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Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future by Eric Enders

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This an oversized book. What I call "Coffee table" books. For that, it works quite well, it has a bunch of beautiful pictures, and even has a checklist in the back if you want to go to every stadium in the country. This type of book will be undoubtedly often given as a gift or (as in my case) received as a gift. It will lie around many houses, and people will undoubtedly peruse through their favorite team's stadium or perhaps the ones that they have visited.

I doubt many will be bought with the intention to read every single word inside. However, I did just that, and would suggest it to others.

This is a history of every ballpark Major League ball has played in. It reads as an interesting rarely-told history of the game. Enders has really researched this topic, and it shows in how much material he references. He does a great job of working in Negro League history, and features many photos from the 1920s through 1950s to go with it.

He also features some of the most important non-Major League ballparks in the country (Cooperstown, Williamsburg, Durham, Omaha, El Paso, Memphis and Dyersville, Iowa's "Field of Dreams" to name some) as well as briefly covering some International destinations of major league baseball.

It is interesting to see the trends - from the early wooden parks of the early days of the game to the ballparks of the 19-teens like Forbes Field, Fenway and Wrigley; later transitioning to the two-sport football/baseball stadium trend of the 1970s and now the "throwback baseball only" renaissance that started with Camden Yards in 1992.

It is a fascinating history, and of course, the recent stories touch on the funding aspect- ugly in the case of Texas - and architectural/fashion - the unfortunate timing of "New Comiskey" came before the trend set by firm HOK Sport, who has done some amazing things to revitalize the experience.

It's all there- the good, the bad, the ugly- the horrible Domes that came and went, the peculiarities of certain parks, the sights, sounds and fans that made "home field" unique. I guarantee you will learn something.

Also, even though I doubt it was designed to be read in one sitting, I was amazed that it never got repetitious. Enders worked hard at keeping it fresh- making it work if you did decide to straight through or if you did just skip to your favorite park.

This is a good suggestion for baseball fans, and really a novel approach to tell a different side of the history of the game.





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At Last!: The Kansas City Chiefs' Unforgettable 2019 Championship Season by Matt Derrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The reason for a book like this is as a keepsake for a memorable season. It is somewhere between a magazine and a coffee table book. If you were a big fan of the 2019-20 Chiefs, this is a book you will want to buy and display, and may pull out to re-read over years.

So my review is really irrelevant. The only thing really important is that it is competently put together. It is. This is what you want in this particular memento. A week-to-week review of every game, a few in depth profiles of major players (Coach Reid, Mahomes, Kelce, Chris Jones and Tyran Mathieu). I did really like that Derrick goes over how the building of this particular roster came about.

It is really hard not to be a Patrick Mahomes fan. While I think we have largely seen the end of the anti-hero era (Terrel Owens, Charles Barkley, Chad Ochocinco, Mike Tyson)and a return to fan-friendly sports heroes, Mahomes really stands out. He's enthusiastic and puts team over self. It really is impossible not to like him.

Derrick is a beat writer for the Chiefs and so he knows his stuff. The book focuses as much on what the players were saying and feeling as it does about the on-field play.

Recommended for Chiefs fan who want a souvenir of the season, and Mahomes fans of all ages.



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This time of year is when I get my taste of Missouri Valley Conference basketball and particularly, Southern Illinois University. Like last year, I am going to see both of their games in Iowa.

SIU finished second in the MVC last year, finishing to Loyola who everyone remembers had a very talented team. SIU essentially returns all five of their starters. They took a gamble in the first part of the year (nonconference play) and booked games against some good teams- Kentucky, Buffalo (twice), Winthrop, and UMass. The gamble though didn't pay off as they were not able to win any of these.

They won their first game in Conference play, which then brought them to Cedar Falls to play Northern Iowa.

This game was a bit of a struggle for everyone in the first half. Coach Barry Hinson would claim it was the angriest he'd ever been at Halftime in his seven-plus years at SIU. He had never seen a game where his guards did not have one assist (in his anger, Barry had missed the fact they had two). Still ,the first half was rough for everyone and SIU led 26-24 at Half.

SIU would dominate the second half and win fairly easily 58-51.

