A review by crispycritter
The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and Other Serious Business by Wright Thompson

hopeful reflective

5.0

A just plain beautiful collection of Wright Thompson’s best long-form articles. Incredible writing. Sparse, impactful prose that is so chock-full of gut punch quotes I gave up copying them into my notes app as I read.

Thompson has an amazing way of delving into the psyche of the athletes and sports fans he interviews. It’s not just about sports, it’s about sons and fathers, hope and resiliency, athletic identity, knowing when to walk away, and redemption.

From Urban Meyer Will Be Home For Dinner, my second favorite story:

“This is the difficult calculus of Meyer’s future, of any Type A extremist who longs for balance. They want the old results without paying the old costs, and while they’ll feel guilty about not changing, they’ll feel empty without the success. He wants peace and wins, which is a short walk from thinking they are the same.”

My favorite story has to be Beyond the Breach, where Thompson visits New Orleans ten years after Katrina and explores the city’s relationship with the Saints. I just wrote in my collection of quotes, “honestly too many to count.”