Never shying away from controversy, the Enoch Pratt Free Library invited outspoken Dave Zirin to Baltimore to divulge the sport world?s dirty secrets examined in his new book, “Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports.
“In Terrordome, the D.C.-area resident and national sports commentator reveals scandals and controversies birthed in boardrooms, locker rooms and war rooms.
Among the myriad of fiery issues Zirin examines are Olympic cities? imploding economies, how racism generated the NBA?s dress code and age limit, and how the Pentagon and the NFL used fallen soldier and former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman as the poster boy for the war on terrorism.
“[Tillman] would never have had wanted to be a GI Joe uncritically sacrificing all,” Zirin said. “He was very much a critical thinker. He read everything he could to better understand U.S. foreign policy. He kept a journal that was destroyed within moments of his death.”
Zirin?s concern for the “gruesome” collision of sports and politics in today?s culture motivated him to write his second book, two years after he penned “What?s My Name, Fool?”
“You could argue that overwhelmingly [sports] owners are conservative … and use teams for political projects,” he said.
Pro-life night at Phoenix Suns games and George Steinbrenner?s decision to play God Bless America in support of soldiers in Iraq during the Yankee?s seventh-inning stretch are a few examples of political agendas played out on the court and field, Zirin said. “Those are the folks that are the worst kind of moral and political hypocrites.”
Other hypocrites to Zirin are those who love theirviolence on the gridiron while watching bone-crushing downs, but then act as shocked as “blushing southern belles” when the violence spills off the field, such as it did in Michael Vick?s alleged dog-fighting ring.
Zirin?s publisher, Haymarket Books, believes the New York-bred author “uses sports as a launching pad to talk about the issues in society at large,” said Sarah Macaraeg, spokeswoman for Haymarket. “Along the way, Zirin?s combination of wit, a love of the game, and anger at injustice skillfully connects ideas about social change to an audience who may not normally be turned on to politics.”
» “Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports” by Dave Zirin, $16
