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Football fantasy
Score any of these books to start a perfect season REVIEWS BY MARTIN BRADY The 2007 football season is just now gearing up, with America's most popular sport about to consume the hearts and minds of millions. The NFL may be laboring these days under the gray clouds of some of its players' murky off-the-field behavior, but once the first games are under way, those concerns will be overshadowed. Meanwhile, college football had a marvelous 2006, and, as always, hopes are high for victory across tradition-bound campuses this fall. We've found several entertaining new books to help feed the frenzy.
Austin Murphy's Saturday Rules: A Season with Trojans and Domers (and Gators and Buckeyes and Wolverines) finds the veteran Sports Illustrated writer traipsing across the country throughout last year's college football season. He offers a lively "you are there" diary-like account of his journeys to all the big Division I programs, featuring in-depth analysis of the various teams' fortunes, including important wins and critical losses, all leading up to the post-season bowl games. Interview focus—with a distinctly human-interest slant—is on the young athletes (the stars and the lesser-known), but is more so on the high-profile coaches such as Pete Carroll at USC, Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and Urban Meyer at Florida. Murphy's essentially chronological reportage eventually zeroes in on the Bowl Championship Series and Florida's title-winner over Ohio State, yet he saves the very best for last via a sit-down visit with the key players responsible for underdog Boise State's stirring and jarringly spectacular victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, without doubt one of the greatest games in the annals of the college gridiron.
By Austin Murphy HarperCollins, $24.95 336 pages ISBN 9780061375774
Tom Callahan, author of last season's excellent Johnny U, returns with The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares That Go with It, in which he chronicles the final year in the working life of recently retired NFL executive Ernie Accorsi. Callahan's narrative is equally split between biography and the specific events of the 2006 football season, as Accorsi winds up his impressive career as general manager of the New York Giants. Readers get a strong sense of Accorsi's humble Hershey, Pennsylvania, roots; the friendships and professional loyalties he developed over the years; and his stints doing media relations, player evaluations and head honcho decision-making for his various college and pro employers, which have also included Penn State, the Baltimore Colts and the Cleveland Browns. Callahan's "fly-on-the-wall" presence takes us into the inner workings of the Giants' front office, and Accorsi frankly relates the pitfalls and politics that go into the process of hiring and firing coaches, drafting college talent, dealing with player contracts in the age of the salary cap and negotiating the myriad unexpected personal challenges involving ownership and the NFL as an organization. In many ways, this volume will have special attraction for today's Giants fans, but Accorsi's status as a definite survivor of the NFL wars, and his keen historical viewpoint will engender broader general interest as well.
By Tom Callahan Crown, $25.95 336 pages ISBN 9780307394132
By Jerome Bettis Doubleday, $23.95 224 pages ISBN 9780385520614
The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches, and Moments in NFL History, by Sal Paolantonio with Reuben Frank, is yet another fan item, but one designed to spur controversy and armchair debate. Paolantonio, a sportswriter and ESPN fixture for years, compiles subjective lists of the NFL's big on-the-field moments and movers and shakers, categorizing his coverage by "underrated" and "overrated." Chapters are divided into player positions, coaches, teams, Super Bowl performances and Hall of Famers. For example, quarterbacks Joe Namath, Brett Favre and Terry Bradshaw are dubbed overrated, while QBs Len Dawson and Ken Anderson achieve an "underrated" grade, with Paolantonio running through career stats and accomplishments and putting them into contemporary perspective. The idea here is to start the discussion, of course, and this book will be handy to have around on Sunday afternoons for reference, or for simple diversion during those lengthy TV timeouts.
By Sal Paolantonio Triumph Books, $24.95 192 pages ISBN 9781600780257
Since 2006, Whitman Publishing of Atlanta has been issuing "football vault books," a series of richly produced, slipcase-bound memorabilia volumes focusing on the major college football factories. To date, coverage has been exclusively on Southeastern Conference schools, but forthcoming editions are promised for Texas and Notre Dame (and presumably others). The latest, Auburn University Football Vault: The Story of the Auburn Tigers, 1892-2007, follows true to form, with fascinating archival and gorgeous color photos wedded to gung-ho text, the entire package studded with nostalgic reproductions of game-day tickets, programs, mini-pennants and similar ephemera. Former Auburn publicist and athletic director David Housel provides the copy, which charts the early years of the Alabama school's longstanding football program, then moves through the decades with fan-like fervor, recounting the tenures of great coaches (Shug Jordan, Pat Dye, etc.), the contributions of great athletes (Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan et al.) and the team's high-water marks and disappointments. It's a veritable treasure-trove for impassioned Auburn fans (of which there are many) and a terrific example of the high-quality work in Whitman's uniquely attractive ongoing efforts.
By David Housel Whitman Publishing, $49.95 144 pages ISBN 9780794823504
Finally, we come to a book that may prove vital to football fans no matter which game (college or pro) is their main obsession. Stephen Linn's Fox Sports Tailgating Handbook: The Gear, the Food, the Stadiums is a handy, sturdily bound paperback catering to the needs of those who love football, but maybe love the cult of football even more. Tailgating isn't just about the game; it's about socializing, eating, drinking and joining in fanatical revelry. This omnibus tells you how to do it right at every NFL and major college venue nationwide. Linn, who has a franchise on this subject through his other books and TV appearances, provides coverage on the best tailgating equipment (grills, coolers, furniture, etc.), safety tips, recipes (some supplied by real-life tailgaters), fan gear and profiles of a few of the most tricked-out vehicles (buses, RVs, etc.) you'll ever see in a crowded game-day parking lot. The heart of the book is the listing of specific tailgating information for university campuses and pro facilities. Here we get history on teams and venues, pertinent contact information, radio affiliations, shuttle-bus schedules and, most importantly, the details on when and how tailgaters can do their thing and any restrictions they need to be aware of to pull it off with minimal interruption. Many of us simply are not tailgaters (too much hassle, too many logistics). But for those who are immersed in the art form, Linn's volume is a practical necessity.
By Stephen Linn Globe Pequot, $16.95 224 pages ISBN 9780762746224
Martin Brady blogs about football and other sports at sportsmediaamerica.blogspot.com.
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Former star NFL running back Jerome Bettis won a Super Bowl ring following the 2005 season, then bowed out of the game after 13 years of consistent excellence with the Rams and Steelers. Bettis is probably headed for the Hall of Fame, and since retirement has tried to make a go of it in broadcasting. The Bus: My Life In and Out of a Helmet is Bettis' life story, co-authored by Gene Wojciechowski, one of ESPN.com's better contributors. Essentially, this is a straightforward pro forma treatment, typical of the "as-told-to" sports genre. The prose isn't scintillating—with Wojciechowski striving to keep his subject's conversational voice front and center—but Bettis' tale of youthful behavioral struggles in Detroit (gangs, drugs) followed by college greatness at Notre Dame and his subsequently eventful pro career will doubtlessly rope in committed football fans.
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