The first three weeks of this year, I had a brief, superficial but more intimate than usual look at the hiring process and practices of the National Football League. I came to the conclusion that the owners were two-faced slugs and cowards; the head coaches stabbed in the back; the self-absorbed and egocentric players; and the fans thought they knew the game better than the entire NFL organization.
According to Michael MacCambridge, I am right! His meticulously researched book, America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Professional Soccer Captured a Nation is a close look at the history of soccer from the end of WWII to the present. Like Anya Seton, another author who uses extensive research for her stories, MacCambridge begins slowly, almost conscientiously, in the first two-thirds of the book, stating facts, figures, and events in somewhat chronological order until about 1970, about 25 years. . . It tends to backtrack, jump forward, and then backtrack again within chapters. The pace picks up considerably towards the end of the book, covering more than 30 years in the last third.
I understand the need to build a foundation for the book, but MacCambridge seems to have skipped over important football events and information from the post-1970 era. Of all the great coaching accomplishments, Tom Landry is only mentioned a handful of times. . But he fared better than other greats like Mike Ditka, whose name appears only once as possessive; or Bill Cowher, mentioned twice in the context of an unwritten rule not to sleep in the office. Instead, MacCambridge favors numerous quotes from less cool coaches like Brian Billick.
Deion Sanders (billed as the beginning of a new NFL era, which is the era of the self-absorbed, self-centered gamer) got almost as much impression as Roger Staubach, which is very upsetting to me. Staubach has always been one of my heroes, on and off the field. Neon Deion will NEVER be it the legend or the man that Staubach is.
America’s Game It is not written for the casual soccer fan. MacCambridge assumes that the reader has much more than a basic sports education. I am not one of those readers and I am not familiar with terms like: “pass down and in”, “1-2 pass attack”, “shallow drag routes”, or hit the catcher “in an exit pattern “. “.
I don’t have the names of every owner, head coach, and general manager memorized. MacCambridge’s tendency to return to a person, identified only by the pages of his last name after the last time he addressed them, made it necessary to re-read and enjoy the book with more difficulty. Who is Thomas (p. 351)? I had to refer to index to find a person mentioned on the last page to find the last reference to him in the Foreword. He also chronicled the games using only the names of the players and not the teams. Reread more to find out who won that one.
Another aspect of MacCambridge’s writing that makes this a difficult read is his knack for the dramatic. When Frank Borman, in orbit in Gemini 7 in 1965, told Tommy Nobis to “sign up with the greasers,” MacCambridge called it an “interstellar” bidding war. Being in orbit above the earth hardly qualifies as interplanetary, much less interstellar. He describes a Jets-Colts game as a “harmonic convergence of elements”; and a discussion about the Property Trust had the feel of the “Spanish Civil War”.
Some sentences just didn’t make any sense. For example,
“On the field, the checkoff system allowed the quarterback to hear a different play on the line of scrimmage if the defensive formation threatened the call in the group.” (p.201)
Hey? To audible? I know what the sentence means, but it could have been worded much more clearly.
He described the midnight defection convoy of the Baltimore Irsay Colts as “illuminated by radiation lights …” Baltimore irradiated the Colts when did they leave?
Despite these obstacles, the book offers several funny moments in the form of very heartfelt quotes from players and coaches.
But there are so many cases of two-sided owners: Rosenbloom moving the Rams from Los Angeles to Anaheim against NFL orders or Irsay moving Elway to Denver without consulting coach Accorsi.
What about coaches stabbed in the back? Bill Walsh found that the reason he had been pushed aside for the top spot was that his own head coach, Bill Johnson, had been badmouthing him to numerous interested teams. Al Davis and Jerry Jones, ‘Nuff said.
Kudos to MacCambridge, however, because he addresses those fans, who think they know the game better than anyone involved with the NFL, in a very diplomatic way:
“So, one had the great conundrum of the popularity of professional football: the fans, without access to the team’s playbook, scouting reports, game plans, and game movies, really don’t have the tools to fully understand the games. actions and responses from your team. ” (p. 412)
Play!
The best part of the book for a former Cowboy fan like me was the claim that I’ve known for decades that Cowboy fans have a good time! MacCambridge has documented quotes from Staubach and facts surrounding Jones’ selfishness, among other statistics, to illustrate this clearly.
If you are a die-hard and know-it-all about soccer, you will still find this reading interesting. For the rest of us, it gives us a little better idea of the confusing world of soccer. But at least when we finish reading it, we are fully aware of the fact that we don’t know everything.