SIU is led by the 6-10 Senior Kavion Pippen (nephew of the Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen). Pippen had 18. Junior Guard Aaron Cook had 14 and Senior Marcus Bartley had 13. Junior Guard Aaron McGill led the team in rebounds with 8, led in steals with 4 and scored 7. With injuries and suspension, the Salukis only had only three come off the bench including Freshman Darius Beane, whose brother Anthony was a star at SIU a few years back.

Freshman Guard AJ Green led UNI with 16 and Sophomore Trae Bertow had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists. UNI has had a rough start, but apparently have some real talent in their lower classes.

It wasn't that long ago I shared a post about seeing the Iowa Barnstormers Indoor Football League team.

I caught one more game before the season was over. The closing game of the season- The Barnstormers took down the Cedar Rapids Titans 59-45.

This was the story of two teams.  The Barnstomers took the momentum of 2017 and turned it into the team's first Championship season ever (After the season, they went on to win the Indoor Bowl).  For a team that doesn't get national attention, it was exciting to see them capture the city's attention.  Meanwhile, Cedar Rapids is a team looking for a new owner, and only had 4 wins in their last two seasons.  The IFL itself is hoping to expand to 12 teams by 2020, but had been pared down to six.

As I mentioned, it's unlikely you will see future stars.  Maybe two dozen IFL alumni have broken into the NFL, and only Fred Jackson is a recognizable name.  That said, if there ever was a breakout star, Barnstormers QB Drew Powell sure seems like it.  He occasionally platoons with Grant Rohach, and it was Rohach who played the first game I watched this season.  That said, Powell is an exciting player to watch and I was glad to see him.

Playing at the traditionally Black North Carolina school Livingstone College, it would make sense that this would be a good way to get eyes, and that he did as he won the IFL MVP.  He threw 3 touchdowns, but showing his skills, he also ran 58 yards and scored on his feet.

Brady Roland (who played locally at the small Grand View College) caught two of those touchdowns, and was on his way to being named to the all-IFL team for the season.  Donavon Williams, the tailback from Sam Houston State had two scores as well.

It has been exciting to see this team be embraced.  Arena/Indoor football has seen better days, but it is still alive and well in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register just ran an article on the Des Moines Barnstormers, the local arena football team. It tellingly did not feature any information on the team or the league, only on restaurants in the area of the stadium and the giveaways.

Which may be fair as Arena Football is something that is a thing to do, much like Monster Trucks, Les Miz or the Harlem Globetrotters. It's unlikely that any of the players you see will ever play in the NFL, and those who do are usually marginal at best.

It's still a fun time, though. Arena Football is a different beast- the field is half as big (50 yards instead of 100), it's 8 on 8 (instead of 11 on 11) and the clock never stops, so there's not time to draw up strategic plays. Which means every play looks like a pick up game with almost all passing.

The Barnstormers are storied in Arena Football. Once part of the AFL. Most everyone will know the AFL- it was prominently featured on ESPN and Jon Bon Jovi's ownership of the Philadelphia Soul has been a headline. The AFL has been around 30 years, so it can be labelled a success, and though it never rivaled the NFL, it had a high point around 2000-2003 where it mattered and a brief return to glory around 2010.

Today's AFL in 2018 is in bad shape. It is down to four teams, one of which is the Soul. Which means Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons Kiss themed Los Angeles team and Vince Neil's Vegas team have called it quits.

Two smaller leagues have succeeded where the bigger AFL has not, yet even these leagues seem to be on the descent. Unsurprisingly, since both of the leagues have a claim now as the premier indoor league, they are in litigation and competition with each other. The IFL has two storied franchises in the Barnstormers and Arizona Rattlers but they are down to only six franchises. The CIF (Champions Indoor Football)has ten teams- many are long standing franchises like the Omaha Beef and the Texas Revolution (formerly the Allen Wranglers).

With the current state of football, one might suspect that there is room for an alternative to the NFL. We all hear about how the NFL ratings are down ostensibly due to the protest by those who don't like the players who won't stand during the anthem. Which of course ignores those who might be protesting because the NFL won't give Collin Kaepernick a job, as well as NFL oversaturation (Thursday Night Football anyone?) and the fact people stream live television in ways that are alternative to sitting if front of a tv set.

This also comes off an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the XFL. The 30 for 30 series is fantastic in what it does, making everything seem greater than it probably actually was. The XFL special focused on the alternative league started by WWE ownder Vince McMahon and NBC big man Dick Ebersol.

