Stugotz’s Personal Record Book: The Real Winners and Losers in Sports

Weiner, cohost of ESPN Radio’s Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, teams up with radio producer Stanczyk for this irreverent debut compendium of heterodox takes on legendary sports figures. Revising championship tallies according to his whims, Weiner suggests that Kevin Durant’s two NBA championships shouldn’t count because he “took a shortcut” by signing with the Golden State Warriors in 2016 instead of sticking with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bill Belichick is nothing without Tom Brady, Weiner contends, noting that Brady won the Super Bowl in 2020 after leaving the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while Belichick ended that season with a middling 7–9 record. Weiner’s not consistent in his judgments, asserting that San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul’s lack of a championship ring should disqualify him from greatest-of-all-time consideration even as Weiner dismisses Joe Namath, who in 1969 brought the New York Jets their sole Super Bowl victory, as only the “thirteenth-best New York Jet quarterback of all time” because he threw more interceptions than touchdowns. Luckily, Weiner aims to provoke more than convince (“Deep stats are for irredeemable nerds”), successfully translating his flippant radio persona to the page. It’s a refreshingly idiosyncratic revision of the sports pantheon. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. (Nov.)