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The Sinful Seven: Sci-fi Western Legends of the NCAA
A collaborative book, written and edited in just 11 weeks, that examines college sports through the lens of an Old West that never existed, but feels very familiar.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2020
28 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Jason Kirk
4 books206 followersJason Kirk, a longtime sports journalist, co-hosts the Vacation Bible School Podcast and the Shutdown Fullcast. He’s contributed to The Athletic, This American Life, Penguin Random House’s Hazlitt Magazine, Slate, USA Today, Vox, and many others. His non-fiction literary agent is Erik Hane of Headwater Literary Management.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 9, 2020
The NCAA is awful. This book is great. Both these things are true.
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November 6, 2023Frankly I think this is the best college football book ever
August 7, 2020
It was always bound to collapse.
A good book about football is almost never about football. This is no exception. What can be read as a network of deep college football lore combined with interesting historical takes is so much more. It's an examination of American mythos and myth-making, a well-synthesized thesis on how money and power works in some of the oldest American institutions, a historical deep-dive that breaks down popular perceptions, and a deeply deeply fun read. I can't go on enough about how brilliantly this book combines fact and fiction.
It begins in a way where it appears that the fiction chapters are merely an allegory for the non-fiction's historical argument. Then you hit part 2. I can't say enough about how much I love part 2. It's everything that's compelling, weird, heartbreaking, rage-inducing, sad, and joyful about college football, and America really. It's speaking truth about power, and it's explaining how things work here. History is a valuable tool here, but only because it helps explain the present. Sinful Seven presents itself as a sci-fi western, but it's such a valuable document of now. Very little in this sport has never happened before. It still keeps happening. That should leave you pondering this book's weightier questions long after you put it down.
We're about to "begin" a football season that will look like no other. Maybe games will attempt to be played, maybe not. But many of the same questions being raised by the athletes, by fans, by even those a few rungs up the ladder, aren't new questions. Sinful Seven makes you realize how these questions are built into a long history. A history of stories, myths, half-truths, and whole lies. These folks have distilled that unruly thing into a 200ish page book, and what an accomplishment it is.
A good book about football is almost never about football. This is no exception. What can be read as a network of deep college football lore combined with interesting historical takes is so much more. It's an examination of American mythos and myth-making, a well-synthesized thesis on how money and power works in some of the oldest American institutions, a historical deep-dive that breaks down popular perceptions, and a deeply deeply fun read. I can't go on enough about how brilliantly this book combines fact and fiction.
It begins in a way where it appears that the fiction chapters are merely an allegory for the non-fiction's historical argument. Then you hit part 2. I can't say enough about how much I love part 2. It's everything that's compelling, weird, heartbreaking, rage-inducing, sad, and joyful about college football, and America really. It's speaking truth about power, and it's explaining how things work here. History is a valuable tool here, but only because it helps explain the present. Sinful Seven presents itself as a sci-fi western, but it's such a valuable document of now. Very little in this sport has never happened before. It still keeps happening. That should leave you pondering this book's weightier questions long after you put it down.
We're about to "begin" a football season that will look like no other. Maybe games will attempt to be played, maybe not. But many of the same questions being raised by the athletes, by fans, by even those a few rungs up the ladder, aren't new questions. Sinful Seven makes you realize how these questions are built into a long history. A history of stories, myths, half-truths, and whole lies. These folks have distilled that unruly thing into a 200ish page book, and what an accomplishment it is.
August 2, 2020
it's going to be hard to explain this book to an outsider. but what outsiders do and like, that's none of my concern. This is a mix of history and allegory about the growth of college sports, it celebrates the ways that sports are beautiful and diagnoses what makes college sports dangerous and a contributor to systemic inequality. My favorite chapter was definitely the one where Jason Kirk turned Bear Bryant's time at Texas A&M into an anime written by Charles Portis.
August 16, 2020
The most dangerous thieves are the ones who rob via the law, not against it.
August 10, 2020
It does help to know some of the background of the events described when encountering the symbolism used in the fictional parts, as well as a familiarity with a few of the running gags used on the website Every Day Should be Saturday and the Shutdown Fullcast college football podcast. However, it does hold up as an entertaining tale even if one is not a college football fan, or at least it's a combination of storytelling and information about how the decades-long issues surrounding the NCAA and member schools have played out over time.
