Mark Fainaru-Wada

Good book but I had to knock a star off the rating for the blatant lie that this is the “first” time this issue has been written about. It seems like every vulture in this country wants to take for this despite the proven fact that the non-academic (right there is the problem) MD in Pittsburgh discovered this horror in his careful, thorough and documented study and autopsy of the late Steeler great Mike Webster’s brain. And published his findings in a peer reviewed journal. Only to be scoffed at. Undeterred, he was worried this issue may be more prevalent than anyone knew. So he repeated his tests with similar findings on another late NFL player, published his findings in a another peer reviewed journal. He felt so concerned about this issue that the NFL was ignoring, he went public. And it ruined his life. The NFL and a former financial partner destroyed his professional credibility and he lost his job. His ex-wrestler partner was recruited by Boston U (or C) to help create a CTE center where his new MD partner conducted an autopsy for all the press, and despite the fact this poor, idealistic, naive African MD had already done this many times with research published in peer-reviewed journals, this woman - and his conniving ex-partner - was credited with “discovering” CTE and had been the leading authority in the world ever since. And since his former partner had no academic credentials, they gave him a freaking PHD so he could be called “Doctor” too. Genius. And devious. And I’ve hated all of these people - especially the NFL - for denying, taking credit and chewing up and spitting out the poor original researcher. And now these authors come along and claim this is the “first” time the story’s been told! Like I said, fascinating story. Just sickens me how all the vultures have picked away at the carcass of the original researcher naive enough to mean well and help others...… (more)

When GAME OF SHADOWS arrived on the scene, the clamor was to know about Barry Bonds and what, if any, illegal drugs he took to fuel his pursuit of Major League Baseball’s all time home run record. To a lesser degree people wanted to know why. Those questions are answered painstakingly throughout the book. In fact, the presentation of Barry Bonds in this book is so brutal, like a villain from a penny dreadful novel, that if it wasn’t true he would have sued. Truth be told, I have been a Bonds hater since he signed with the San Francisco Giants---rival to my LA Dodgers. But even I often blushed at the broad strokes of distasteful behavior that he is shown to be capable of. That, however, is the prurient part of the book. What makes GAME OF SHADOWS a book of historical note is the depth it plumbs into the entire performance enhancing drug culture. The book was criticized upon arrival for not being all about Barry Bonds—as if the rest of it were just padding. Bond’s outsized personality is used to shine a light on the rest of what was going on at the time. Tempting to just use the term steroids when talking about performance enhancing drugs as a short cut, most people have some sense of what those are, but the book reveals that the many different drugs used come from many different places and medical disciplines. Following the drugs from creation to distribution to use is fascinating and the extent to which they have permeated the sports world—including to a very large degree our Olympic athletes who seemingly should have held themselves to a higher standard—is astonishing. Basically an extended newspaper article, the book remains fresh and lively throughout by deftly dropping one story line for another so by the end there is the feeling of having followed the story for months and staying on top of it the whole time. Don’t be scared off if you are not a baseball fan. Or a sports fan. The book reminds us that we may think we have air tight characters, but one wrong decision and we sink like stones.… (more)