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John Feinstein is one of this country's preeminent sports journalists, and he'll soon be visiting Utah's Sundance Resort to discuss his 28th and latest book, "One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game."
Given the opportunity to talk with Feinstein ahead of his visit, I conducted a telephone interview with him this week, during which we discussed, among other things: the story behind his new book, the interesting background to his upcoming appearance at Sundance, the state of college football--including BYU's future as a football independent--and even Tiger Woods.
You can hear those excerpts from our interview in "Cougar Cuts," left, and you can hear the entire interview during "Cougar Sports Saturday," this Saturday between 1:35 and 2:00pm, and again between 4:35 and 5:00pm, on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM.
John Feinstein will be discussing "One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game" at the Sundance Author Series, on Saturday, June 16th. Advance reservations are required; get tickets at sundanceresort.com or by calling the resort at 866-734-4428.
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Among highlights from the above excerpts, here's John Feinstein--
On college football independents:
"I think that Notre Dame is probably going to be the last independent standing, and they've struggled for most of the last 20 years. It's not as if they've been dominant in any way; the last time they were really a serious player in the national championship picture was 1993."
"BYU of course, is a unique school, and does have a unique following. So, if anybody other than Notre Dame would have a chance to succeed as an independent, it would be BYU, but ultimately, I think I see everybody including Notre Dame in a conference."
"I think BYU will end up somewhere, in one of the big conferences, maybe the Big 12, before all is said and done, and I see Notre Dame eventually--because the TV money will become such that being the independent and having their own TV contract is not the advantage that it once was--I see them probably going into the ACC...I'll bet you dollars to donuts they'll take that route."
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On Tiger Woods' reaction after winning at The Memorial to tie Jack Nicklaus for second all-time with 73 career PGA Tour victories:
"Tiger Woods never does anything that is spontaneous. He thinks about it before he does it, except when he loses his temper on the golf course, and when he kept emphasizing 'I'm only 36 years old, I'm only 36 years old,' in all the interviews he did after winning on Sunday, he was sending a message to Jack Nicklaus."
"He was saying, 'I've won as many as you, and I'm ten years younger than you were the last time you won (a major) at the '86 Masters.' Maybe that's because he's wondering if he's going to get to Nicklaus' 18 (majors), and he wants to have something one-up on Jack until and unless he does reach that 18 number."
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On being invited to speak at Sundance:
"Talk about something coming out of the blue...in doing the promotion of "One on One," I appeared on an NPR show, and was talking at length about the book and about my career, and got an e-mail from my publicist...saying that (Sundance Resort founder) Robert Redford had apparently been listening to the interview and was intrigued, and extended an invitation for me to come out and speak at some point."
"Needless to say, I was flattered and blown away at the same time, having followed Robert Redford's career--and for me, most importantly, that he played Bob Woodward in 'All the President's Men,' and Bob Woodward has been a mentor and a friend for 30 years now. So, all of that coming together, coalescing to bring me to Utah, is a big thrill."
"I've always teased Bob Woodward about the notion of 'how can you go wrong in life after Robert Redford has played you?'; I mean, really how much better that that does it get?"
(Note: Feinstein worked for Woodward on the Metro staff at the Washington Post in the early days of his professional journalism career)
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On the writing of "One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game":
"This book is a lot different than what I've done in then past, in the sense that I've always tried to keep myself out of the books. My feeling was people wanted to know about Bob Knight, or Mike Krzyzewski, or or Dean Smith, or Jim Valvano, or John McEnroe, or Tiger Woods, not about be. But having done it now for so many years, I realized as I came up on the 25th anniversary of "A Season on the Brink"...that I had many stories that I would tell to friends, or when I spoke, or that I hadn't told really at all to anybody, that did involve me--but they involved my interpersonal relationships with these characters."
"I decided to write a book that would go to old stories that I had never told about my relationships with some of these people, and also to go back in the sense that I went and saw a lot of these people who I hadn't seen for a numbers years, who I had written about in the books, and that was probably the most fun part of the exercise, was tracking down a lot of those people."
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On limiting the scope of "One on One" to the writing of his first ten books:
"When I started the project, I thought I would write about all the books up until now, but as I was going along, I realized I had written 40,000 words, and I was still on "A Season on the Brink"...and so I finally decided 'let's just leave it to the first decade or so of my book-writing career,' and maybe someday in another ten years or so, when some of the newer books are a little further out, I might go back and do something similar with those books, or maybe someday I'll be qualified to write a real memoir."
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Having admired Feinstein's work for years, I considered it a pleasure to share some time with him on the phone, and I look forward to hearing him speak at Sundance on the 16th.
I hope you enjoy his full interview on "Cougar Sports Saturday," and if it leads to you attending his Sundance Authors Series address, I'm sure you'll consider it time well spent.
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