What a good sport

Don't switch off if you're not a sports fan: I've included data, racial tension & also Madonna, something for everyone really

The Six Nations rugby tournament starts this weekend - one of my favourite times of year! - so I thought: why not have a chat about sport this week? I’m sure some of you will zone out immediately but I’d recommend trying some, if not all, of them as they’re great stories to the last - some pop culture-y, some pointy-headed, some brutally honest confessionals and others just great stories of focus and dedication - & come to think of it, none are about rugby.

I must admit though: a depressing imbalance persists in terms of stories about women’s sports being written about or made into TV shows, movies or podcasts. There have been quite a few recent documentaries that are worth watching, but they often centre around abuse (physical, mental & sexual) and whilst it is vital that these stories are told publicly in order to remove stigma for survivors and to work towards a world where this doesn’t happen: women’s sport shouldn’t be reduced to the abuse that they have endured.

TL;DR

Watch A League of Their Own, The Damned United; read Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong and Moneyball; watch Brawn, The Last Dance and Icarus; listen to Legacy of Speed.

WATCH

I’m starting you off with a great classic: A League of Their Own - we all know & love this one (right?)

It has everything: a women’s sports team succeeding in a wildly patriarchal time, old school baseball uniforms (I originally typed ‘period’ but given this is about a women’s team…), Madonna (being not dreadful at acting), Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell & even Tom Hanks. A lovely bit of early ‘90s nostalgia, set in the ‘40s. Perfect for a wintry Sunday afternoon on the sofa.

Next up, The Damned United - another period piece; this time in 1970’s England. I gotta be honest I love a period piece - particularly a twentieth century one.

This is a story about a football team and full disclosure: I do not like football. Honestly, I just find it dull. However this movie is anything but - it’s hard to believe it is actually a football film, it feels more like a friendship tragedy that belongs on the stage. Michael Sheen stars as Brian Clough, a football manager known to be hugely talented but also incredibly outspoken which often landed him in hot water & reduced his chances of career progression. The pedigree continues behind the camera: Tom Hooper directs - he went on to direct The King’s Speech, Les Miserables and, er, Cats. Peter Morgan adapted it from the book of the same name, following his huge critical success (again with Michael Sheen in a lead role) the previous year with Frost/Nixon - & he later created that under-the-radar Netflix drama: The Crown. All in all, it’s a great film & I’m testament to the fact that liking, or even knowing a single thing about, football are definitely not prerequisites for tucking in.

READ

Was there ever a fall from grace so steep as that of Lance Armstrong? Rumours dogged Armstrong for pretty much his entire career but his climb to the top of professional cycling and moves to becoming a global superstar bounded on unhindered.

He dated Sheryl Crow (that was a big deal back then), he beat cancer, he started the global trend for wearing charity rubber wristbands, and all the while, he kept cycling. And denying that he was doping. Sunday Times journalist David Walsh worked tirelessly for thirteen years to prove Armstrong was lying and finally Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong was published in 2012. (Oh to have Harry Evans as your Editor…)

I can’t remember what on earth possessed me to pick this book up as I had almost zero knowledge of, nor any interest in, the sport of cycling. Aside from knowing how to ride a bike myself and that a couple of Irish guys had been weirdly successful at the sport in the 1980’s, I was completely uninterested. But this book is about how one journalist stuck it out in his battle against one of the world’s biggest sports stars and was finally vindicated. Hard recommend.

Here’s one for the stats nerds among us: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (him of The Big Short fame).

It’s another David & Goliath story set in the world of baseball - and it actually happened in real life. It was made into a film in 2011 starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill which was great but when it comes to Michael Lewis, I’ll take his writing every time…despite the fact that demi-god Aaron Sorkin was responsible for the screenplay that was eventually shot.

