It’s not about sports agents, but it is freaking awesome. I am not going to lie and tell you that I read every page of Taking Sports Seriously: Law and Sports in Contemporary American Culture by Jeffrey Standen (in fact, I skipped the entire chapter on Sports Books…why do I want to read a book that is going to tell me about other books I should or should not read?). Despite that chapter, I loved the book by Standen. In fact, I have enjoyed Standen’s work in the past that I have read on his thought provoking blog, The Sports Law Professor.
Taking Sports Seriously took me a very long time to read. It is 320 pages, but I enjoyed reading it so much that I wanted to take my time reading each chapter (besides Chapter 4) and actually reflect on many of Standen’s controversial statements. Reading the book made me reconsider many of my stances on various sports law related issues. Some things I agreed with, others I did not, but either way, the topics and Standen’s commentary are outstanding.
Everything from player violence, fan injuries, free agency, player agents (okay, I guess he discusses our profession a little bit), drug-testing, athletes as role models, gambling, and much more, is covered in Taking Sports Seriously. Anybody interested in sports will find it to be a good read, but those also interested in the law will take an extra liking to Standen’s writing. Two of my favorite pieces concern paying college student-athletes and athletes as role models.
Even though I am extremely busy this semester between school, managing this site, and running Dynasty (among other things), I still found some time every day to read a few pages of Standen’s book. I suggest you pick it up and do the same.
