Boom! This is Books & Biceps #368!

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My son and I watched the documentary Bye, Bye Barry on the Detroit Lions Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders the other night getting ready for the NFL Season and the highlights were dazzling. My son has been practicing his spin moves in the street and around the house non-stop.

If you were an NFL fan in the 90s, then you’ll enjoy the hell out of it. One thing it reminded me of, though, was how so many modern stars are turning to documentaries that they control (content-wise), which, in many cases, means we won’t see a definitive biography on them any time soon.

To me, part of the beauty of a biography is not only the author’s storytelling (instead of hearing it in the athlete’s own words) but the context, counterpoints, third party stories and the uncomfortable stuff that the subject may not want to talk about (or even know too much about). Basically, all the “not approved” stuff and the real stories people would be more comfortable sharing if they weren’t participating in a project funded by and/or overseen by the subject.

This isn’t to say that both a strong documentary and biography can’t co-exist - they certainly can… Like I said, I had a blast watching Barry run again, but too often now the athlete/actor/whoever owns the production company behind the documentary, or has full approval before agreeing to participate, and thus, it’s more of a PR piece (which could still be enjoyable) than a balanced look at this person’s life and career. Again, if we’re dealing with never-before-seen footage and a subject opening up for a rare event (The Last Dance), that’s fine.

To that end, I wanted to highlight three biographies on the other G.O.A.T. NFL running backs that I believe are the best versions of what a book can do that a documentary can’t:

RUNNING BACKS

Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton by Jeff Pearlman

Growing up in the 80s and 90s Walter Payton was the Michael Jordan of football. He was a wizard and an acrobat on the field and a smiling pitchman off of it. And the hard truth is that as fans, we knew NOTHING about him as a person. Pearlman does his usual stellar research and writing here and the sections on Payton’s college career and early Bears years are outstanding. It’s a cliche to say it, but you really didn’t know Walter. Definitely worth the read.

The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson by Jeff Pearlman

Back-to-back books by Pearlman? Yes. Why? One, because he’s one of the best biographers we have and two, both of these books are on highly enigmatic, somewhat reclusive stars whose life stories needed to be told by someone who both appreciated their place in sports culture and who was willing to dig in and do the heavy lifting for a balanced bio. Bo, like the title says, was a mythological human for many of us. Greatness. Grumpiness. All of it. This book 100% nails it and tells every story you’d want.

Jim Brown: Last Man Standing by Dave Zirin

Uniquely written and raw, Zirin explores the good, bad and uncomfortable aspects of the legendary Jim Brown. It’s one of my favorite biographies because of the device he uses to tell the story, which I won’t spoil. Also, damn… Jim Brown’s stats would have been untouchable if he played four or five more years.

I competed in a One-Mile Ocean Race around the Pompano Pier on Saturday. The water was warm and crystal clear and I saw a ton of sea life: a few turtles around the pier on the bottom, some redfish and schools of yellowtail… very cool.

Unfortunately, we had the current against us the last 1/3 mile and I had to really use my legs (the weakest part of my stroke) and it wiped me out. I mean, I was GASSED when I finished. But I crossed the finish line in under 30 minutes… And my daughter came with me which is the best.

Despite having to wear a hot pink cap (the organizers make you wear a swim cap so they can easily spot you in the water if you get in trouble) I took second place for the old dudes between 40-49:

And if you have any interest in watching me stumble out of the water looking so tired that the race announcer actually said, “I see some of you struggling getting out of the water”, you can watch it here, haha.

I’m putting this next piece under “BICEPS” because it involves making meat and eating protein, which are both key to building muscles.

On Sunday I smoked two racks of ribs and tried something new at the very tail end of the smoke that I wanted to share. In addition to an overnight rub, I typically follow the 3-2-1 smoking method: 3 hours smoked unwrapped, 2 hours smoked wrapped in foil, 1 hour smoked covered in sauce.

This time, after that last hour, I sprayed the ribs with a hot water mixture of honey, raw sugar and water and dripped a bunch under each rib on foil. Then I re-wrapped each rack, left it on for another 30 minutes, then took them off and let them sit for another 45 minutes. My goal was to add moisture so that the ribs did the much-coveted “fall off the bone” thing.

And it worked. These were EASILY the best ribs I’ve ever made and my whole family concurred, even my dad, a lifelong ribs aficionado (eating, not smoking or grilling, haha - sorry dad)

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I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. This week I tackled a topic near and dear to all of our hearts, the movie A Few Good Men and, more specifically, something I had to get off my chest: That Jessup wasn’t the villain in that movie. Incompetent Commander Jo Galloway was. Read the column and you will 100% agree. These are the facts, and they are undisputed.

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I love reading books and occasionally re-reading books, but what I’m terrible at, and don’t like doing, is taking notes while reading a book. I know plenty of authors and readers who do it, but it’s not my thing. I find that it messes with my flow and interrupts my thoughts and, the worst part, it feels like homework. And we all hate homework.

However, I like to reference ideas and stories from books that I’ve read in my own writing and thus, my dilemma: how to take notes without, you know, taking notes.

The answer: Shortform.

I use it to refresh my memory on books I’ve already bought and read all the time - like my own note taking service haha. It’s especially useful for a monster book like Ferriss’s 4-Hour-Body.

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