"Cohan's book will appeal to cultural critics, fans of all stripes, and American Studies scholars as it thoroughly and convincingly examines an understudied and undertheorized perspective of the Sport(s) Media Industrial Complex."—Scott D. Peterson, Sports Literature Association
"For a different look at sports fandom, this is a book well worth checking out."—Lance Smith, Guy Who Reviews Sports Books
“This is a first-rate contribution to the field of sports studies and an important work for scholars within literary studies. The thoroughness and breadth of this interdisciplinary research is breathtaking. But more impressive still is the deft and precise manner in which Noah Cohan has brought the many and varied concepts and sources to bear to clarify our understanding of his objects of study and of his argument. He manages to be at once engaging, vivid, interesting, and crystal clear. . . . This book is a pioneering and genuinely unique contribution.”—Yago Colás, professor of English at Oberlin College and author of Ball Don’t Lie: Myth, Genealogy, and Invention in the Cultures of Basketball
“Noah Cohan’s We Average Unbeautiful Watchers offers novel ways of thinking about and contextualizing sports fandom as an important, diverse, complex, and artful creative practice. It brings together an eclectic range of source material to broaden understandings of fandom beyond its stereotypical roots in ‘fanaticism’ and association with torso-painted and hollering bros to explain this phenomenon’s contested politics and cultural work.”—Travis Vogan, author of ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television
“Noah Cohan deftly demonstrates that, far from mindless entertainment, sports fandom is an enormously complex and significant form of human meaning-making. Analyzing sports fan narratives across a staggering range of media, Cohan draws us into the inner and the social lives of American sports fans, which are by turns disturbing, fascinating, and inspiring.”—Erin C. Tarver, associate professor of philosophy at Oxford College of Emory University and author of The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity
