FORREST, Brett

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: University of Michigan, B.A., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Crown Publishers, 201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Freelance writer.

WRITINGS:

Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV's Biggest Fiasco, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals and Web sites, including Gear, Salon, and ESPN.

SIDELIGHTS:

The author of Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV's Biggest Fiasco, Brett Forrest is a freelance journalist and sports writer. He attended the University of Michigan, where he was an award-winning sports editor for the Michigan Daily.

Forrest's first book, published in 2002, chronicles the ill-fated Extreme Football League (XFL), a 2001 television product designed by its financial backers to combine professional football with the high production excitement of televised wrestling and the latest technology. Founded by Vince McMahon, the originator of the vastly popular World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and Dick Ebersole, an NBC-TV executive, the XFL was intended to attract viewers through such high-energy, high-tech gimmicks as "outlaw" personalities, microphones on the playing field, and provocative "cheerleaders." The governor of Minnesota, former wrestler Jesse Ventura, was a game commentator, and popular Chicago Bears personality Dick Butkus was named the league's Director of Competition. The eight-team league disbanded after only one season.

John Maxymuk, writing in Library Journal, recommended Long Bomb as a "fascinating pop culture tale." In Michigan Today, Joel Seguine praised Forrest as "a great storyteller." He added, "Long Bomb is a funny, hard-hitting, well-researched book about the entertainment business." In a Kirkus Reviews assessment, the reviewer noted, "Forrest writes snappily and brings some memorable XFL characters to the page."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2002, review of Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV's Biggest Fiasco, p. 1007.

Library Journal, September 15, 2002, John Maxymuk, review of Long Bomb, p. 68.

ONLINE

Michigan Today,http://www.umich.edu/news/MT/ (winter, 2003), Joel Seguine, review of Long Bomb and interview with Brett Forrest.*