Thursday, February 10, 2011

Book Review: A Sportcaster's Guide to Watching Football


I love reading and I try to read something everyday---be it the newspaper, a magazine, or part of a book. I also love sports! So when Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer offered me the chance to receive and review A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football I jumped on the chance! (Thanks Kathy!)
I wanted to read this book for this reason:  My husband is the sports editor of our local newspaper. He loves all sports, but football is his absolute favorite. He loves to watch and talk football.  I know some basic things about football, but I want to be able to understand more and to be more involved in conversations with hubby about his favorite hobby. I want to be able to understand the different positions and why hubby yells when he says there should be a pass play instead of a hand-off, etc.

In A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football, Mark Oristano uses his career as a professional sports broadcaster as a stepping stone to teach the average Joe about the game of football. He give a comprehensive guideline as to what each position player on offense is, what each player on defense is, what the goals are for a first down, second down, etc. He tells you what special teams are, and what points are awarded when (safety, touchdown, field goal, etc.). He also includes "Time-Outs," which are funny and poignant stories that he has heard from around the NFL.

As a beginning fan of the NFL, this book was a great read. I read it before the Super Bowl so that I could actually, maybe see what all the fuss was about. I will admit that I still don't understand everything that was going on in the game, but after reading A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football I understood more than I ever did while watching a game. Even my hubby was impressed when at one point I called out "that's a blitz" before the TV. announcers did! (Score 1 for me!). This book is a great read for those who want to understand more about the game. It is also a great read for the sports fan who may want a refresher course on what each position is.

(Once again, thanks to Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer for the opportunity to review this book. She sent me the book free of charge. All opinions of this book are my own!)

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