A month in Chicago, and a life-changing night spent in the company of the Chicago Bears, was the first hit of freedom, of independence, of the Roger Bennett he knew he could be. When he made a real, in-the-flesh American friend who invited him over for the summer, he got to visit the promised land.
Introduced first through the gateway drug of The Love Boat, then to Rolling Stone, the NFL, John Hughes movies, Run-DMC, and Tracy Chapman, Roger embraced everything that would capture the imagination of a teenager growing up Stateside. When he embraced American popular culture, the dull gray world he lived in turned to neon teal-a color which had not even been invented in England yet. That was America- with its sunny skies, beautiful women, and cool kids with flipped collars who ate at McDonald’s. But there was one idea, or ideal, that burned bright in Roger’s heart. As an outsider-a private-schooled Jewish kid in working-class, heavily Catholic Liverpool-Roger Bennett wasn’t winning any popularity contests.
A memoir for fans of Jon Ronson and Chuck Klosterman, but with Roger Bennett’s signature pop culture flair and humor.īeing a teenager isn’t easy, no matter where in the world you live or how much it does or doesn’t rain in your hometown. One-half of the celebrated Men in Blazers duo, longtime culture and soccer commentator Roger Bennett traces the origins of his love affair with America, and how he went from a depraved, pimply faced Jewish boy in 1980’s Liverpool to become the quintessential Englishman in New York.
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