Those Guys Have All the Fun

Those Guys Have All the Fun is not a movie. It's not a video game, or a TV show, or even a play (yes, I've seen one, despite this blog's moniker). It's a book. Admittedly, this blog is now getting rather far afield of its humble origins (and frankly, just as humble present). It's possible I may end up writing political columns about the future of multiculturalism. It's in play.

Anyway, Those Guys Have All the Fun is an oral history of ESPN. Now, ESPN doesn't have much of an impact on me as a Canadian. I'm sure if I lived south of the border, I'd be all "Oh, Dan Patrick, he was awesome" or "That Keith Olbermann. So funny. But a bit of a jackass." I recognized some of the names in the last chapters of the book, but that was mainly in context to ESPN.com's Page 2, which I used to read regularly until Bill Simmons started Grantland.

So I didn't recognize all the names, but that didn't stop it from being a fascinating read. The authors are either brilliant interviewers, bribed a bunch of people, or have pictures of them in compromising positions. Because they get some absolutely incredible interviews. "How did they get this person to say that?" I wondered to myself throughout much of the book. And it wasn't just a few people. I'd bet there are a thousand names in that book, with probably twice that many interviewed but left on the cutting-room floor.

Anyhow, the book details the history in an interesting fashion. There'll be a brief introductory paragraph in italics, and then there'll be a whole bunch of interviews about that particular subject. For instance, negotiating about NFL rights will have interviews of people on both sides, telling the story of how that came about through the people that were there. There'll be a paragraph from a lawyer, then from a TV executive, then from the lawyer again, then from an outsider who missed out on the rights, then from the executive, then from their vice-executive, then from the lawyer again. We get to see how a lot of things play out, from a bunch of different perspectives.

Of course, this isn't just limited to TV negotiations. They tell these types of things about people too, so it's very interesting to see how a person's perception isn't matched by the people around him or her. Mark Shapiro might think he's beloved by everyone in Bristol, but they'll be a bunch of different interviews that say he's not. And some that say he is.

Anyway, the best parts of the book are near the beginning, when they actually detail how ESPN got off the ground. It was the brainchild of Bill Rasmussen and his son Scott, who thought having access to sports 24 hours a day, seven days a week would be awesome. They bought some sort of transceiver with money borrowed from their family and used it as leverage for potential investors. Investors were pretty limited, because no one knew what the hell cable was. It was 1978 and HBO (the first cable channel) had been around for a couple of years, and USA had just started up. That was it. No one knew anything, and people were wary of investing.

Eventually, a guy named Stuart Evey (I think) invested in it. Actually, he invested oil money in it, because he was essentially a consigliere for an oil family. That got the ball rolling, but the problem was that neither Bill Rasmussen nor Stuart Evey knew anything about running a channel. Evey hung with some Hollywood types, so he found someone who was actually competent - Chet Simmons. Chet was there for about a year and a half, before he gave up because Evey and Rasmussen thought they were in charge, and also Evey was micro-managing things. But Simmons managed to get things off the ground and going.

Anyway, that was how ESPN started, but for a much better history from the people were actually there, you should definitely read this book. Even if you're Canadian and haven't watched ESPN at all. If you're a fan of sports, you should read this book. And you can borrow it, since I have a copy. Of course, you probably want to borrow the other few books I have as well. They’re good as well: Blood Sweat and Chalk (it’s a history of offence in football), Scorecasting (the freakonomics of sports) and A Few Seconds of Panic (it follows a writer trying out as a kicker for the Denver Broncos). They’re all very good, and if you notice they all have to do with football … um, well yes, there is that.