InnerTeub

So, while I understand how football is scored generally (I mean, I know a touchdown is 6 points and then you get an extra one for kicking), for the most part the specifics of football are completely uninteresting to me. My dad did the best he could to teach me, and I have very pleasant memories of going to see a college football game with him at his alma mater, and thinking “oh, this is kind of cool,” but, I mean, autumn in Minnesota gets REALLY cold, and I never had much interest in sitting around on metal bleachers in November to watch a football game.

Given this, I can honestly say that football as something more than just a passing (ha!) interest didn’t actually occur until I watched the first episode of “Friday Night Lights.” You guys, that show is so wonderful. I care not at ALL about football, and by the end of that pilot episode I extremely intense about the strategy of a football game. It really wasn’t until this TV show that I had ever considered football to be any sort of intellectual undertaking, but all the sudden I was starting to understand the mass amount  of thought and strategy that goes on down on the field.

And then. THEN! I picked up the book “The Blind Side”

I haven’t seen the movie (though I want to), but I had read an article about this book several months ago, and had been wanting to check it out. Within the first 50 pages, I was in love. The entire first chapter is a second by second detailing of the sack that broke Joe Theisman’s leg. I can honestly say that before this book, I did not know who Joe Theisman was, or that his leg had been broken, or why that mattered at all, but ten minutes into reading the book, and I can recite chapter and verse about left side tackle, how this position came to importance due to the West Coast offense (dude. There is a west coast offense. And I know what that means. AND I CARE.) and how all these things came together in the perfect storm of NFL wants, needs and recruiting to change the life of one Michael Oher.

I’m told the movie focuses on Michael Oher’s story. That makes sense; it’s an incredible story. But the book only uses that story as a backdrop to the changing nature of the NFL, and it works perfectly. If 36 hours ago you had told me to read a book that details the way strategy in the NFL passing game has influenced it’s recruiting policy, I would have tuned you out immediately and gone about my day. But with the lead up of Friday Night Lights and my love for Matt Saracen paving the way for my conceding that football might be somewhat interesting, I stumbled upon one of the best non fiction books I’ve read this year, possibly ever.

Of course, then I spent a good five minutes discussing “The West Coast Offensive” with the Boss. Sigh. So we’re two steps forward, one step back in my basic football knowledge, but at least we’re getting there, right?