HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed:

What: “Your Brain Is a Muscle Too: How Student Athletes Succeed in College and in Life”

Authors: Vince Fudzie and Andre N. Hayes

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: $24

Since the 1980s, the number of books about the student-athlete experience has grown, but many of the guides have missed the mark because they failed to grab the attention of student-athletes themselves.

As former collegiate athletes, Fudzie and Hayes offer an insight that’s rarely provided. This is a guidebook for all high school and collegiate athletes as well as their parents. Fudzie and Hayes break down the process, from obtaining an athletic scholarship to selecting an agent.

The book deals with issues such as drugs, alcohol and sex that are seldom written about for young athletes. Fudzie and Hayes tie their facts with detailed accounts by former athletes who have had their lives drastically changed as a result of drug or alcohol abuse. One story is about former UCLA and Cleveland Brown safety Don Rogers, who died of a heart attack after using cocaine in 1986. Rogers’ brother, Reggie, a former Detroit Lion defensive end, recalls events that led to Don’s death and Reggie’s alcohol-related auto accident in which three people died.

Maybe the best section is “Money Matters.” It starts by discussing scholarships, then explains how to create a budget and provides financial tips, from keeping phone bills down to managing investments.

In the book’s forward, Richard Lapchick, head of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sports in Society, points out how rare it is to find a book that discusses “dealing with the media for athletes.” He writes that there are only two black sports editors on newspapers in major media markets and among the nation’s 1,600 newspapers, 90% do not have an African American sportswriter. Lapchick also uses statistics to encourage athletes to get the most of their educational opportunities.

The book will be featured at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend at UCLA.