Of all the labels you can slap on J.D. Vance, there’s only one the right, left, and center will agree upon: Vance is an exceptional writer.
Most readers are familiar with Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about his family history and growing up in Appalachia and Middleton, Ohio, a suburb ravaged by drugs, crime, and economic hardship. Later adapted into a movie, Vance’s book hit the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in August 2016 and received acclaim for its storytelling and powerful prose. Vance told his story so well, that it played a huge role in the shift in conservative politics from the interests of country club Republicans to the forgotten working class — the very people he grew up around. (Click HERE to sign up for Mr. Right’s weekly newsletter)
But a little-known column Vance wrote while serving as a Marine resurfaced Wednesday, and it is easily one of the best, if not the best, pieces he has written to date, better, even, than his best-selling memoir:
Stumbled upon this old newspaper column by J.D. Vance, writing as James D. Hamel, in the Aug. 27, 2006 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer, when he was an active duty Marine stationed in Cherry Point, N.C.: pic.twitter.com/h8eXOHfKQY
— Matthew Kassel (@matthewkassel) July 24, 2024
In the Aug. 27, 2006, edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Vance recalls the night he watched his favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals, lose in the AFC Wild Card game as he was stationed in Iraq. You can already see Vance’s gift for storytelling that would later return in “Hillbilly Elegy”. Just in the opening paragraph alone, he closes it out with a beautiful sentence, a perfect juxtaposition, that sets up the column’s entire theme: “Yet my focus wasn’t on the war, but on a 19-inch TV.”
From there, Vance riffs on his love for the Bengals and the challenges that it brought deployed in Iraq (usually, only one NFL game could air at a time), how the new franchise quarterback Carson Palmer brought “pride back” to his city, and how watching football is much more than an excuse to pound beer and eat wings:
Watching the Bengals wasn’t about just football: it was about seeing that beautiful Cincinnati skyline every time they cut to commercial break; it was about watching the barges roll down the mighty Ohio like they’ve done for more than a century; it was about listening to the announcers talk about Cincinnati like it was a city of culture, not a city of losers.
Football is about pounding beers and eating wings, of course. But as Vance writes, it is also “the embodiment of everything great” about Ohio and America. You could be stuck in a hellhole military base in Al Asad, halfway across the globe, and yet when the game comes on, you’ll focus on that 19-inch TV, forget about war, and be reminded of home.
If you are an avid football fan, a homesick transplant, or you just want to read something beautiful, honest, and beautifully written, then you will want to read Vance’s column, “Even in Iraq, Palmer scores as QB“.
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