tuohy from grade school; they were friends. He’s had some harsh things to say about Oher after the lawsuit was announced, and his reporting seems less than stellar at times. Further complicating it for me, my former boss is one of the lawyers representing Oher, and I don’t pretend that automatically makes his arguments true but there’s a part of me that can’t help but root for him, even more than I was already inclined to. But in rooting for him, I can’t help but feel like I’m vilifying Lewis in the process.
So I haven’t really engaged with his work. Until that Washington Post story, and it truly wowed me.
It seemed fitting that shortly after that would come a new season of his podcast, Against The Rules. It’s all about sports fandom, and honestly, what an incredible topic. I think about it a lot, mostly in the sense of how far removed I am from those I think of first and foremost as capital-F fans.
I really enjoyed the first episode, and I think I’ll be tuning in to the rest of the season, perhaps declaring bankruptcy on my Lewis bankruptcy.
Pocket Casts