Superfans

Description

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning Sports Illustrated journalist comes a fascinating exploration of what it means to be a superfan, featuring personal profiles and cutting-edge psychology. There are fans, and then there are fanatics. In this wondrously immersive look at American sports fandom, George Dohrmann travels the country to find out what makes a superfan. In Minnesota, he meets newly minted generals of the Viking World Order; in Oregon, he shares a few beers with a lone soccer fan who single-handedly amassed a cheering section 4,000-strong for the Portland Timbers; in Illinois, he talks with the parents of a five-year-old boy whose hatred of Tom Brady went viral on YouTube. Through these and other humanizing profiles, Dohrmann uses the latest thinking in sports psychology-some of it learned during an intense round of mini golf with a group of professors at the annual Sports Psychology Forum-to unravel what makes sports fans so obsessive.

George Dohrmann is a contributing writer at Sports Illustrated, where he was formerly the magazine's sole investigative reporter. He is the author of Play Their Hearts Out, winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting and the Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Youth Sports. In 2000, while working at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories that uncovered a college basketball team's academic fraud. Dohrmann lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his family.

"Well reported and meticulously researched . . . [George] Dohrmann is a respected, diligent sportswriter and has been so for years-you don't get Pulitzers for message-board posts."-The Wall Street Journal "Compelling . . . Being a sports fan means asserting an identity, connecting to a tribe and a time."-The Washington Post "[A] lively, and sympathetic, account of the men and women who paint their faces, wear crazy costumes and make regular calls to sports radio shows."-Newsday "A thought-provoking exploration of the weird, fascinating, and wonderful world of sports fans."-Chris Ballard, senior writer at Sports Illustrated "Superfans is utterly hilarious, showing that sports have the power to turn PhD psychologists into superstitious obsessives, and young children into statistical savants. It's also the definitive anthropological dive into a form of mania that affects someone you love, if not you yourself."-David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of The Sports Gene "You've seen them screaming at a quarterback, paint covering their faces. But who are they? Why are they? And what do they mean for the rest of us? In Superfans, the great George Dohrmann breaks down the fanaticism with writing that is simultaneously uproarious and alarming. This is a terrific book."-Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Gunslinger "Vastly entertaining and enlightening . . . Dohrmann treats his subjects with dignity. . . . By exploring the motivations of the men and women who display team tattoos and coordinate fan armies complete with military ranks, Dohrmann gives soul to a much maligned and misunderstood aspect of sports."-Publishers Weekly "A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turns his attention to those who identify obsessively with their teams. . . . This is a fascinating subject deserving of further study, and Dohrmann provides a good jumping-off point."-Kirkus Reviews "Dohrmann here plumbs the deep, mysterious ties that bind 'superfans' to their teams. . . . An insightful study that can find application well beyond the world of sports."-Booklist "An inside look at people who draw a sense of place and belonging from the sports teams for which they root. This book should have a broad readership."-Library Journal