Audiobooks by Jeff Pearlman

Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur

New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman turns his sharp eye and meticulous storytelling to one of pop culture’s most enduring and enigmatic figures—Tupac Shakur—presenting the definitive retelling of his life, complete with explosive new details. Scrutinized in life, mythologized in death, Tupac Shakur remains a subject of immense cultural significance and speculation nearly thirty years after his murder. Despite a multitude of books, documentaries, and even a feature film, much about Tupac’s story remains shrouded and misunderstood. Like many icons who died tragically young, Tupac the man has long been obscured—his edges sanded down, his complexity numbed—by the competing agendas that surround his legacy. In Only God Can Judge Me, accomplished biographer and cultural historian Jeff Pearlman tackles his most nuanced subject, telling the definitive story of Tupac Shakur in unprecedented depth. In this authoritative look at Tupac’s life, Pearlman skillfully recreates West Coast hip hop in all its glory, going inside Death Row Records and on the sets of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice to offer the most clear-eyed rendering to date of the man who still casts a shadow over modern hip hop. But more than just a biography of a complicated figure, Only God Can Judge Me also captures the time and place in which Tupac rose, a singular moment in music history when West Coast hip hop became a phenomenon and transformed popular music. Featuring nearly seven hundred original interviews and never-before-published details from every corner of Tupac’s life, the result offers a truly singular portrait of one of modern pop culture’s most towering figures. Guided by the voices of those who knew and lived life alongside him, Only God Can Judge Me captures the layers of a man who, even thirty years after his death, remains as elusive as ever.

Jeff Pearlman (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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El circo de los tres anillos

La historia sobre la dinastía de los Lakers de 1996 hasta 2004, cuando Kobe Bryant y Shaquille O'Neal se conjuntaron (y colisionaron) para conseguir tres campeonatos consecutivos para los Lakers, devolviendo la franquicia a lo más alto de la NBA. En la historia moderna del deporte, nunca ha habido dos compañeros de equipo de tan alto nivel que se odiaran tanto como Shaquille O'Neal odiaba a Kobe Bryant y Kobe Bryant odiaba a Shaquille O'Neal. Desde enfrentamientos públicos, a altercados físicos y repetidas amenazas mutuas, aquello era la guerra. Y, sin embargo, a pesar de ocho largos años de luchas internas y de una hostilidad nunca antes vista, la figura de Phil Jackson emergió para instaurar la paz en el vestuario del equipo. Su intervención logró que la pareja Shaq-Kobe se convirtiera en una de las más grandes dinastías en la historia de la NBA. De la mano, lideraron a los Lakers para conseguir tres anillos de manera consecutiva, devolviendo la gloria y la emoción a la franquicia de la ciudad de Los Ángeles. El circo de los tres anillos es una maravillosa inmersión a una de los emparejamientos más tensos y exitosos de la historia del deporte. - Jeff Pearlman es un autor best seller del New York Times de ocho libros relacionados con el deporte. Vive en Carolina del Sur con su esposa y sus dos hijos. Es el creador del podcast Yang y escribe regularmente en su blog www.jeffpearlman.com

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Jordi Llovet (Narrator)

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Football for a Buck

The United States Football League was the last football league to not merely challenge the mighty NFL but also to cause it to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, featured as many as eighteen teams, secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans, and launched the careers of legendsÄîbut then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner, a New York businessman named Donald Trump. In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports listeners back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost and how, thirty years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler. This is sports as high entertainmentÄîand a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre

A towering figure on the field for two decades and destined for the Hall of Fame, Brett Favre was one of the game's last cowboys, a fastball-throwing, tobacco-chewing gunslinger who refused to give up without a fight. This peerless quarterback guided the Green Bay Packers to two Super Bowls and one championship win, shattering countless NFL records along the way.Gunslinger tells Brett Favre's full, definitive story for the first time, drawing on more than five hundred interviews, including many from the people closest to Favre. Jeff Pearlman charts Favre's journey from his rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last roster spot at Southern Mississippi to a late-night car accident that nearly took his life. Favre clawed back, getting drafted into the NFL, first to Atlanta, then to Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father the day before he honored him by playing the greatest game of his career, and ultimately a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved.