August 14, 2020
It's an allegory, it's a roman a clef, it's a bit inside baseball, but you probably aren't picking up it up if you don't already know where it's headed. The fiction sections are rollicking fun but made moreso by the stark beauty of the non fiction pieces. The two mesh together in a way where each rewards the other.
August 24, 2020
This book isn't for every college football fan.
But for those that it is, it is everything you could ever want: a perfect blend of history, I-did-not-know-thats, and subtle in-jokes, all tied together with beautiful prose into one allegorical masterpiece.
But for those that it is, it is everything you could ever want: a perfect blend of history, I-did-not-know-thats, and subtle in-jokes, all tied together with beautiful prose into one allegorical masterpiece.
September 21, 2020
Huge fan of The Shutdown Fullcast, SBNation, EDSBS, Banner Society, ... basically anything this group has ever written.
Half history lesson about the NCAA, half western. Any writing that portrays Bear Bryant as an actual Bear and Texas as Big Cow, gets 5 stars from me!
Half history lesson about the NCAA, half western. Any writing that portrays Bear Bryant as an actual Bear and Texas as Big Cow, gets 5 stars from me!
November 20, 2020
This was a truly enjoyable read. It is the Moon Crew at its best providing absurdist college football satire. Both of the main legend stories were well-written, had good endings, and made me laugh out loud at several points. I also enjoyed that the fiction chapters alternated with non-fiction stories that tell the true stories behind the fantasy stories.
The only reason I am not giving it a full 5 stars is that I am not sure that it is as accessible for readers who are not closely familiar with the tons of college football random information and Moon Crew inside jokes. Other than that, it is definitely a favorite of mine.
The only reason I am not giving it a full 5 stars is that I am not sure that it is as accessible for readers who are not closely familiar with the tons of college football random information and Moon Crew inside jokes. Other than that, it is definitely a favorite of mine.
September 8, 2020
If the sportswriting world continues to collape, these guys should try out sci-fi and western fiction.
December 1, 2020
Fantastic and amazing way to tell a story about college football!
March 16, 2021
Great if you love college football and westerns. If you don't like those things, it's still probably pretty good. A nice blend of fiction and nonfiction.
August 27, 2020
This is one of the most creative and inspiring ventures I've ever witnessed. A bunch of super talented sports writers got laid off by Vox media and five of them put in a 400+ page book in three months. It's a beautiful marriage between, first, the history of college football and NCAA amateurism, and, second, an intriguing allegory of that history set in the mythical Old West territory of La Cademia. There's incisive analysis, juicy anecdotes, brilliant turns of phrase, great wit and fantastic storytelling.
It's college football with cowboys, zombies, witches, and a sci-fi allegory for athlete transfers and schools changing conferences. Seldom do I read something so relevant to society that doesn’t depress me.
Read more:
https://vulpesjournal.blogspot.com/20...
It's college football with cowboys, zombies, witches, and a sci-fi allegory for athlete transfers and schools changing conferences. Seldom do I read something so relevant to society that doesn’t depress me.
Read more:
https://vulpesjournal.blogspot.com/20...
November 18, 2020
Just like every other college football sci-fi western I’ve ever read...
July 6, 2022
This is fantastic in the way that all things EDSBS and EDSBS adjacent are, taking things simultaneously very seriously and not seriously at all. Is that a cryptic description bordering on useless? Yes and I apologize for it, but it's the best way I know how to describe these tales of the NCAA just NCAAing all over the place. The only real shame of this book is that it came to fruition before we knew about Antioch, the Birthday Spider.
December 10, 2020
Bizarre, absurd and funny in the way only the fullcast crew can be. Wonderful way to pillory the NCAA over its history. The fiction sections lost me sometimes with the in-jokes and allusions but the non-fiction portions - magnificent. Don't skip the endnotes.
December 19, 2022
"It is a big country, and the very language of college football comes from moving across it."
That's not a quote from the book, but it is from a longform piece by one of the co-authors; Spencer Hall, often referred to as the best college football writer in America.
