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Rating: 
Summary: Skip's Bent Views
Review: A very intersting book for Cowboys fans. The access that Bayless was given during this championship run gives readers a unique insight about the ups and downs of a football season. However, as in his two previous books, Bayless makes himself too much of a part of the story, trying to make it seem as if he's more important than he really is. He also continuued a pattern of going overboard with innuendos, in this case potentially damaging the reputation of Troy Aikman. Skip always thinks it's necessary to combine football with National Enquire type material, and in this case it ruined what had the potential to be a great book and essentially ended his career in Dallas and on ESPN.
Rating: 
Summary: Straight Forward and Sobering...
Review: I've just completed Skip Bayless' book "Hell Bent; The Inside Story of a 'Win or Else' Dallas Cowboy Season" and found it to be imformative and interesting as a work but damn dissappointing as a commentary on my favorite football team.A Dallas fan will find it fascinating to learn about the myriad of interwoven relationships, some sweet and smalltown, others downright adulterous, that make up the infrastructure of "America's Team". If you didn't like Barry Switzer as a coach then you may not even like him as a human after reading this tell-all. After all this amazing team has accomplished in the nineties, the one most remarkable feat may be the survival of the Jerry Jones-Barry Switzer era however short it was. One final note; If you come away from reading this book with any shread of respect for Larry Lacewell I suspect you may be a regular viewer of the Jerry Springer show. Get this and read it.
Rating:
Summary: despite the title, this is not a football book
Review: If you're a football fan looking for a good football book, you should look elsewhere. This is more about celebrities and their excesses and behind-the-scenes shenanigans, the gossip and the rumors with all the scandal and intrigue. It just so happens that the celebrities in question are affiliated with the Dallas Cowboys as players, coaches, etc. This is about the soap opera between Jerry Jones and Barry Switzer - why Switzer coaches the way he coaches and why Jerry brought Switzer to Dallas. Or one version of that soap opera. Anyway, there's not much football here; it's pretty strictly off-the-field stuff, and maybe out-of-bounds at that.
Rating: 
Summary: A little more football please, and a little less gossip!!
Review: This book wasn't nearly as good as Skip Bayless's book 'The Boys', for one big reason: 'The Boys' focus was mainly on what happened on the field. This book is filled with unsubstantiated rumors, and gossip (from questionable sources I might add). Worst of all, this keeps Bayless from discussing what an incredible season the Cowboys had. For example: in discussing the opening day win (on Monday Night Football) over the New York Giants Bayless doesn't even mention Emmitt's (Smith) first carry of the season: an up the middle 60+ yard touchdown run that was spectacular because Smith smoked the Giants secondary. He also fails to mention Prime Times (Deon Sanders) awesome interception against the Raiders (leaping over the top of Rocket Ishmail while running stride for stride with him).............and on and on. He also failed to mention that Jay Novachec was out late in the season (getting his knee surgically repaired), and how this affected the team's performance. (I mean lets face it as much respect as I have for Kevin Williams, that offense was a 2 receiver offense.) Bayless preferred to lay the blame of the late season slump at the feet of the alleged conflict between Troy Aikman and Barry Switzer.
Later in the book is a chapter on the cowboy's "family secrets" and Bayless reports all sorts of unfounded rumors and half-truths about many Cowboys. At one point Bayless claims he knew all about the "real" Michael Irvin but choose not to report on it because what he was doing wasn't "breaking the law, and certainly hasn't affected his performance". Well Skip why are you reporting it now? Hmmmmmmmmm? Buying drugs, (which Irvin later pleaded no contest to) isn't illegal?
I will give Bayless credit for giving Barry Switzer more respect as a football coach than probably anyone else. Everyone who knows anything about football knows the man's a good coach. (3 National titles, 4th highest win percentage in college football history, and oh yeah, a world championship with Dallas.)
Overall this book would interest you only if you are more interested gossip than football.
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