The XFL as we were reminded was a flop, often way more funnier than anything Vince ever scripted, and beyond that, just boring. But there are some points we forget, such as the XFL may have had lousy ratings but they sold tickets. No alternate football league had the numbers the XFL did. Also, for all the jokes about cameras in the cheerleaders changing room, the camera play of the XFL was a game changer. Modern sports broadcasting was changed.

Which means one could be forgiven for thinking the only thing wrong with the XFL was they tried to throw a league together in 13 months.  Which also means Vince McMahon is back in the Football Business.

XFL 2.0 will kick off in 2020, because that will work.  Interestingly, in this news, Ebersol's son is trying to scoop McMahon by saying he is starting a league in 2019.

I have no doubt an XFL 2.0 could work as a spring league in alternate cities, but Vince seems convinced that he wants to only compete in cities with a NFL franchise already.  It sounds like a good way to blow your children's inheritance. 

Which is probably fine as Vince just got paid $70 Million by the Saudi Arabian government just to host a PPV event there and signed a 10 -year contract to continue to do that.

There are three football players that every alternate league would be interested in- three non-NFL players of an age where they could still play and have household names even non-sports fans recognize.  However, it's unlikely Vince can get any of them.  Collin Kaepernick is the bane of the existence of the fans Vince hopes to attract.  Johnny "Football" Manziel has a record that doesn't jibe with Vince's goal of attracting only the cleanest, honest, patriotic players, and Tim Tebow's baseball career has progressed well enough right now that it just wouldn't be worth the chance to abandon it.

So there's that.  History is filled with failed ventures since the 1960s- the World Football League was a bust mainly due to litigation, any success the USFL may have had was wiped out when they tried to compete directly with the NFL (Don't forget this is where Trump's hatred from the league comes from).  Later leagues like NFL Europe and the UFL have only been marginal succes at best.  The UFL indeed in retrospect (from 2009-2012) was a bit of a success, it just wasn't sustainable. 

It's hard to think Vince will have any better success.

In any case, back to the IFL and this game.  It wasn't too close as the Barnstormers ran over the Green Bay Blizzard 46-25.  The IFL showcases a lot of players from smaller colleges who maybe didn't have a chance to prove themselves for scouts, or at worst, get to paid to play football professionally.

Grant Rohach, was the QB, and splits duties, but started this game.  He was a backup at Iowa State, which feeds into the league's local angle.  The team is led by Receiver Brady Roland (Grand View) on the offense and Bryce Enard (NW Missouri State) on defense, though the stars of this game were receivers Ryan Ballentine  (Southern Mississppi) and Sheldon Augustine (Langston) who both had 2 TDs each.

The Iowa Wild aren't the only professional hockey team in Des Moines.  The Buccaneers are a long standing USHL team that provides the opportunity for 17 and 18 year olds to play pro hockey.

The Bucs filled the stands when I moved to Des Moines in the early Oughts.  It probably does not help them when the area got a second hockey team.  Also, the team has not been competitive in the last decade, only starting to turn it around in the last couple of years.

This game corresponded with the announcement that a local group has bought the team and one of the partners is Scott Clemensen.  Without a doubt, Clemmensen is a perfect face for the Bucs.  Not only is he from the area (also the first Iowan to play in the NHL(, but he is the most successful Buc alumni.  He was goalie during the Bucs best years and then went on to play14 years in the NHL, spending most of those years as Martin Brodeur's back up in New Jersey.

It's exciting for the team, and Clemmensen was on hand to celebrate.  Obviously, the USHL is still a long way from the NHL.  There's not a lot of Clemmensen's necessarily.  That said, there are currently 10 Buc alumni in some form of the NHL or its minor leagues (Nick Seeler, I watched the week prior for the Iowa Wild).

The Bucs played the highly regarded fargo Force, and just couldn't quite compete, though they battled back every time they could.

I sat behind the 3rd Best Karaoke singer in the country Blake Clyde and in front of a guy who looked like a Pro Scout from Central Casting (but could have been a Fargo journalist or just a fan who took notes for all I know).

The Hockey News picks the Bucs to finish 12th out of 16 and notes goalie Jake Kucharski and wing Braden Costello (committed to North Dakota U) as the stars.  Costello indeed scored 1 of Des Moines 5 goals.

