The Best American Sports Writing, 2008

Each year the Only A Game staff waits patiently for our copy of The Best American Sports Writing.  This year was no exception, especially after learning that writer William Nack would be guest editor.  Bill Littlefield reviews The Best American Sports Writing, 2008.

Each edition of this annual collection reflects the tastes of the guest editor. William Nack, who chose the winners for the 2008 volume from the seventy or so candidates submitted to him by series editor Glenn Stout, went for several stories featuring athletes who survived grim situations, some of them life-threatening. Then, feeling that he should lighten things up a little, Nack tucked in an allegedly funny golf story by his pal, Dan Jenkins…an entry that hadn’t been on Stout’s list. Among the more compelling stories in The Best American Sports Writing, 2008 is the one chronicling Franz Lidz’s encounter with the decidedly diminished George Steinbrenner, who is now apparently the boss of nothing. Paul Solotaroff’s sad account of how badly lots of damaged former NFL players are faring will strike some readers as old news, but it’s the sort of news with which writers should keep hammering the NFL and the players union until they start taking responsibility for the carnage.