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Barry Abrams (Narrator)

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Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s

The New York Times bestselling author of Sweetness delivers the first all-encompassing account of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of professional sports’ most-revered—and dominant—dynasties. The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s personified the flamboyance and excess of the decade over which they reigned. Beginning with the arrival of Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the number-one overall pick of the 1979 draft, the Lakers played basketball with gusto and pizzazz, unleashing their famed “Showtime” run-and-gun style on a league unprepared for their speed and ferocity—and became the most captivating show in sports and, arguably, all-around American entertainment. The Lakers’ roster overflowed with exciting all-star-caliber players, including center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they were led by the incomparable Pat Riley, known for his slicked-back hair, his Armani suits, and his arrogant strut. Hollywood’s biggest celebrities lined the court, and gorgeous women flocked to the arena. Best of all, the team was a winner. Between 1980 and 1991, the Lakers played in an unmatched nine NBA championship series, capturing five of them. Bestselling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost three hundred interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end—marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV—Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess. “The Showtime Lakers weren’t just the best team of their era. They were also the most compelling, the most charismatic, the most complex. The Lakers of Kareem, Magic, and Riley were to the 1980s what the Yankees of Mantle, Ford, and Stengel were to the 1950s: a team perfectly matched to its time, and place. Jeff Pearlman, typically, delivers the goods, celebrating them for their achievements, pulling no punches on the subject of their shortcomings. This is a vivid portrait of a great team, in full.”—Jeremy Schaap, New York Times bestselling author of Cinderella Man

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton

At five feet ten inches tall, running back Walter Payton was not the largest player in the NFL, but he developed a larger-than-life reputation for his strength, speed, and grit. Nicknamed 'Sweetness' during his college football days, he became the NFL's all-time leader in rushing and all-purpose yards, capturing the hearts of fans in his adopted Chicago.Drawing from interviews with more than seven hundred sources, acclaimed sportswriter Jeff Pearlman has crafted the first definitive biography of Payton. Sweetness at last brings fans a detailed, scrupulously researched, all-encompassing account of the legend's rise to greatness. From Payton's childhood in segregated Mississippi, where he ended a racial war by becoming the star of his integrated high school's football team, to his college years and his thirteen-year NFL career, Sweetness brims with stories of all-American heroism and covers Payton's life on and off the field. Set against the backdrop of the tragic illness that cut his life short at just forty-five years of age, this is a stirring tribute to a singular icon and the lasting legacy he made. 'Jeff Pearlman does the work of first-rate biography in his addictively readable Sweetness. He presents Walter Payton in all of his flaws and contradictions yet leaves you in the end with a much deeper appreciation of an uncommon man.''David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize'winning author

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty

They were America's Team—the high-priced, high-glamour, high-flying Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s, who won three Super Bowls and made as many headlines off the field as on it. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, and Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the Cowboys rank among the greatest of all NFL dynasties. In similar fashion to his New York Times bestseller The Bad Guys Won! about the 1986 New York Mets, in Boys Will Be Boys, award-winning writer Jeff Pearlman chronicles the outrageous antics and dazzling talent of a team fueled by ego, sex, drugs—and unrivaled greatness. Rising from the ashes of a 1–15 season in 1989 to capture three Super Bowl trophies in four years, the Dallas Cowboys were guided by a swashbuckling, skirt-chasing, power-hungry owner, Jerry Jones, and his two eccentric, hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Together the three built a juggernaut that America loved and loathed. But for a team that was so dominant on Sundays, the Cowboys were often a dysfunctional circus the rest of the week. Irvin, nicknamed "The Playmaker," battled dual addictions to drugs and women. Charles Haley, the defensive colossus, presided over the team's infamous "White House," where the parties lasted late into the night and a steady stream of long-legged groupies came and went. And then there were Smith and Sanders, whose Texas-sized egos were eclipsed only by their record-breaking on-field performances. With an unforgettable cast of characters and a narrative as hard-hitting and fast-paced as the team itself, Boys Will Be Boys immortalizes the most beloved—and despised—dynasty in NFL history.

Jeff Pearlman (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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