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ellebelle1724's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Interesting read if you are a football fan! You learn a lot about the game.
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Play the next play...
This is the story of how a college coach, Hal Mumme, developed an “unstoppable” offense that would defeat even the biggest, strongest defenses; and of how that offense gradually spread throughout college football and into the professional leagues, changing the very nature of the game – the Air Raid offense.
Sometimes you just have to take the things life throws at you and run with them. When SC Gwynne won my Book of the Year award in 2014 for [b:Rebel Yell|18144074|Rebel Yell The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson|S.C. Gwynne|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1415005924s/18144074.jpg|27890547], his brilliant biography of Stonewall Jackson, I gave him the usual prize – my promise to read his next book. Of course, I was assuming it would be another biography of a historical soldier or politician. Imagine my... delight when it turned out to be a book about a passing offense in American football! In my life I have watched one full game and a bit of another, and frankly thought it wasa jolly silly game a game one has to have grown up with to fully appreciate. So the question was not so much whether I'd like this book as whether I'd even understand it!
Gwynne starts with a great description of Texas Tech putting the Air Raid offense into action in 2008. He then whisks us back in time to meet Hal Mumme at the beginning of his coaching career. He shows the uncertainty of life as a college coach in a nation obsessed with the game – a hero when leading his team to victory, but abused and reviled if they lose. Hal had always wanted to coach, despite the low pay and precariousness of the profession. His big idea was that he was going to make throwing the ball the centre of the game.
To explain why this idea was so radical, Gwynne gives a potted history of the rise of football. He shows it as arising out of a nostalgia for war – an opportunity for men to hone their manly aggression in peacetime. Therefore it was all about brute force in “the pile” in the middle of the field – meat on meat, as it was charmingly summed up. The more broken bones, busted skulls and fatal injuries the better – a real man's game! Forward passing was initially prohibited, but when reformers began demanding that the game be made less dangerous, it was eventually legalised. However, it was rarely used, since in this beefy culture it was seen as “feminising” the game. In short, passing was for sissies. Games were all about bulldozing the opposition, and as a result were usually low-scoring and rather dull to watch. This chapter is so well-told and very funny in places, especially over the “manliness” aspects of it all.
Hal was convinced though that passing could be made to work, especially for teams without the brute power to win against bigger opponents using traditional plays. The bulk of the book is taken up with Hal's long road to development of the Air Raid, learning from other coaches who used passing plays in their games, trying out new things with the various teams he worked with and, with his long-time coaching partner Mike Leach, gradually refining his system so that even fairly mediocre players could be taught it. It wasn't just on the field that he changed things. Again the culture was to make the players prove their toughness in full contact training, often being injured before they even got to play, or being worked so hard in training sessions they would be on or past the point of collapse. Hal had his players do shorter sessions, focussed on passing rather than tackling, developing precision in throwing and tactics rather than beating each other to a pulp. His idea, which doesn't sound as though it should have been revolutionary but apparently was, was that football should be fun!
And gradually, the no-hoper teams he initially worked with began to win games, and to win them spectacularly with huge scores. And dismissive traditionalist crowds began to see that the passing game was exciting (especially the fans of the winning teams – the losing fans perhaps weren't quite so enthused). Slowly other coaches started to use Hal's techniques until eventually passing became an accepted part of the game. Hal's own career remained chequered and he never made it into the professional divisions, but his ideas did, and the final version of all his work, the Air Raid offense, has been used and adapted by the top teams.
This isn't a hugely long book, but even so I've only given a flavour of it. Gwynne's writing brings the sport to life and he explains all the various plays clearly enough that even I felt I understood them. There are lots of diagrams to show the various offensive formations and how they're designed to bamboozle the opposition defenses. Through it all, Gwynne's respect for and warmth towards the game, its coaches and players, shines through, and the occasional humour and great descriptions of the games make the book entertaining as well as informative. A surprise hit for me, proving that a great writer can make almost any subject fascinating. I may even watch a few more games now...
(Since the game is American, I've gone along with thewrong American spellings of offence and defence throughout... ;) )
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Scribner.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
This is the story of how a college coach, Hal Mumme, developed an “unstoppable” offense that would defeat even the biggest, strongest defenses; and of how that offense gradually spread throughout college football and into the professional leagues, changing the very nature of the game – the Air Raid offense.
