Collision
Low Crossers: Inside the Turbulent World of the NFL
by Nicholas Dawidoff (Little Brown & Co, 2013, 475
pages, $13.63/11.99) belongs to a sub-genre of sports books, “A
Year with the Team”, including books from John Feinstein's Next
Man Up, and Season
on the Brink, and Michael
Gaffney's The Champ: My
Year with Muhammad Ali. In
these books, the authors spend a year, or a season, as a fly on the
wall, watching the action, assessing the personalities, and providing
readers with an “inside” view of the sport.
In Collision Low Crossers (the title is a reference found in the
Jets playbook to linebackers hitting potential pass receivers within
five yards of the line of scrimmage) Nicholas Dawidoff spent the 2011
season with the NY Jets. He was given “a security code, a desk in
the scouting department, and freedom to roam.” He does not posit
himself as an expert, but was given unusual access to complement his
keen eye for detail, ear for nuance, and sensitivity to individuals.
These qualities come together in Collision
Low Crossers to provide a
real understanding of the violence, intimacy, and job insecurity each
person associated with an NFL football team experiences. As
Dawidoff's year with the Jets develops, so does the reader's empathy
with the team, and, for me at least, a much greater appreciation of
the athletic skills and human vulnerability of these uniquely gifted
men.
Dawidoff came to
the Jets two years after Rex Ryan had come from the Baltimore
Ravens, where he had been Defensive Coordinator, to the New York Jets
as head coach. Ryan, a larger than life personality who tried to stay
above the fray, preferred to run the team from a distance, although
his reputation for stout defensive football clearly influenced the
way the team drafted and how they trained. Early in the book,
Dawidoff points out that football is the most watched and least
understood sport of all. Even the coaches don't fully understand
what's happened in the game until after they've viewed the films.
Dawidoff was given
unparallelled access and soon was viewed by the coaches and players
as a member of the team. He was often the butt of jokes and pranks,
responded appropriately, thus earning the trust and affection of
players and coaches alike. He apparently came to “the facility,”
the Jets offices and practice fields in New Jersey, each day, going
to meetings, watching practices, and interviewing all parties on the
team. Because he took the time and did his research, the reader comes
to see the players as real people. He doesn't duck the prior life
experiences various parties bring to the team: poverty, absent
parents, violence, or the communities from which they come. With two
thirds of the players coming being African-American, race is often an
underlieing issue. On the Jets, such possibilities are minimized
because they're talked and joked about. Furthermore, there's a solid
mix of races in the coaching staff, perhaps easing some of the
issues.
For coaches work at
the facility is a full time business. Numberless hours looking at
college films and assessing possible free agents leads up to the
draft, seeking to bring together the team within a salary cap
negotiated between the league, the players, and the teams'
managments. With the average professional career lasting less than
three years, turnover is always a problem, while maintaining a
balanced squad is essential. The amounts of money are large and the
pressure is constant. Tempers among and between levels within the
organization can erupt easily and need to be dealt with. The
athletes, despite their size, strength, and agility are often
emotionally fragile. Managing all this stands on a pyramid with the
head coach at the top. Dawidoff, with literary skill and
psychological insight brings this all together in rich detail. The
stories are funny, touching, horrifying, revelatory and useful in
understanding both individuals and groups. If there's a major problem
in the book it lies in the number of people and the difficulties
growing out of trying to keep over 100 characters straight. The
provision of a complete appendix listing all the personnel and roles
helps with this issue.
Nicholas Dawidoff
I was
first introduced to Nicholas Dawidoff through his book In
the Country of Country, a
trip through the world of mid-twentieth century country musicians,
written with rare insight into the music and the people who made it.
I liked the book enough to order several more of his books with
Colission Low Crossers
being the first I read. This volume is as good about the world of
professional football as the previous one was about country music.
Dawidoff graduated from Harvard College and won several fellowships
for advanced study. He wrote for Sports Illustrated,
resigning to freelance. Since
then, he's written five books covering a variety of topics from his
own life story through music and more sports. His range is wide, his
viewpoint broad and comprehensive, his mastery of descriptive
language and dialogue superb.
Collision
Low Crossers: Inside the Turbulent World of the NFL
by Nicholas Dawidoff (Little Brown & Co, 2013,475
pages, $13.63/11.99) sets a
standard for sports books that won't be easily surpassed. Dawidoff's
facility with description and dialogue makes his books believable and
readable. He humanizes people whose careers have often given them
iconic qualities setting them apart from ordinary people. Dawidoff
finds ways to make the people he writes about approachable and
distinctive at once, a rare skill. Most important, I have been
watching football with new eyes since reading the book. I find that I
both enjoyed the book and learned how to appreciate its vast
complexity better through reading it. I bought the book from
Thriftbooks.com, my go to
online used book dealer of choice. My experience with them is that
they provide lots of choices and their descriptions are always
accurate. Their delivery costs are reasonable (free with multiple
orders, even from different vendors), accurate, and timely. I highly
recommend the book and the vendor.
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