Pearlman

Ranking Jeff Pearlman's Books



1) The Bad Guys Won- (2004) Obviously the book nearest and dearest to my heart, about the team nearest and dearest to my heart. Zach Haberman said "The 26th man on that roster was a vial of cocaine."


2) Football for a Buck (2018) -  My expectations for this book were high, and it didn't disappoint. I knew there would be stories of sex and drugs and there was plenty of both.


3) Boys will be Boys (2008) - I never rooted for those Cowboys teams from 1992-1998, but what a bunch of psychos they were. Between Charles Haley and Michael Irvin it was a looney bin.

4) Showtime (2014) - To me the most interesting part of the book is the beginning, how they almost hired Jerry Tarkanian to having Jack McKinney invent the run and gun offense.  fun fun book.


5) The Rocket that Fell to Earth (2009)  Pearlman says this is least favorite of all his books. But in some ways it was his best work. He pointed out the good bad and ugly of Clemens.

6) Love Me Hate Me (2006) -  Jim Woods once said to me "Barry Bonds-There's a miserable fuck huh? I mean I don't know how Albert Belle was raised, but he was Bobby Bonds son. He grew up with a major league lifestyle." This book tells why that wasn't really accurate.

7) Gunslinger- (2016) The book itself was excellent, though I was so down on Brett Favre that I probably didn't appreciate it.

8) Sweetness (2011)- As I said, this is the only Pearlman book I don't own  (actually that's a lie- I don't own Love Me Hate Me either)  If I read it again, maybe it would pass Gunslinger, but as compelling as it was, it wasn't as "I can't put this book down"  as some of his others.