Sometimes you just have to take the things life throws at you and run with them. When SC Gwynne won my Book of the Year award in 2014 for [b:Rebel Yell|18144074|Rebel Yell The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson|S.C. Gwynne|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1415005924s/18144074.jpg|27890547], his brilliant biography of Stonewall Jackson, I gave him the usual prize – my promise to read his next book. Of course, I was assuming it would be another biography of a historical soldier or politician. Imagine my... delight when it turned out to be a book about a passing offense in American football! In my life I have watched one full game and a bit of another, and frankly thought it was
Gwynne starts with a great description of Texas Tech putting the Air Raid offense into action in 2008. He then whisks us back in time to meet Hal Mumme at the beginning of his coaching career. He shows the uncertainty of life as a college coach in a nation obsessed with the game – a hero when leading his team to victory, but abused and reviled if they lose. Hal had always wanted to coach, despite the low pay and precariousness of the profession. His big idea was that he was going to make throwing the ball the centre of the game.
To explain why this idea was so radical, Gwynne gives a potted history of the rise of football. He shows it as arising out of a nostalgia for war – an opportunity for men to hone their manly aggression in peacetime. Therefore it was all about brute force in “the pile” in the middle of the field – meat on meat, as it was charmingly summed up. The more broken bones, busted skulls and fatal injuries the better – a real man's game! Forward passing was initially prohibited, but when reformers began demanding that the game be made less dangerous, it was eventually legalised. However, it was rarely used, since in this beefy culture it was seen as “feminising” the game. In short, passing was for sissies. Games were all about bulldozing the opposition, and as a result were usually low-scoring and rather dull to watch. This chapter is so well-told and very funny in places, especially over the “manliness” aspects of it all.
Though the passing technology was more than half a century old, there was still something morally thrilling about watching the quarterback toss the ball to the tailback, while the guard or tackle pulled and the fullback crashed down on the defensive end and the whole team seemed to move en masse in that swinging, lovely rightward arc of pure power followed by the popping sounds of all those helmets and pads and the scream of the crowd as the whole thing disintegrated into a mass of bodies on the turf.
Hal was convinced though that passing could be made to work, especially for teams without the brute power to win against bigger opponents using traditional plays. The bulk of the book is taken up with Hal's long road to development of the Air Raid, learning from other coaches who used passing plays in their games, trying out new things with the various teams he worked with and, with his long-time coaching partner Mike Leach, gradually refining his system so that even fairly mediocre players could be taught it. It wasn't just on the field that he changed things. Again the culture was to make the players prove their toughness in full contact training, often being injured before they even got to play, or being worked so hard in training sessions they would be on or past the point of collapse. Hal had his players do shorter sessions, focussed on passing rather than tackling, developing precision in throwing and tactics rather than beating each other to a pulp. His idea, which doesn't sound as though it should have been revolutionary but apparently was, was that football should be fun!
And gradually, the no-hoper teams he initially worked with began to win games, and to win them spectacularly with huge scores. And dismissive traditionalist crowds began to see that the passing game was exciting (especially the fans of the winning teams – the losing fans perhaps weren't quite so enthused). Slowly other coaches started to use Hal's techniques until eventually passing became an accepted part of the game. Hal's own career remained chequered and he never made it into the professional divisions, but his ideas did, and the final version of all his work, the Air Raid offense, has been used and adapted by the top teams.
One of Hal's favourite sayings was, Play the next play. The words were a combination pep talk and theory of life, perfectly aligned with his coaching philosophy. The gist was, life, like football, is a headlong dive into the future. There is no past, at least not one you should worry too much about. If you lose, let it go. Don't panic. If you win, don't be too satisfied. Play the next play.
This isn't a hugely long book, but even so I've only given a flavour of it. Gwynne's writing brings the sport to life and he explains all the various plays clearly enough that even I felt I understood them. There are lots of diagrams to show the various offensive formations and how they're designed to bamboozle the opposition defenses. Through it all, Gwynne's respect for and warmth towards the game, its coaches and players, shines through, and the occasional humour and great descriptions of the games make the book entertaining as well as informative. A surprise hit for me, proving that a great writer can make almost any subject fascinating. I may even watch a few more games now...
(Since the game is American, I've gone along with the
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Scribner.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
(4.5) Probably doesn't make a lot of sense to start a football book review by discussing a baseball one but what made Moneyball so great (and what makes this one so damn good) is NOT the talk about how Billy Beane was a genius among fools, rather it was how the underfunded, understaffed Athletics exploited a badly inequitable system for gain. Beane saw abilities that were underutilized in players and he pounced because Oakland did not have the money to compete with the big boys.
This book gets that spirit. It's not a hagiography on Hal Mumme or a tale about how he is so much smarter than his coaching contemporaries. It's how he was willing to take risks and build a system that would allow teams with less talent and few resources to compete where they had no business. Along the way, the reader learns a good lesson about the evolution of the forward pass and how football offenses aren't always as complex as they are made out to be.
But more than anything, as a sports fan, I enjoy reading about people who fight the Old Man Logic of "This is how it's always been done." Hal Mumme did that his whole career and S.C. Gwynne recounts how in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. Without a doubt, one of the best football books I've ever read and maybe a top 10 sports book for me as well. If you like football, particularly football strategy, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
This book gets that spirit. It's not a hagiography on Hal Mumme or a tale about how he is so much smarter than his coaching contemporaries. It's how he was willing to take risks and build a system that would allow teams with less talent and few resources to compete where they had no business. Along the way, the reader learns a good lesson about the evolution of the forward pass and how football offenses aren't always as complex as they are made out to be.
But more than anything, as a sports fan, I enjoy reading about people who fight the Old Man Logic of "This is how it's always been done." Hal Mumme did that his whole career and S.C. Gwynne recounts how in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. Without a doubt, one of the best football books I've ever read and maybe a top 10 sports book for me as well. If you like football, particularly football strategy, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
vincent520's review against another edition
5.0
Great book about a man who changed the way Football is played forever!! The Air Raid offense changed the game!! Great book about how the Air Raid offense came to be!!
mancolepig's review against another edition
4.0
Fellow bookworms, I have a confession that goes against all of geekdom and even against my better judgement as a person who is generally against violence and exploitation:
I love football.
I love watching it, I love playing it, and I love the personalities of the coaches and players, like, for example, the personality of head coach, historian, and pirate Mike Leach. It is through this love I found The Perfect Pass, and I recommend it to anyone else who loves football. I especially recommend it to fans who, like me, have watched a college football game and at the back of their mind thought to themselves “Why the hell are they throwing so many screen passes?”
S.C. Gwynne explores the explosion of the passing offense in football. From the sport’s humble beginnings through the ancient head coaches who believed in offenses of “3 yards and a cloud of dirt” all the way to the west coast offense of San Francisco and finally to one coach who brought us the pass-happy spread offenses we see today. Hal Mumme was the man who thought about football differently, and with his protege offensive coordinator (Mike Leach), turned around mediocre football teams and made quarterbacks more efficient and pass for more yards and touchdowns than ever before.
Gwynne’s style is simple, but he still captures the quirky brains of Mumme and Leach and their willingness to try bold new ideas in such a game steeped in tradition. He also explains the strategy in an easily understandable way, and he even taught me why offenses are now so reliant on the dreaded screen pass (Yes I hate the play because it usually goes nowhere, but it does tire out the defense, and it only takes one missed tackle to turn a quick pass into a touchdown).
It’s not a life-changing book, and it skims over the exploitative traits of college football, but it is interesting if you’re a football fan. And I guess the best way to admit that I’m a sports junkie is by admitting through reading a book (See? I’m still a bookworm guys, please don’t take away my geek cred!).
I love football.
I love watching it, I love playing it, and I love the personalities of the coaches and players, like, for example, the personality of head coach, historian, and pirate Mike Leach. It is through this love I found The Perfect Pass, and I recommend it to anyone else who loves football. I especially recommend it to fans who, like me, have watched a college football game and at the back of their mind thought to themselves “Why the hell are they throwing so many screen passes?”
S.C. Gwynne explores the explosion of the passing offense in football. From the sport’s humble beginnings through the ancient head coaches who believed in offenses of “3 yards and a cloud of dirt” all the way to the west coast offense of San Francisco and finally to one coach who brought us the pass-happy spread offenses we see today. Hal Mumme was the man who thought about football differently, and with his protege offensive coordinator (Mike Leach), turned around mediocre football teams and made quarterbacks more efficient and pass for more yards and touchdowns than ever before.
Gwynne’s style is simple, but he still captures the quirky brains of Mumme and Leach and their willingness to try bold new ideas in such a game steeped in tradition. He also explains the strategy in an easily understandable way, and he even taught me why offenses are now so reliant on the dreaded screen pass (Yes I hate the play because it usually goes nowhere, but it does tire out the defense, and it only takes one missed tackle to turn a quick pass into a touchdown).
It’s not a life-changing book, and it skims over the exploitative traits of college football, but it is interesting if you’re a football fan. And I guess the best way to admit that I’m a sports junkie is by admitting through reading a book (See? I’m still a bookworm guys, please don’t take away my geek cred!).