Kucharski sat in place of another goalie Ryan Snowden, as the Bucs split time between three talented goalies.  Snowden lost a couple of easy goals which put the Force over 6-5.  Griffin loughran had the hat trick for the Force on his way to be naming USHL player of the week.

Other Bucs of note include defensemen Will MacKinnon and returning forward Julian Napravnik leading to a team that hopes to make it to the playoffs- something they did last year for the first time in a decade.

Although I recently blogged about it, I did make my second Iowa Cubs game of the season.  The Cubs just made it past the July trade deadline and Kyle Schwarber has been called back up.

In theory this matchup with the Fresno Grizzlies should be a great pitching duel between Cub Prospect Jen-Ho Tseng and Grizzlie pitcher Dean Deetz.  Both at times were highly regarded.  Tseng has had a great year at Triple A while Deetz's record in Triple A for 2017 is not so hot.

Both looked good, until both got beat up in the fifth inning.  Ultimately, Fresno was able to do much more damage, winning 8-1.

Fresno looked good with a three hit game from 2B Tony Kemp, who looked like a real star in the field and at bat (though his affiliation is with the Astros, who have a solid all-star 2B in Jose Altuve)  Top prospect 1B JD  Davis also came up big with two hits (one double) and a walk,

The Cubs were let down by their defense, which committed four errors (2 by 2B Jemile Weeks).

Cubs players of note of the game

Mark Zagunis RF-  Zagunis was one of the top prospects at Triple A, along with Jeimar Candelario.  Both looked like they might be dealt at the trade deadline.  Candelario was traded, but Zagunis stayed.  Zagunis looks to have a promising future but will be forced to watch to see what happens with the Chicago Cubs' crowded outfield.

Victor Caratini- C- Caratini will surely one day get a chance at the major league level as his team needs catchers.  He got one of the team's five hits with a double.

Chesney Young 3B- Later slightly lower in prospect lists than Zagunis and Caratini, he still is pretty highly regarded.  He went hitless, but has had a pretty good year at Iowa.

John Andreoli LF The popular lead off man drew two walks.  He also got caught stealing.

It wasn't that long ago that I was lamenting that I might not make it to any Iowa Energy games this year, but I did and now I managed to get a second game in.

There are some changes going on in the NBADL next year. The current NBADL provides an exciting product but isn't analogous to other minor league sports. It has gotten better over the years, and NBA teams do like to have their 1st and 2nd year players spend as much time here and in the NBA as they can. Also, though the 'Jeremy Lin' style megastar story is rare, there are a number of players who have used the league as a step to make respectable NBA careers for themselves, if not stars, then at least as consistent role players.

The biggest change next year might be the name and branding as it becomes the G league. The biggest change here is the partnership with sponsor Gatorade. It's doubtful that just the partnership will shake things up that much, but it may open a few doors. More important to the league is that next year the NBA will increase the roster size from 15 to 17. More players means more needs, and as injuries happen, the easiest place to find people to fill those spots is the NBADL. As important is that the League has adopted two-way contracts. This means more money for some players for one, but also mimics what we see in baseball's minor league system. The early DLeague teams had affiliations with the NBA, but now each DL team will have a geographically close team that it will bond too, Need a player? There will be one place to go and it can happen quickly.

This game was not so exciting. The Energy were well over played by the LA D-Fenders. The Energy did claw back within 4 after being outplayed all games, which doesn't do much to dispel the rumor that the NBADL is a more real sport than other performers who play in the same arena like John Cena or the Harlem Globetrotters.

This team was slightly different than the one I saw a month ago. This incarnation had three NBAers- Jarrell Martin, Wade Baldwin IV and Deyonta Davis and they all saw court time. Martin and Davis again showing that they are on the next level. Despite briefly leaving for an injury, JaKar Sampson looked great even when the rest of the team didn't, leading the team with 27 points.

Butler alumni Kellen Dunham played a major role in this game as compared to last and local star (Northern Iowa) Wes Washpun also put up impressive numbers.

I would be somewhat remiss if I didn't mention the half time show was Steve Max, "The Simon Says Guy". If you didn't think you could make a living playing (sorry, more correctly leading) games of Simon Says, you're wrong.

I suppose half game shows are a niche kind of thing, and generally, the Energy uses that time with groups that use trampolines to do diving basketball dunks.

