I Never Played the Game

I Never Played the Game by Howard Cosell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you were alive during the 60's and 70's and was a sports' fan then you have heard Howard Cosell. Though I never cared for Howard's personality that was never a doubt that we was a great announcer especially for boxing. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff." I agree with him on that self description. This book, "I Never Played the Game," is a detailed account of Howard never playing the political game in his vocation as a sports journalist. The book details his outrage of sports teams picking up and moving from one city to another. He also discuss his history as a boxing announcer. This is my favorite part of the book. He describes the matches as no one else can. He paints a picture and makes one feel they are at ringside watching the fight. You may remember that Cosell decided that boxing had become to violate and gave up calling the matches. He spoke before the United States Congress on several occasions both about the violence of boxing and the plight of sports' teams picking up and moving to other cities. He details his account doing Monday night football and the "monkey" comment. He talks about the reason he and Pete Rozelle (Commissioner of the NFL) starting disliking each other. He also explains his friendship with baseball commissioner, Bowie Kuhn. There was only one Howard Cosell and there will never be another one. If you enjoy sports you will enjoy reading this book!

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Enjoy the video below about Cosell:

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