Those of us who are fans of this writing stable's (being co-authors Spencer Hall, Jason Kirk, Alex Kirshner, and Richard Jefferson) previous work can attest to their skill in writing about American college football in humorous, serious, and sometimes farcical ways... but the real skill of this piece comes from the collection of short stories interspersed between a real-life account of the history of college sports. Allegorical in nature, they weave together to create one story from start to finish, taking appropriate asides and rabbit trails when needed. There are tales told plainly, like the story of Jack Trice, set against wild western stories like The Cyclone. Entertaining, informative, emotional at times, and always seeking the right story. Well worth your time.
That's not a quote from the book, but it is from a longform piece by one of the co-authors; Spencer Hall, often referred to as the best college football writer in America.
Those of us who are fans of this writing stable's (being co-authors Spencer Hall, Jason Kirk, Alex Kirshner, and Richard Jefferson) previous work can attest to their skill in writing about American college football in humorous, serious, and sometimes farcical ways... but the real skill of this piece comes from the collection of short stories interspersed between a real-life account of the history of college sports. Allegorical in nature, they weave together to create one story from start to finish, taking appropriate asides and rabbit trails when needed. There are tales told plainly, like the story of Jack Trice, set against wild western stories like The Cyclone. Entertaining, informative, emotional at times, and always seeking the right story. Well worth your time.
September 23, 2020
I like to imagine Spencer playing Red Dead Redemption 2 last fall, finding Marko Dragic's lab up in the northeast and thinking "How can I turn this into a college football book?"
If you are already familiar with the work of the EDSBS/Shutdown Fullcast/Moon Crew folks, then you will probably love this book. If you have never heard of those guys, it is still possible that you will love this book but more likely that you will recede into the bushes Homer Simpson-style.
It almost seems silly to write a review for something with such a guaranteed rate of success with its intended audience and such a likelihood to confuse everyone else. It's like reviewing an Insane Clown Posse album.
If you are already familiar with the work of the EDSBS/Shutdown Fullcast/Moon Crew folks, then you will probably love this book. If you have never heard of those guys, it is still possible that you will love this book but more likely that you will recede into the bushes Homer Simpson-style.
It almost seems silly to write a review for something with such a guaranteed rate of success with its intended audience and such a likelihood to confuse everyone else. It's like reviewing an Insane Clown Posse album.
January 3, 2023
If I didn't know from fifty different previous blog posts/podcast mentions that Spencer played the hell out of Red Dead Redemption 2, I'd have walked away from this book with an overwhelming sense of "man, it feels like Spencer probably played the hell out of Red Dead Redemption 2." Not a bad thing! I loved RDR2, and I love college football, and I love the Fullcast, and this was the midpoint of that particular Venn diagram that I never realized I needed.
July 23, 2022
A fun little mixed allegory and history of the NCAA and its transformation through the 20th century. I enjoyed in equal parts learning how the organization worked and became Evil and the heavy-handed fiction that intersperses it. It's not the sharpest piece of writing I've ever come across, but it did make me tear up after a character said "Roll Tide", so, there's that.
November 9, 2024
This was a mixed experience for me. There were parts that I loved, but there were also sections that felt like filler. The writing was good, but the story was a bit too predictable. It’s not a bad book, but it didn’t quite live up to the hype. Worth a read, but manage your expectations.
July 6, 2022
I love this book! It's the perfect mix of informative and fantastical, and it was SUCH a fun read. These guys know their stuff, and the way they share stories of NCAA history through the lens of a sci-fi western is truly masterful.
July 14, 2022
If you want to understand how 2 schools from California ended up in the Big10, helps to have some understanding of how we got here, including why amateurism is such a lie and has been from the get go.
December 20, 2022
One of the weirdest yet most insightful looks at how college sports got to where they are today. Endlessly re-readable, and not a single weak chapter despite 4 different authors. Fantastic book, and one that I'd love to get an audiobook of.
July 7, 2022
best book of all time
July 9, 2022
This book describes the NCAA the way that the Moon Crew and Friends think: absorb, twisty turny, and true.
January 24, 2023
A great, fun read that shows why and how the NCAA is the way it is today. This book is a fantastic take on the history of the NCAA and why it was always bound to collapse.
February 1, 2023
Fantastic!
August 3, 2023
The most dangerous thieves are the ones who rob via the law, not against it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews