re: "It Never Rains In Tiger Stadium" -John Ed Bradley

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For those who have read it, what are y'all's opinions of this book? Worth the purchase?

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It was for me - if you're familiar with his Sports Illustrated essay, "The Best Years of His Life", I would read it first and decide:

The Best Years of His Life

The book is essentially an expansion of this essay to novel length and fills in a bunch of the biographical details. I think any fan of college football can appreciate this story, but for LSU fans of a certain age, it is especially intriguing.

If you don't like "The Best Years of His Life", you probably won't like "It Never Rains In Tiger Stadium".

Bought it.
Read it.
Will read again.

I think he did a good job of retelling the hole that is left when you leave something that is such a big driving part of your life behind forever. The book was not what I expected it to be but it was a good read. I have recommended it to spouses who have troubles understanding the emotions athletes go through when leaving their sport.

Posted this in the Woodley thread before seeing this one -

If you're expecting a book about LSU football, you'll be disappointed. It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium is not about LSU football. It's about how much football - and specifically playing football for Coach Mac at LSU - meant to Bradley, and how hard it was to stop playing. LSU football is in the background. The story is about Bradley, and to many he comes of as whiny and self-centered - which is valid.

There are glimpses into the Mac's last years at LSU, the team's dynamic, insights into several players and esoteric references to places and experiences in Opelousas, Baton Rouge and SEC road venues that diehard Tiger fans and South Louisianans will appreciate, regardless of the narcissism of the commentary.

Yeah, it's pretty comically obvious when reading the book that John Ed is not really being honest with himself AT ALL. The convoluted explanations he gives for why he did certain things make no sense at all, and if you're wise enough to the game to understand what's going on, it's pretty easy to see what his real reasons are for being such a whiny jackass all the time--i.e., the realities of his personality that he's still trying to hide.

Once you learn to poke through his bullshite, you realize that he's actually written a quite amazing memoir of a particular time and place, and one that is extremely stirring on an emotional level for anyone who has felt these same timeless occurrences happening in his own life.

There's that, and then there's also the evocative portrait of things specific to the old south Louisiana football culture that used to exist decades ago. But that part's harder to explain.

It was a decent and easy read but the guy comes off so Whiney.

"Woe is me, I played football at LSU."

It's like he hates himself.

I enjoyed it!!

Total whiner. Don't waste your $$.

I read it a couple of years ago and thought it was OK. It wasn't what I expected, but I do think it is worth the read.

totally false

I've seen it rain in Tiger Stadium...