Book Review: Power Players by Chris Cillizza

I've been a fan of Chris Cillizza's from his CNN days and followed him to his "So What?" Substack. Chris has said many times that when he decided to resume writing after being laid off from CNN that he not only wanted to keep writing about politics but also find a way to write about sports. He had a short-lived sports-themed Substack that has since been put on hiatus (his sports pieces were fine, but didn't have any unique perspectives), and will now be hosting a TV show diving into the sports lives of politicians for the Washington Capitals' Cable channel.

For someone who loves both sports and politics, it makes sense to find places where they intersect (like the TV show). This intersection is highlighted in Power Players, which examines the sporting lives of Presidents from Eisenhower through Biden and shows what their interests say about them.

Most of this book is well-done (I know that sounds like damning with faint praise - stay with me here!). There was a lot to discover here, like Eisenhower, one of the steadiest President's we've had, taking all his frustrations out on the golf course, and LBJ as a Congressman only attending numerous Washington Nationals (V1) games to ingratiate himself with House leadership. Cillizza also offers perspectives that I hadn't thought of before, especially with Nixon, who not only bowled alone in the basement of the White House, but was also a "stat-head" type college football fan (further isolating him from the more widespread "rah-rah" type of college football fan). Was also interested in learning about the plaque at the McDonalds in Little Rock where Bill Clinton as Governor would stop on his runs, and how George W Bush gave up golf after the invasion of Afghanistan (and especially after the golf clip that ended up in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911). More well-known sports associations were also detailed, like Obama's basketball games and Trump's cheating at golf. It set up for a strong ending.

But then we get to the Biden chapter.

To Cillizza's credit, we have to remember two things: (1) this book came out in the middle of the Biden Presidency, so there wasn't as much to work with; and (2) you can only work with the history of the Presidents you have. But this was a bit of a deflating ending. The big story for Biden is that he's a serial fibber about his past playing football. There are also stories about his strong golf game (and why he doesn't announce when he's playing), as well as his penchant for taking Peloton classes. But apparently there's not enough of a story here, as Cillizza pads out the chapter with the top ten athletes from Delaware as well as the top five sports underdog movies. If lists like this had been sprinkled throughout the book this would have been fine, but after reading thorough chapters about every President since Eisenhower this is clearly just a way to pad out the chapter. Worse still, the book then ends, even though with a weak chapter like that the book just screams for an epilogue or conclusion. (Also, not exactly sure when this book was written, but was curious why the Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese controversy wasn't mentioned - was either too late to be included or is maybe more of a First Lady controversy).

So, mostly a good read, but need to watch for bumps in the end. Six out of ten hot dogs.