Books review

On my bedside cabinet amongst the old credit cards, dollar bills from last year's New York trip, and other assorted bits and pieces, sit several American football-related books that I have either finished, am partially through, or have just begun.

As a huge fan of the sport, I like to do more than just watch the games and trawl the internet for news. There's something uniquely satisfying and therapeutic about reading a book, and I've tried to target those titles that will offer the more intelligent and interesting analysis or history of the game.

Michael MacCambridge's 'America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation' is a brilliant and all-encompassing history of the sport. It packs in both the smaller detail and the important milestones in the development of the professional game whilst remaining very readable and interesting. The excellent ordering also creates a strong narrative arc that replicates the feeling of a definitive documentary.

It's so well-written that it comfortably doubles as an historical overview of the period in America which it covers (predominantly the latter half of the twentieth century). I'd consider it essential reading for every American football fan even remotely interested in the way the league has come to dominate the domestic American sporting scene.

'NFL Unplugged' by Anthony Gargano and 'Take Your Eye Off The Ball' by Pat Kirwan both offer differing views of the game that we think we know. The former is more concerned with the actions of individuals on the field through various anecdotes and brief histories, whilst the latter breaks down aspects of the game and explains how they work in detail.

It might be a personal issue, but 'Unplugged' didn't connect with me as much as I had hoped it would. I felt that most of the topics discussed, some of which can be paraphrased as: 'players have to enter a dark zone when they take to the field', 'finding a spot on a pro team is a nightmare' and 'terrible things happen in pile-ups after a fumble' were largely common knowledge to the average fan.

For instance, I've always felt fairly able to fill in the blanks as to what happens at the bottom of a football pile-on, and Hard Knocks has shown me the reality of training camp in equal and more colourful detail.

It's not to say that what's here isn't well written or fairly entertaining reading. I do like the way the book is written in a series of quick flashes through training camp, pre-game and the game itself ('Inside a Unit Meeting, 8.35pm') and there some occasionally interesting revelations. It's just that the content doesn't surprise you in the manner the blurb would have you believe.

It also strays slightly too closely to glamorising the players as warriors, which is where the fine line between reality and fantasy often occurs with American football.

In contrast I found 'Take Your Eye Off The Ball' to be very good. It offers an intelligent break down of typical game events (what occurs during pre-snap reads by the quarterbacks, how the wide receivers change their routes, and how defensive formations and alignments may effect plays) and summarises them with brevity and accuracy.

All simple stuff, you may think. But even for someone like myself who feels as if they should know what the play-call 'I Weak Right Boot Right 819 Fullback Opposite' may translate to in English, it's an invaluable reassessment of the fundamentals of the game that it's possible to overlook each Sunday.

Presentation-wise it's also superb, breaking each chapter into logical areas and using full-page diagrams with text where necessary. The effect is to create the impression that there is a lot of complex information being broken down into an easy-to-digest format.

ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski recently released his book entitled 'The Games That Changed The Game', which takes the reader on a journey across seven different games that the author believes fundamentally shaped the evolution of the sport.

It's fascinating reading, providing both extraordinary detail and interest in setting the scene in which the games took place, breaking the encounters down into quarters and describing the relevant plays. It also provides a fitting memorial for the ideas, schemes and plays that filled each match-up. Whilst some reviewers on Amazon felt the book was too bogged down in technicalities, I loved it because it provides such intricate detail rather than simply skimming the surface. It wouldn't be half the book without it.

The book also retains a great sense of the atmosphere and period in which the games were conducted, offering personal memories from Jaworski where appropriate, and interviews with the players and coaches involved looking back at the action.

If Cris Collinsworth is the leading active NFL analyst, Jaworski isn't far behind, and this depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport is in clear evidence with this work.

'Blood, Sweat And Chalk' by Tim Layden is a book that is written along similar lines; breaking down the evolution of the game according to schematics, formations and ideologies. I'm only in the relatively early stages of reading it, and it's been a mixed bag so far.

The content chosen should provide interesting reading material, but the writing style has yet to fully engage my attention. Each chapter so far has felt rather fleeting in its coverage of a formation, pausing only to list a series of relevant dates where the formation was utilised or evolved.

More worryingly perhaps, is the Amazon review I read prior to purchasing, which can be viewed here (Chris Sabin-Flawed). Whilst Amazon reviews normally don't overly concern me, the points the reviewer raises as to the accuracy of the Layden book's content is potentially discouraging. I would certainly agree that the diagrams used to open each chapter could be more clearly designed as to avoid confusion.

It is worth noting that a new edition is slated for an August release this year, which will hopefully eradicate some of these problems.

Note - There are three additional books that will be added to this list upon completion, Brian Billick's, 'More Than a Game: The Glorious Present and Uncertain Future of the NFL', 'The GM' by Tom Callahan and Vince Lombardi's 'Run To Daylight'. I hope to have these reviewed in the near future.