Max is perfect for the time it takes to keep the crowd entertained, and to be fair, he is really good. He has that Willy Wonka/Gene Wilder vibe like a big optimistic kid in a man's body.

Here he was at a NBA game featured on ESPN Sports Center. Many more videos on Youtube

So for awhile, I have said that I don't have much time for tv, so I don't blog often about it.  I usually feel like I am a bit out of touch.  But it isn't like I don't watch tv at all.  Anyway, these are odds and ends, but things I thought worthwhile.

Ernie Ball: The Pursuit of Tone - (Audience Channel)-  This is ostensibly a series of musician interviews on one of those more obscure (but often worthwhile) satellite channels.  Episode one was Mike Ness of Social Distortion.  I do not know who else will be interviewed, and the Ernie Ball website only mentions Ness.  It is clearly not a weekly series, but my understanding is that it will be a series.  Ernie Ball, of course, being the well-known maker of guitar strings.

It was good to see Ness given the legend treatment.  I feel like he is an underrated modern musician.  He chronicled his life from childhood up to what may be his next album, with plenty of appropriate video footage and songs insomuch it feels like a totally authorized documentary.

Ness talked about his influences- Sex Pistols, T Rex, Stones, CCR, Lucinda Williams all get mentions, while he says he currently digs the Rhianna (!) record "Anti" and the Rick Rubin produced Tom Petty album "Wildflowers".

I often think Ness doesn't get the credit he deserves because he's not particularly prolific, and it is apparent from the interview, he is careful to protect the Social Distortion brand.  Even releasing the solo albums was a clear distinction in that it wasn't SD music.  He seems very particular to what is recorded and released, and I think that is apparent.  He also doesn't want to try and ape being a 20-year old forever.

It was very professionally done in comparison to similar shows.  I thought it was interesting for Ness fans and well worth it for them.  I suspect it is on demand and possibly on social media video share sites, as well as being re-ran.  (I have since seen where they have done one on Buddy Guy, and Billy Duffy of the Cult will be next.

Jackie Robinson (PBS)-  I probably don't need to recommend a Ken Burns film, but it is four hours, so figure I would give you a nudge.  I knew I would probably like it, and I did.  What I liked most about it was that it really develops the Robinson story.

Jackie had a Hollywood biopic and everyone generally knows the story (which is fascinating), but I think most people get to "Jackie made it to the Dodgers.  There was some bigotry and racism, but they got over it, because he was such a good player and made the team."

It wasn't so easy.  There were all the problems we have heard about, but they continued.  People might tolerate one black ballplayer, but what happens when a team has more blacks than whites.  What happens when there are no black coaches and some teams don't have any African American players, and Jackie is vocal about it?

Jackie becomes an activist, but he is always pushing for more, less willing to keep his mouth shut than say the loved Roy Campanella.  Jackie supports Nixon in 1960 as he feels JFK will only keep the party line in the South.  Jackie has his heart broken when Nixon refuses to do anything about the arrested Martin Luther King.  In '64, he again supports the Republicans- this time Nelson Rockefeller, and again is heartbroken when the GOP nominates Barry Goldwater, someone he cannot support.

There are a lot of uneasy questions.  The Pee Wee Reece moment comes up.  Burns says it probably never happened.  Slate says it probably did.  In any case, white America makes Pee Wee as big of a hero as Jackie.  Burns also suggests that Branch Rickey didn't sign Jackie for altruism so much as Fiorello LaGuardia was pressuring the owners.

It is, as you can guess, well done, and a fascinating fuller picture than what we usually get.  Well worth the time, and currently available on the PBS website, and surely to be shown in perpetuity

Race for the White House (CNN)  Clearly this is a ratings grab- it's an election year, and so we have President Frank Underwood narrating (from the popular House of Cards).  In any case, as a political junkie, I am in.

Kevin Spacey narrates and helped co-produce.  It is a six part series which picks six elections from the past and highlights.  There's some obvious Truman-Dewey, JFK-Nixon, Lincoln-Douglas, the contentious Andrew Jackson- JQ Adams (II) and the modern- Bush-Dukakis and Bush-Clinton.

Each episode is an hour, which for me wasn't enough.  In the hour, they cover the cycle from primary to general election, and with such a small amount of time (minus commercials) only really have time to focus on 2 or 3 main points.  I get more than an hour may be tedious for others, but that's me.

