Wednesday Open Mike: Football!* And S.C. Gwynne

["Open Mike" is the often off-topic, anything-goes editorial page of TOP. TOP is based in the United States. The feature appears on Wednesdays, because Yr. Hmbl. Ed. is super-organized and able to do things on schedules**.]

Two words: Saints Vikings. AKA "The Minnesota Miracle." Google that term and you'll get 2,760,000 results.

Wow. What a spectacular, epochal game. The whole game was superbly well played, had a distinct narrative, and featured one of the most amazing finishes in the history of the game. It deserves to be remembered with The Immaculate Reception and other legendary finishes. It will be remembered for a long time.

I didn't actually see the game; I just watched the digest version. Which, by the way, is a great way to watch a football game.

Narrative: Vikings shut out Saints in the first half; Saints mount a comeback and take the lead; the lead changes FOUR TIMES in the last 3:01, and is decided when a pass to the sidelines to stop the clock goes bad...and results in an improbable, unforeseeable touchdown with zero seconds left on the clock. "The first postseason game in NFL history that ended with a winning touchdown on the final play of the fourth quarter" (Dan Hanzus of NFL.com). Spec-tac-u-lar.

S.C. Gwynne
I love the craft of photography and I love the craft of writing, too. I have favorite writings and favorite writers. I seek them out.

A guy who is emerging as one of my favorite authors is S.C. (Sam) Gwynne, who wasted*** a good portion of his life doing things other than writing books. But, really, for the good of society and culture and everyone, someone or something should intervene and force him to write books for the rest of his life. If you only ever read one book about the American West****, it should be Sam Gwynne's wonderful Empire of the Summer Moon, nominally a history of the Comanche tribe but actually a collection of about seven wonderful and amazing stories and themes, any one of which could make a good book all by itself. If Empire doesn't fire your imagination, something is wrong with your imagination and you should do something about that, like change your diet or sign up for a meditation retreat.

Most lately, Sam Gwynne has written a history of (American) football. Or, more precisely, a history of the forward pass. Not interesting, you say? Too granular? Think again, pigskin-breath. In the hands of a masterful writer, a dirt-encrusted, painted-shut window is thrown open wide to reveal a spectacular and entirely unusual view of the game, its people, and its peculiar mass psychology. If you love football, you will love The Perfect Pass. It casts back all the way to the very first time a quarterback hit a receiver in stride (Gus Dorais to Knute Rockne, Army vs. Notre Dame, November 1, 1913) and shocked the world. That pass was the start of the game we know today, not to mention the many-times-great-grandfather of that pass last Sunday from Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs. The book is the ideal complement to games like Saints-Vikings, or the other way around.

Sam's other book is a biography of Stonewall Jackson. Am I going to read that, sooner or later? You bet. The man could write about teacups or why bird plumage is colorful and I'd read it. The Perfect Pass is a great one. I want a full shelf of books from this guy. Go, Sam.

Mike
(Thanks to Hugh Crawford)

*...Oh, all right...AMERICAN football.

**Sarcasm alert

***Not really.

****Well, actually if you read only one book about the American West, it should be Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. No, not Son of the Morning Star or When the Legends Die. But Empire is in the top five.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

shooter: "I'd second the recommendation for Empire of the Summer Moon. It is an absolutely stunning book, beautifully written and totally addictive, an epic tale in every sense."

Steve Rosenblum: "I agree that Empire of the Summer Moon is one of the three best books that I have read about the American West. The other two are: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, about the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, by Timothy Egan. The stories told in all of these books are amazing, as is the writing. They read like novels. These authors make history come alive!"

David Raboin: "Empire of the Summer Moon was my favorite book about the American West until I read Astoria by Peter Stark. Now they're tied for first place. Both tell epic stories and are hard to put down."

Comments

[jim woodard]

Gwynne has been an editor and writer for Texas Monthly for some time. The articles published there have been engaging, as you have found with the books of his you have read. In a way very similar to John McPhee who can hold your interest and inform you on any topic.

[Del Bomberger]

I'd vote "Empire" number one, but maybe because I've been hearing about Wounded Knee most of my life and have been there numerous times in the last ten years. Wounded Knee and the Native Americans in South Dakota (and other places) continue to struggle. No words really for what happened to them. Stories from Native American friends raised in church schools on the reservations in the middle of the 20th Century still anger me. Can't imagine what it would take to get me to read a book on Football though. I've watched my annual football game for the year, enjoyed it and don't need any more for another year.

[hugh crawford]

Oh gosh people who know me are going to be so confused...

Wait till I track down that explosive* story of how the invention of film was a byproduct of the game of billiards.
*literally with a bang.

[HT]

The sideline cam of the touchdown catch is fun to watch (and listen to) too. My two favorite moments are 1) the referee throwing a flag when Diggs joyfully tosses his helmet and 2) the ballboy who anxiously waits on the sideline for the all-clear before hugging Diggs.

[KeithB]

Another good one in the same vein is "The Apache Wars: The hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid and the captive boy that started the longest war in American History" by Paul Andrew Hutton.

[Gunny]

The pass went bad?!?

[I'm sorta funnin', but yeah, "bad" in the sense that it was designed to get the receiver out of bounds and stop the clock with enough time left to get off a field goal try. First they didn't get the pass off quickly enough. Then the reason Marcus Williams missed the tackle is because he was aiming to knock Diggs' legs back toward the field of play to keep his torso (and the ball) in bounds. It was the correct move, Williams just missed. If Diggs had been tackled where he caught the ball, game over, Saints win. --Mike]

[Ernie Van Veen]

In Australia, nothing about American Football has ever shocked the world. We have Australian Rules Football; however, I have to admit, that after 45 years of living here (as a Canadian immigrant) I fail to understand even one of those rules.

We are also perpetrators of the most shameful incident in cricket history - one that actually shocked the world - the underarm bowling incident of 1981.

We also have a wild west. It's still wild.

[george andros]

It's a great book that I read a couple of years ago. Perhaps it's time to revisit it.

[Alan Hill]

Please can I wait until he writes about why bird plumage is really colourful? That interests me much more than the other subjects mentioned.

[Kshapero]

Gonna order the Stonewall Jackson bio just cause it will piss folks off. No really, he was a fascinating man.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I read Summer Moon a few years back, when Mike first recommended it, and the picture of the Commanche as the engine behind all the tribes of the SouthWest has stuck with me. So I just sent Stonewall Jackson down to my Kindle app.

[Jeffrey MacMillan]

Few years ago the Wall St Journal did a piece where they used a stop watch on all the playoff games. Started timing w each hike, stopped w each tackle. Whole game. Four hours later at the final whistle the sum total of action was, wait for it....11( eleven) minutes.
I haven't looked at football the same. It is basically a delivery vehicle for beer and pizza ads.
So yes a digest form would be preferable.

[Ben Shugart]

What about Bradbury Robinson to Jack Schneider in 1906 (St. Louis vs. Carroll College) or the popularization of the forward pass by the Carlisle Indian Industrial School under Glenn Scobey (Pop) Warner (yep...the Pop Warner you're thinking about). All of which (I think) happened before Dorais hit Rockne in 1913. Note to the Editor: this is based on my fuzzy memory and, then, some quick searches on the interwebs to confirm my hunches. The sources I consulted could be wrong or it could be that there's subtle distinction in your statement "...the very first time a quarterback hit a receiver in stride".

[Dillan]

I'm reading the Stonewall Jackson biography, "Rebel Yell," right now. You're right, Mr. Gwynne is an excellent author! Thank you very much for the recommendation!

[You're welcome--I've just started that too. --Mike]