LOUD Audiobook is Now Available!
The release of my memoir, LOUD, reaches another milestone today with the release of the audiobook. For the many, many WIP listeners who have confided to me that they never read books, well, now you don’t have to. You can hear me read it.
One of my favorite stories related to writing and promoting LOUD is how I ended up recording the audiobook. During the arduous process, I learned a lot about the publishing business, and about my own limitations in front of a microphone.
Publishers are reluctant to approve an audiobook until they know the book itself will sell, so – at least in my case – there was no commitment to do one until LOUD proved it was worth the financial commitment. Thanks to my loyal audience, the book exceeded most projections for sales, so at the very end of 2023, the audiobook was given the green light.
I was overjoyed when I got the call, so I really didn’t think much about the request by the audiobook people to send in a sample chapter of me reading the book. I did so with no delay. I couldn’t wait to get back in front of a mic.
But wait I did, for several weeks. I could get no answer on a start date for the recording, until finally I received an email informing me that – while I was still under consideration as the narrator of my own story – the audiobook company was considering a professional instead.
Huh? My first thought was, well, if they can hire Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones to do it, fine. I have never had pipes like those iconic voices. Heck, I’ll even admit that I don’t sound like a broadcaster, for a very good reason. I was never trained to be one. My career goal was always to write, not talk. My swerve to radio in 1990 was a fluke.
Eventually, after some of the usual howling by me, the powers that be reluctantly gave me the job. After 16 gruesome hours spread over four days later, the 300 pages were finally on tape. The job was much harder than I ever imagined. In the end, it came out fine, no thanks to me. The people at The Philadelphia Post were so good at editing that they managed to put out a solid product, which you can hear starting today.
But I think we are all in agreement now that, if I ever write another book, we will bring in a professional to narrate it.
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Catching up on some other Philadelphia sports stories. . . .
Amid all of the jubilation over Howie Roseman’s theft of Giants RB Saquon Barkley, I hope the fans won’t mind one moment of logical thinking: When will the Eagles GM spend some money on the weakest part of his roster, the pass coverage?
Hey, I like picking the pockets of an NFC East rival as much as anybody, but is this really the best use of money under the tight salary cap? At a time when the value of running backs is at an all-time low, is it smart to spend $37.75 million ($25 mill guaranteed) on an aging player with injury concerns?
No and no.
The Eagles needed a different Giant way more than Barkley – elite safety Xavier McKinney – but they were outbid by the Packers, who got the best ballhawk in free agency on a four-year, $68-million deal.
If Roseman had almost $90 million to spend on Barkley and edge rusher Bryce Huff, then he must have prioritized running backs and defensive ends over the defensive secondary, no?
In short, after the worst collapse in Eagles history, Roseman doubled down on his failed philosophy to value everything on a football field above the simple art of covering the pass. There’s a word to describe that kind of arrogant thinking –boneheaded.
I would love to see the Eagles get their money’s worth for the two newest additions to the roster, but when an enemy quarterback drops back and scopes out that porous secondary next year, prepare to hold your breath and expect the worst.
The Eagles still can’t cover the pass.
Despite the change in defensive coordinators, they still don’t like to blitz.
It’s going to be almost impossible to overcome those obstacles next season, with or without Saquon Barkley and Bryce Huff.
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While we were still basking in that brilliant goodbye from Jason Kelce, another Eagle with more than a decade of service quietly walked away. Goodbye, Fletcher Cox.
I’m pretty sure I was Cox’s biggest critic over the last few seasons before I retired early last year. Largely because of nostalgia, many fans looked past the last third of his career, when he was paid a lot more money than he deserved. This week, the accolades are pouring in for a player who peaked six years ago.
In 2018, Cox was a dominant force in the middle of the defensive line, with 10.5 sacks despite constant double teams. After that, he was not much more than ordinary. The next year he dropped to 3.5 sacks and he never got beyond seven after that great 2018 season.
I pointed this out obsessively in my final years on WIP, fighting hard against the false narrative that the double teams were the sole reason for his lack of production. Even when I brought on tape analyst Brian Baldinger to confirm that most teams were rarely double-teaming Cox anymore, the bogus excuses continued.
I wasn’t there for Cox’s final season, when he found a middle ground between the prime of his career and the comparably weak seasons after it. Fletcher Cox was OK in a lost season, though – like the other veteran leaders on the team – he was powerless to stop the worst collapse in Eagles history.
What no one else will bother to point out in this week of tributes for Fletcher Cox is that he received $126 million in his 12 seasons, more than half of which came well after his best years. Even now that he’s retired, he will cost the Eagles $4 million in dead money under the salary cap.
Fletcher Cox was a good football player.
But he was no bargain.
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Spring is a time of optimism in baseball, but it has never been so to me. I guess I’ve always been a grump, regardless of the season.
All I can do is chuckle at the notion that the Phillies are a threat to win a championship this season because – this just in – they have basically the same roster that finished 14 games behind the Atlanta Braves last season.
And then there’s one of the best rosters in the history of baseball, the 2024 Dodgers, who spent more than a billion dollars on future Hall of Famer Shohei Ohtani and Japanese stud starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers won 100 games last season – 10 more than the Phillies – before they acquired those studs. You’re telling me the Phillies are better than them? Seriously?
Somehow, the Phillies spent nearly $300 million just to keep Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola on new long-term contracts. There was very little money left to fill any roster holes – like, say, a proven closer.
Logic suggests that the Phillies are not going to win it all this season. In fact, they are not likely to get a sniff of another World Series in the immediate future.
But it’s spring and I’m a grump. So you have every reason to ignore my pessimism.
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Loyal listeners keep urging me to do a podcast. My answer never wavers. I’m already doing one. In fact, I haven’t missed a week since before I retired from WIP
The podcast is called The TV Show, and it features our former TV expert on the WIP show, Jay Black, and my good friend and ex-co-host Rhea Hughes. (Just getting to work with Rhea for a half-hour every week is reward enough for doing the podcast). Every show – available on Apple podcasts – we offer recommendations on new stuff to watch.
I offer the plug for our podcast this week because I highly recommend a 30 for 30 ESPN documentary that just dropped on Netflix called Four Falls of Buffalo. It chronicles the four-year run of the Bills in which they went to the Super Bowl and lost.
When I started watching, it reinforced our decision in the early 1990s to start Wing Bowl. In fact, Al Morganti decided to make our annual event a wing-eating contest because of Buffalo’s famous Anchor Restaurant, which arguably had the best wings in the world.
I took two things from the short series on Buffalo’s era of frustration. First, I couldn’t believe how different that city is from Philadelphia. Buffalo actually held huge rallies after their team lost the Super Bowl. Ugh. And second, I couldn’t believe how alike Buffalo is from us when it comes to losing.
Watching this compelling series made me appreciate on a whole new level the Super Bowl that the Eagles finally won in 2018.
At least our drought ended. Buffalo’s never has.
Eagles fans will love this series. I’m sure of that,
And you may like our podcast, too. Check it out.