Billy Beane is the manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team. He has a tiny budget but just as much of a will to win as the big teams he has to beat. Beane starts to use stats and focus on older college players - as opposed to the traditional way of selecting high school players. Beane very much goes it alone and has to do all the usual convincing everyone he’s not crazy that you would expect in this kind of caper. Lewis is always extraordinary in terms of the breadth of his research and his ability to render the most seemingly pointy-headed subject matter fascinating to the average lay-reader / non-baseball fan is only matched by his talent to do so without patronising you for the duration.

WATCH

I guess I could suggest Beckham - the Netflix documentary all about the pair themselves - but it really came off more along the lines of a ‘What I did with my summer’ school essay as opposed to an actual examination of their lives in any kind of probing or new way. Instead, given the enormous global success of Drive to Survive (on the same streaming service as the unexamined Posh & Becks), may I recommend Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story?

In this instance, this is a sport I do like and follow - I inexplicably became a Michael Schumacher devotee when I was about 12, obsessed madly over it for quite a few years and then lost the bug. But the aforementioned Netflix show did its job and now I’m back on it every second Sunday for most of the year.

It’s about an actually very nice man (rare at the pinnacle of global sports, particularly ones with millions & millions sloshing around the place as with F1) Ross Brawn, who is extremely good at what he does. At first in his career, he works for other people & brings them success after success. Then he gets the opportunity to create his own team - but has to do so on a shoestring in comparison to the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and basically almost all the rest of the teams in the sport.

What Brawn lack in cash as a team, they more than make up for in the talent that Ross attracts to his fold. It’s a great tale of big budgets not always simply bulldozing their way to winning & in one of TV’s better “I beg your pardon?” moments, it’s also helmed by Keanu Reeves. Yes, that Keanu Reeves.

It’s highly likely that most of the planet have already seen The Last Dance as Netflix released it in April 2020 when many of us were glued to our TVs to survive lockdown. If you didn’t get around to it though, may I suggest you check it out now?

The Chicago Bulls are one of the most recognisable sports brands on the planet - that notoriety came about in large part thanks to their success in the ‘80s and ‘90s with Michael Jordan as their star player. This series charts the ups & downs of Jordan’s career with the team - including the time a bunch of grown men, professional basketball players the lot of them, refused to pass Jordan the ball for more than just a game because of all the attention he was getting for being so good. Yes, you read that right: they froze him out because they were in a strop.

Whilst the show has been criticised since its release for not only being too glowing about Jordan but also being, ahem, made by his production company, the calibre of access and interviews, plus the downright hilarious cattiness of people who you might expect to know better, all make for a very entertaining watch.

Back on the cycling tip: Icarus won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2018, but it’s hardly like the documentaries get anywhere near the same amount of press as the other lot.

Filmmaker and keen cyclist Bryan Fogel starts off with what he thinks is ‘just’ going to be an investigation into testing for banned substances in sport not being fit for purpose. He works the head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, to dope without testing positive for anything prohibited when he participates in an amateur cycling race. What starts out as a professional collaboration is then thrown into chaos as Rodchenkov winds up having to go into hiding with Fogel helping him to safety. Again, not hugely focussed on cycling as a sport per se, but incredibly interesting to all audiences about just how widespread, systemic and professional doping is.

LISTEN

Malcolm Gladwell makes yet another appearance in the newsletter; this time with a podcast instead of a book.

Legacy of Speed is a short series about the revolution of how sprinters train which was borne out of San Jose State university in California during the 1960s by coach Bud Winter. Winter made Olympic medal winners of Tommie Smith and John Carlos and introduced an entirely new way of training and race preparation to the world of competitive sprinting.

When Smith & Carlos took the podium for the medal ceremony in Mexico City in 1968, they did so in black socks with no shoes, with black scarves around their necks whilst wearing black gloves. Each raised a hand in silent protest; Smith his right to represent Black Power and Carlos to represent Black unity.

Gladwell weaves the athletic achievements of Smith & Carlos with Coach Winter together with the lessons they learned from their mentor, San Jose State professor Dr Harry Edwards and tells the intriguing backstory to one of the most arresting images in Olympic history.