Book Review: The Games that Changed the Game

Holy shit, there are literate football fans?  Don't act so shocked.  Football is a thinker's game, and the depth and complexity aren't even approached by any other spectator sport.  Not to belittle other sports, but you don't hear about baseball or tennis or vollyball coaches sleeping in their offices and putting in 20-hour work days for 5 straight months.  That's because the permutations available in formations, motion, play design, player tendencies, down-and-distance, clock management, etc., are absolutely infinite, and a coach is expected to have prepared for every one of those infinite possibilities.  A little intimidating to the average fan, eh?

So can those of us outside of the NFL really appreciate this level of intricacy and its history and evolution?  Ron Jaworski (ESPN analyst and MNF commentator) thinks we can and should, and he's written a book that's a great start.  A word of caution: this is not an introduction to how football offenses and defenses work.  This book assumes you're an avid fan with a strong background in the various positions and basic formations available on both sides of the ball.  It also assumes you have some basic knowledge of NFL history, with an appreciation of the great teams of the past, going back to the '50's and '60's.  Do you you know the difference between a 3-4 and a 4-3 defense?  If so, you can probably handle this book.  If not, what the fuck are you reading this blog for, anyway?  (I mean, besides you, Mom. . . . Just kidding.  My Mom is a huge proponent of the 4-3 because she loves to stuff the run and thinks the zone blitz is for pussies!)

OK,  what's this book actually about?  Well, Jaws's main goal is to show you how professional (and to some extent college) football evolves.  His thesis is that certain impactful innovations by coaches change the way the game is played, and that these changes are exemplified in choice games from that coach's repetoire.  To show us this, Jaws chooses seven examples, giving us background on the coaches involved, the genesis of the new offense or defense, and breaking down a single game at a very detailed level to show how the innovation affected the outcome.  His first-hand knowledge of the game is incredibly detailed and useful, his skill at breaking down game film is unparalleled outside of professional coaching, and his research into primary source material (interviews with players and coaches) is thorough.  Even his choice of examples is great, ranging from Don Coryell's Roving Y offense and Sid Gillman's innovations in the deep pass to the Steel Curtain's Cover-2 and Dick LeBeau's Zone Blitz.  He, of course, includes the obligatory West Coast offense and Buddy Ryan's 46 defense, but also gives us Bill Belichic's innovations in game-planning.  All the colorful characters involved a presented truthfully and with panache.  Special mention should be made of Jaws's fair and objective treatment of Buddy Ryan, in spite of his poor personal relationship with Ryan as a coach (Ryan basically got Jaws kicked out as Philly's starting QB in the late '80's).

Overall, The Games that Changed the Game was a very enjoyable and informative read, and I highly reccomend it for any serious football fan.  It will certainly help your understanding of the book if you have personal experience with the game, but my wife (who, though an avid fan for 25 years, has obviously never played organized football herself) read this book before I did and really liked it.  This should be the Christmas gift that Santa brings to all the good boys and girls who love themselves a little pigskin!