Life in the Time of COVID-19

Take Your Eye Off the Ball    by Pat Kirwan

This is not my typical read but my husband is a BIG football fan and he read the book and suggested I give it a go.  I figured why not.

I grew up with baseball. My grandfather, the love of my life as a kid listened to the games on the radio and of course I listened with him.  Living on Long Island, I was close to both Shea and Yankee Stadium.  One summer I worked as a counselor at a Day Camp and #7 Ed Kranepool from the NY Mets was a special guest.  Yes he had not played for a while but still it was Ed Kranepool!  I had enough guy friends so that going to the games were not a problem.  We sat up in the nose bleed section but the seats were cheap and we were there.  So I feel comfortable enough to say that I know baseball.

Don’t get me wrong, football was on the radar but way way down almost off the screen.  My favorite Aunt and Uncle were big Jets fans and if the Jets were not at home, they were watching so were we, but it just wasn’t the same as watching baseball.

Baseball for the lay person is a much more simplistic game then football.  You have nine men on the field.  The positions never change.  While there is some strategy to the game basically the batter hits the ball and tries to round the bases to come home.  If he makes it home safely, he scores a point, ONE point. Adjustments are of course made for where the players stand on the field according to who is at bat.  And of course the pitcher has decisions to make about the type of ball to throw and where to throw it.  There are other strategies as well but still, it is fairly straight forward.  The flow of the game is slow and subtle.

By comparison, football is fast, furious and multifaceted. To me it is pure bedlam on the field to my husband it is organized chaos.  The Quarterback is either going to pass or throw and his team is going to do anything to move the ball down the field into the opposing team’s end zone.  That is why there are bodies usually strewn across the field.  Gladiators at work. 

Learning the game can be a nightmare especially if you have never played.  Boys did not want girls on their field when I was growing up. I remember I kept bugging the guys on my block to let me play flag football with them.  Finally they conceded.  On the first play I wound up on my back having just had the snot kicked out of me wondering what just happened.  Twenty minutes later when I could finally see straight and got shakily to my feet, I staggered home and NEVER played football again. My love hate relationship with the game was born on that day. Guys you know who you are!!!!

Anyhow, Pat Kirwan sets out to demystify the game by saying hey I know you have been taught to keep your eye on the ball, but for the sake of this learning experience forget about that.  Let’s instead look at the activity surrounding the snap.

And he says that football cannot be learned while it is happening.  You know that actually makes me feel so much better.  Really! I always felt a little stupid because no matter how much I watched I still didn’t really get it.  And so I welcomed the opportunity to learn more about the game mostly for myself but also so that my husband and I could have better conversations on the subject.  Bottom line, I wanted to be able to watch football and understand it better.

Many topics are discussed in this book. One of the first is know the personnel.  Unlike baseball where there are 9 players on the field and the positions are always the same, the football positions on the field change depending on the play.  Even though there should always be 11 players on the field, a team could have two running backs and a tight end or it can send out one back and two tight ends or a third options is two running backs and two tight ends.  Just as the defense reads the other teams strategy, so should you.  So it’s not enough to see guys on the field, you need to know who they are and what their job is.  As soon as the offense goes into formation, you should be able to determine what type of play it will be. So right there I was missing the bat entirely. (Woops wrong game)

The next thing discussed is down and distance.  What down it is and how far the team needs to move down field determines what play the coach calls and what personnel he will send in.  I had the down and distance part down pretty well but once I started focusing on who was playing the light bulb went on and that my friends is all I will tell you about this book since there is so much that goes into the game and I wouldn’t want you to miss anything.

If you do not really understand football, read this book.  You may not learn everything you need to know but you sure as heck will learn a lot more.  But be prepared to work and study.  If you do that then TOUCHDOWN.