The late esteemed columnist, Mary McGrory, once wrote: "Baseball is what we were. Football is what we have become." The notion that sports in general, and football in particular, represent a microcosm of our society is compelling indeed, as we conjour thoughts of an intensively competitive society, fast-paced, non-stop action and only barely controlled aggression.
How are we to understand the role of football, American-style, with stadiums brimming with the intensity of college alums and dedicated Sunday worshippers, in our modern lives and in our contemporary rousing world of incessant stimulation?
Who better to address questions of football and society than youngsters, ages 7-14, who absorb cultural trends and study the world around as a means of comprehending the complex and sometimes chaotic world of adults? Moreover, children also play football in great numbers, whether simply in their backyards, as participants in flag or touch football, or as the primary players on the stage of the sometimes controversial youth tackle football, with its charming miniaturization of adult football formations and its less endearing propensity for youth concussions and boorish adult sideline behavior.
Kids do know their Cam Newtons and Russell Wilsons with greater familiarity than they comprehend their Issac Newtons and Woodrow Wilsons, so they are going to have much to offer about life on the gridiron, whether as participants or as spectators.
Oh my, youngsters do say some provocative, insightful and often outrageously funny things about the game of football. This book presents quite an impressive compilation of such comments, as the children opine with alacrity about many, varied football related subjects and characters, from coaches to players to cheerleaders and owners. Even the Commissioner of football is not left unscathed or unattended to!
Here are a few choice commentaries:
"The car was invented so people could get to football games."
"The best position to play is to be the owner - for obvious reasons."
"The best college tradition is kidnapping a dean from Notre Dame!"
"Football is like chess or checkers, but the pieces got broken sometimes."
"Football is like marriage but football has more rules."
"Punt returns guys get their eyes examined every two months and they get their heads examined every week!"
"Youth football coaches are like Darth Vader with a whistle in his mouth."
"The three main values of the NFL are freedom of running, freedom of passing, and freedom of raising ticket prices."
