Better to Reign in Hell: Inside the Raiders Fan Empire

Better to Reign in Hell: Inside the Raiders Fan Empire
ISBN-10
159558787X
ISBN-13
9781595587879
Category
Sports & Recreation
Pages
336
Language
English
Published
2011-10-25
Publisher
The New Press
Authors
Jim Miller, Kelly Mayhew

Description

The silver-and-black-clad Oakland Raiders fans are the most notorious in American professional sports, with a mythic reputation for cursing, drinking, brawling, and generally wreaking mayhem. The devotion of the team’s multiracial, largely blue-collar supporters runs deep, creating a profound sense of community. As Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew reveal in this hair-raising and entertaining new book, the self-described Raider Nation, smitten with its outlaw mystique, provides a gritty alternative to California’s sunshine-and-granola image. Over the course of the harrowing 2003 season, Miller and Mayhew explored the reality behind the myth and interviewed legions of rabid Raiders fans—from suburban families to bikers—while attending games in the “Black Hole” (the rowdiest section in Oakland’s stadium), frequenting sports bars, and crashing tailgate parties. Featuring the extraordinary photography of Joseph A. Blum, Better to Reign in Hell is both a rollicking tale of obsessive fandom and a fascinating study of the intersection of class, race, gender, and community in professional sports.

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