It is fascinating, and I felt I learned from each episode, despite knowing the subjects very well.  Because, it's CNN- the people they got to appear and give insight are the biggest political movers and shakers of our day- Begala, Carville, Matalin, Sununu, Buchanan, Gingrich, Estrich, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark  and David Plouffe.

I also thought the re-enactments were well done.  Some times on the History Channel or other similar stations, I feel like wrong casting or lack of budget take away from the show.  Here, everything was top notch.

Bush-Dukakis seems an odd choice (Bush-Clinton at least has Perot), but I think it was selected (and works well) because it is modern but enough time has also passed to talk about it.  Dukakis himself contributes.  Dukakis might have been better served by a little bit of Attwater-style attack ads, and his son says he knew the "tank" was a bad idea.

These will likely be re-run and seem to be available.  I would certainly recommend for political junkies.

(Note: While my intention here was to focus on recent documentaries I watched, I did catch a BBC film Nazi Titanic which was something I did not know about.  It is about the 1943 German film Titanic, which in typical Nazi propaganda style, wanted to challenge Hollywood's dominance by telling the story of how a ship is sunk because of short-sighted British and Jewish bankers, while a heroic German (!) captain warns of an impending iceberg.    It amuses to a great degree that during World War 2, the Germans wanted to win the propaganda war that they went so far as to send entire naval divisions to the filming, instead of you know, the Front, which is where they were likely better served.  The Germans spent ridiculous amounts of money on the film, and that is literally only the start of what a disaster it was.  Even more ironic is after such an over the top backstory, the film eventually gets banned by Goebells as he thinks it will hurt morale instead of improving it.   You can read more here and I suspect this film is online if you search, or certainly will be shown again on the History Channel)

Football is more and more America's obsession, and Draft Day intends to capitalize that.

It's the fictional story of a front office club president and the pressures of draft day excitement.

It's a large credit to Kevin Costner and Ivan Reitman that they do a decent job pulling this off.





But is there enough people who "get" the draft. It seems like a niche film. Certainly, ten years, I know people weren't interested in the draft, but in 2014, America obsesses over football, and every minute detail. I don't think this is too obscure.

Also, I guess I probably should bring up "Moneyball" as it seems all reviews on IMDB do. That said, I never thought of the comparison. The reason- Moneyball is a fascinating true story. Sure, people loved the film because of Pitt, Hill, et al; but I like to think it was successful because it's based on a real story, which is an interesting one. "Draft Day" is fabrication.

In fact, movie reviewers at the time of the movie's release were sure to point out that the actual 2014 Cleveland Browns draft (a fact that Reitman and co. would have no way of knowing) was more interesting in plot than this film.

Being fictional creates a challenge, in that we have to learn characters quickly. I am not sure how well they succeeded. I could keep track, but I don't know if others could. Certainly, one way it could have been handled was as an ensemble piece, and maybe that would have been the right decision. Flawed as it might be "Any given Sunday" gave you fuller fleshed out characters and though it was clearly Oliver Stoned, might have been a direction that would have helped this movie.

The thing with this movie is you have to create fictional players, and you have to give them dimension to give the film meaning.

That said, Costner generally succeeds as a likeable character who you root for. Which is tough. The decision Costner makes at the beginning of the movie (which is necessary for the plot to take place) seems a bit far-fetched and for lack of a better description (bone headed).

Similarly, everything non football related in the film is well, crap. There's a love interest with Jennifer Garner which is totally unnecessary and doesn't really succeed in anything else but making Costner like a d---. And a little bit creepy. There's family drama, though it's highly improbable that a family steeped in decades of football tradition would have it play out on Draft Day.

All that said, I am sincere that saying they generally succeed in their work. It moves at a good pace, and though you know what will inevitably happen, it twists and turns enough to keep interest.

The real secret of course, is the draft isn't the end all- be all. The Seahawks (portrayed in this movie as a team in desperate need) were Super Bowl winners last year, and in no small part to what was considered at the time, a terrible draft. Dan Marino was someone who dropped on draft day due to an image he had, and everyone reading this regardless of how much they like football, knows who he is.

The verdict is that most football fans will find enough to enjoy, and even those who aren't as in tune with the game will likely enjoy the ride. If you are expecting "Moneyball", this isn't it.