Never Settle: Sports, Family, and the American Soul

by Marty Smith

Overview

The amazing and blessed life of popular ESPN reporter and correspondent for College GameDay, Marty Smith, whose mission in this thoughtful and funny memoir is to return fans to the true soul of sports in this country.


You know Marty right? The guy during College GameDay hanging off the back of a pickup truck while zooming around the Clemson athletic facilities. The guy who visits Nick Saban's lake house and somehow gets Coach to jump in the lake. The guy who sits down with Dale Jr. at Daytona to talk through tears about his miraculous return to racing. The guy who interviews Tiger Woods, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning and Jimmie Johnson — the guy who gets paid to live the fantasy of every sports fan in America.


Never Settle is the funny but oh, it's true story of how Marty got here, and a revealing look at his journey. Never Settle includes all the best stories and behind-the-scenes moments from Marty's wild life, covering topics including: college football, racing, fathers and sons, how sports can bring us together, and how it all goes back to growing up on a farm and playing high school ball in Pearisburg, Virginia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538732991
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	08/06/2019
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	802,949
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Marty Smith is one of ESPN's most popular and recognized reporters and hosts who currently covers a variety of sports including college football, basketball, both the NFL and NBA, NASCAR and others. Smith's features and reporting are often seen on ESPN platforms including SportsCenter and ESPN.com. Smith, who joined ESPN in 2006, launched his own show Marty Smith's America in August 2017 on ESPN2. Smith also co-hosts the popular radio show Marty and McGeeon ESPN Radio.


From 2007-2014, Smith was ESPN's lead NASCAR reporter for both SportsCenter and the former NASCAR Now program. Prior to joining ESPN, Smith was a senior writer for NASCAR.com. A Radford University graduate, Smith covered sports for daily newspapers in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., before joining NASCAR.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword Eric Church ix

Preface xiii

1 Jump! 1

2 Just Trust Me 6

3 We're Not Gonna Do That 19

Interlude: Exile 23

4 Olivia 25

5 Define Your Own Life 32

Poem: "Beach Girl" 42

6 Keep Your Money 44

7 Dirty 'Merica 56

8 Girl Power 61

Poem: "The Middle" 77

9 Forever Friday 79

10 Sam, You There? 95

Interlude: You'ns 106

11 Gifted 108

12 Father Time 114

Poem: "Out Like That" 123

13 Be Yourself 126

Interlude: Bust 135

14 Workin' Hard to Get My Fill 138

Interlude: Muriel Plays Piano 142

15 Chess Lessons 145

16 Hunter 153

Poem: "Old" 169

17 Be a Light 171

18 I love you, L 181

19 Always Dreaming 184

Poem: "Innocence" 188

20 Boston. Stronger. 190

21 Wally World 202

Interlude: Bomb Squad 208

22 Do as I Do 210

Poem: "Cut & Paste" 224

23 May We Ever Aspire 225

24 Never Settle 237

Acknowledgments 251

Editorial Reviews

"I've known Marty for what seems like our entire lives. He's an extremely hard worker. He's full of life. He's the friend everyone hopes to have. His life's been an incredible journey, and within the pages of Never Settle, you're along for the ride."—Dale Earnhardt, Jr., two-time Daytona 500 champion and New York Times bestselling author of Racing to the Finish




"Marty Smith is fantastic! The thing I really admire is his passion and enthusiasm. Marty is engaged the whole time -- he hustles and gets involved emotionally in the stories he tells. He's a great professional, great for college football, and I just have a great admiration for him."—Jim Harbaugh, Head Football Coach, University of Michigan




"Marty Smith's gift exceeds his power to connect with those he chronicles. For through that connection, with people famous and obscure, with some of the biggest names in sports and others you've never heard of, he conjures moments universal and intimate. This is a book of uncommon humanity -- shaped by stories, including Marty's own -- rendered in a voice as pure as the soil where it was nurtured."—Tom Rinaldi, national ESPN correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of The Red Bandanna

From the Publisher

Marty Smith narrates his memoir about growing up in the South, the lessons he learned, and the friends he made. With an accent that can only be described as “loud and proud,” as he himself says, he tells a story that makes for interesting listening. He doesn’t dwell on NASCAR— his bread and butter—so listeners don’t need to be rabid sports fans to enjoy this. He enunciates clearly, and there’s energy and passion in his voice as he tells stories that will make listeners chuckle, listen, and learn. He drops in original poems intermittently and has a seemingly endless cache of anecdotes. Some writers should avoid narrating their own work, but Smith is a wonderfully appropriate choice here. M.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Marty Smith narrates his memoir about growing up in the South, the lessons he learned, and the friends he made. With an accent that can only be described as “loud and proud,” as he himself says, he tells a story that makes for interesting listening. He doesn’t dwell on NASCAR— his bread and butter—so listeners don’t need to be rabid sports fans to enjoy this. He enunciates clearly, and there’s energy and passion in his voice as he tells stories that will make listeners chuckle, listen, and learn. He drops in original poems intermittently and has a seemingly endless cache of anecdotes. Some writers should avoid narrating their own work, but Smith is a wonderfully appropriate choice here. M.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile