Rating: 
Summary: Defense versus offense. Ya gotta love it...
Review: Let's get one thing clear up front: "Long Bomb" is not, repeat, NOT, the definitive history of the XFL. The XFL doesn't deserve a definitive history! "Long Bomb" instead is a neat little slice of gonzo journalism; an extended magazine piece showring Vince McMahon's year-long football hybrid with all the sardonic barbs it so richly merited.What sold me on the book was author Brett Forrest's photo and author blurb, which talks about how he squandered his book advance on gambling and booze. He even looks like the kind of guy you'd expect would go undercover with minor-league quality football players for a year, just to get a book deal. There is no more perfect man to describe the XFL. Actually, the XFL defies description. It sounded like a good concept at the time -- a stripped-down, bare-bones football league, without the attendant NFL media hype and over-management (like the gritty, muddy, audience-free football scenes in the movie version of "North Dallas Forty"). The problem is, XFL went right out and got everything wrong: it was all about the fireworks and McMahon-staged theatrics, and the players couldn't play. The league was "unscripted", but non-competitive -- all teams were owned by the league, an idea so awful that Major League Baseball went right out and copied it by purchasing the Montreal Expos. XFL couldn't lure talent away from the college campuses, so the teams were comprised of injured collegiates and retreads from the CFL or (even worse) NFL Europe. Their star attraction was a player who wore the phrase "HE HATE ME" on the back of his jersey. HE HATE ME was a running back who couldn't run. And now you know... the rest of the story. Forrest's disdain for the entire misbegotten project pervades every page of the book. His recaps of the error-filled TV broadcasts are a hoot, and even by the final weeks of the season, when the ratings were gone and the Cheerleader Cam was shut off, he doesn't spare any bile. Forrest is more fair to the players and producers who granted him interviews or access, but even then we're allowed to see how empty HE HATES ME's home life is, or how sad it is when Las Vegas quarterback Ryan Clement retells the same tired college bowl triumph to the same disinterested crowd. There are some hideous turns of phrase in the book: "In a season that lasted two fistfuls of games, the XFL was about to begin its second hand". A list of nasty adjectives used in the book would be longer than this review, although Forrest is neutral when it comes time to describe McMahon's near-shoving match with Bob Costas (he sneers at both sides!). He clearly admires Jesse Ventura, erstwhile XFL broadcaster and governor, but doesn't spare us Ventura's lack of ability to spin on-air phrases (see the title of this review for a great example). Take "Long Bomb" for what it is: a bitterly funny and mercifully brief post-mortem of a spectacular TV failure. If you remember anything at all about the XFL (and I watched all of 45 seconds), this book is a great features-eye view of all the ways in which it went wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Much more than a book about football
Review: Long Bomb is much more than a book about football. It's an insightful look at the XFL through the eyes of a gifted cultural anthropologist. Mr. Forest goes beyond facts and statistics in uncovering the story of the leagues failure. In humorous and at times painful detail, he recounts the short history of the league and in doing so sheds light on some basic human truths that affect us all. We are indeed richer for his effort.
Rating:
Summary: Much more than a book about football
Review: Long Bomb is much more than a book about football. It's an insightful look at the XFL through the eyes of a gifted cultural anthropologist. Mr. Forest goes beyond facts and statistics in uncovering the story of the leagues failure. In humorous and at times painful detail, he recounts the short history of the league and in doing so sheds light on some basic human truths that affect us all. We are indeed richer for his effort.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Football Book and hey, ... Cheerleaders!
Review: The XFL went under a little over a year ago, but seems like a far more distant memory. Long Bomb is Brett Forrest's take on why the league failed so dramatically-and the people who made it possible. Forrest followed the Las Vegas Outlaws for the season, and we learn about how players got ... into the league, how quickly the network head honchos lost faith after ratings dropped, and how Vince McMahon went down fighting till the end. He shines a light on how many people worked their ... off for the league, almost making you feel sorry for McMahon and his cohorts. With the XFL gone, football won't be as easy to make fun of anymore-well, at least there's still the Cincinnati Bengals. I love it, as Forrest is a very good writer who moves you along and doesn't miss a single detail.
Rating:
Summary: This is a truly great book.
Review: Truly fascinating. Forrest pieced together a hilarious account of what has to be one of the worst ideas in the history of television since "Cop Rock." (And even that got better ratings than the XFL.) Starting off with a bang, thanks to unprecedented hype, the XFL very quickly plummeted to unprecedented lows. Literally the lowest rated prime time show in the history of the ratings system. A show about me writing this review could get higher ratings than that. The characters are amazing. The story of the play by play announcer who continuously and publicly berates a coach in the hopes he'll snap, hit somebody and bring up the sagging ratings is astonishing. Especially when you factor in the he is also the Governor of Minnesota. The story of Ryan Clement's addiction to football is as inspiring as it pathetic. And McMahon and Ebersol. That Brett Forrest could fit both of these ego's into only 350 pages is an accomplishment in itself. Read this book. And do it soon, because it's gonna become an HBO movie any minute and as good as it'll be, the book will still be better.
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