Oof, this book gave me soooo many feelings. It took me back to a really awful time that I would rather not re-live. Despite being totally aware and knowledgable of the events surrounding the kneeling during the anthem during NFL games, I forgot exactly how much Trump was involved in that. Reading about his antics and the horrible things he said, really infuriated me all over again. I honestly could not wait to finish this book solely for that reason. I would have preferred to have felt inspired by these athletes but I mostly just felt mad about Trump and right wing media and the “faketriotism” (omg, I love this phrase the athletes coined!) I was surprised by how many athletes were covered in this book, even going back to Jim Brown. I found that really interesting and important. My only critiques of this book were that there were a lot of typos and that it was not linear. It jumped all over the place and it made me a little nutty as it was hard to follow. I read an ARC, so it is possible that these issues were cleaned up before publication. I tried to download the published version from Hoopla but could never get it to load so the ARC it was.

TWO-CENT TUESDAY
Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

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FOOTBALL'S FEARLESS ACTIVISTS, by Mike Freeman

A fascinating and highly-recommended look at the story behind the protests of numerous Black athletes following the ongoing string of police killings of Black men, as well as the pushback they received from not only the fans but their own organizations and ownership. It's no secret 45 is shameful and to be honest I didn't expect much more from the NFL and I was still surprised by some of the reporting here. I'm glad there are athletes like these, who will risk it all for what's right. I did lose a little respect for the book when Barack Obama's name was misspelled twice. Once is a typo, twice is disrespectful.

Football’s Fearless Activists by Mike Freeman

9781683583509

240 Pages
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Release Date: September 15, 2020

Nonfiction, Sports, NFL, Football, Colin Kaepernick, Civil Rights, Protests, Political

Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, is known more for his protests than his playing football. He began protesting by kneeling during the anthem to support black and brown people who were treated poorly by the police.

This book is well written and includes snippets of interviews with many others in and out of football. The legacy of the football activists will be remembered for a long time. This book will make sure that happens. If you are interested in civil rights, you should read this book.

Can I give this book more than 5 stars? This book was incredible. I will definitely be buying myself a physical copy once it goes on sale. It was so informative but fun at the same time. The author didn't talk down to the reader like a lot of nonfiction books do. He wrote this book in a way that was easy to comprehend.
I would recommend this book to everyone.

If you haven’t been following what’s been going on with Trump and Colin Kaepernick the last 3 years, this will all be news to you. If you know, this isn’t unearthing anything new. Still, a good book to refresh your memory. Kaepernick taking a knee was never about disrespecting the flag. It was always about Black Lives Matter. It’s a tragedy that people still don’t get it.

This is a great story and fills in a lot of details about the story behind the scenes at the NFL. It was fascinating to learn some of the details I was not aware of before reading this story. When you think about how we are living history, this book has a lot to share. Presidents have their own place in the history books but the role taken in this story will forever be part of history. The players who realized they had an important civic role to play beyond the game on the field will be part of an important time in history too. This story will be added to my office shelf and I expect that it will not stay there very long because many will be reading this story. Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse for an advance copy of this book for an honest review.