The Best American Sports Writing 2019 by Glenn Stout

The Best American Sports Writing 2019 Reviews

• 
  Tyler

  I've read several of these and this is the weakest collection. Besides the second article about aging athletes, Larry Nasser and the imprisoned cross-country runner story which may be false or at least exaggerated is intriguing(shows what these books do really well), Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the Australian Tent Boxing, Golden Globe race, I was underwhelmed. The NCAA college football game entry was ok but it's not really funny enough to have the general attitude of "hey aren't people who like sports stupid" in a sports-based book. The next scavenger hunt article was so smarmy I made it about 2 pages, yuck.
  
  I'm convinced the guest editor didn't read half of these and just picked the first few based on the subject or the first few lines of the story for example the Joel Embiid article- a fluff profile from GQ that is just like any other athlete profile you'll find in any magazine but has a killer first line(which is revealed just a few paragraphs later not to be true). There's several like this where the title, subject or first line make it sound like it could be good but the article is so mundane. Another one is the article on the tennis player who was attacked in her apartment-it should be intriguing but there's just nothing to it(she does not talk about the incident so it becomes just a standard athlete coming back from an injury type story and I could barely get through it). Maryland Football abuse is another that's felt like it sets up a good story but just completely fails to deliver anything of value. The Arlee Warriors story was ok, I had to skip pages though. A murder story of a NFL player that is tragic but the writer makes such a twisty freaky story so prosaic. The Lionfish one is another that had good merit but I can't believe it allowed to be that long in a magazine, dragged on and on. Many of these were like that, unsatisfying.
  
  As much as I like Wight Thompson's work he does seem to lean into the bleak far too much. Everything is tragedy and it was not that compelling an article.
  
  I feel like also this series every year there's a tragic story of a young man who does outdoor sports in the western US and is suicidal in some way. It's weirdly becoming a cliche(though this article was ok but since I've read something like this many times before, it just washed over me). And we get yet anther Aaron Hernandez article which there must be at least the third which he is the subject in this series-and it's not great.
• 
  Lud

  Charlie Pierce did a fine job with this excellent collection. Very happy that it includes several female writers, among them the estimable Jackie MacMullan who started her career back when women were not allowed in the locker room. My favorite essays were: "When Making the NBA Isn't a Cure-All: Black Athletes and Mental Health" by the aforementioned Jackie Mac; "Holding Her Own" by Bonnie D. Ford; "Everyone Believed Larry Nassar" by Kerry Howley; and "Another Voyage for Madmen (And, This Time, One Woman)" by Maggie Shipstead.
• 
  Lilly Randolph

  Favorite stories: Everyone Believed Larry Nassar, My Magical Quest to Destroy Tom Brady, Taming the Lionfish, What the Arlene Warriors Were Playing For
  
  Least favorite stories: Who’s Lookin for a Fight, The Aging Curve, Another Voyage for Madmen
• 
  Peter Nakos

  Some great articles. Would've liked to see a few more profiles in the book, too many narrative features this year.
• 
  PG Collins

  Not your mainstream sports writing. More of a social commentary. Some of it offbeat which I liked.
• 
  Doug Stotland

  Took longer to read than most editions as the stories were less engaging for me. I still found a lot to enjoy and these selections were more challenging and provocative than any I can remember.
• 
  Brent

  Always a pleasure to read.