God Save the Fan

I don't read many sports blogs. Maybe some on fantasy sports, but I dunno, I've just never got too interested in basic blogs about sports. 'Read Deadspin!" people tell me. "Barstool is hilarious!" others chime in. I think it's the fact that I'm pretty sure neither of these sites are work-safe is what keeps me from checking them out. Just the other day Barstool took some serious heat for posting dickpics of Tom Brady's kid. Whether I think the blogger had the right to do that or not is irrelevant; all I know is it's probably bad for pictures like that to show up on my work computer. Anyway, here's my introduction to sports blogs, specifically Deadspin- it's God Save the Fan, a book of anecdotal essays that never appeared on Deadspin at all, written by site founder Will Leitch, who doesn't even blog anymore! Truth be told, the book was actually really good. Leitch has a fresh take on why people like sports so much and just who is ruining them (basically everybody). He saves most of his vitriol for ESPN, and while I'd normally be very receptive to this (I really can't stand ESPN but it has such a monopoly on sports TV that I can't help but watch), the book starts to drag when it reaches a point where it feels like every other sentence is "if you thought that sportscaster was bad, this guy's even more boring and terrible!" The exception here being Leitch's recap of the "You're With Me, Leather" saga that I'm seriously pissed that I missed the first time around. Aside from the ESPN-oriented sections, Leitch does a great job of criticizing athletes, fans, and owners in a no-nonsense way that's changed my views on a lot of sports-related issues. Ryan's got a few more Will Leitch-authored books, although apparently the other two are fiction, so we'll see how those go when I get to them.