Football's Best Short Stories (Best Short Stories)

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Summary: A story for every football fan!
Review: Drawing mainly upon the short story traditions of such male magazines as Esquire, the New Yorker and Playboy, Paul Staudohar's anthology of football-related fiction presents a variety of largely masculine perspectives of gridiron football in a variety of styles; the "football-game-as-an-analogy-for-life" cliché (epitomized in the 1923 poem "Alumnus Football" that opens the book) and the inevitable breakdown of this view; the existential importance of the game for player and fan alike as a system to fill the void of an increasingly "unreal" world; and the consequences of the inevitable collision between the rigidly-controlled gridiron environment and the infinitely nebulous field of human relationships. There is a lighter side to the book as well; a wonderfully stomach-turning account of the physical toll of the game upon the human body; the humorous and bittersweet tale of a team facing the imminent prospect of crushing defeat; and a coach's comically unorthodox attempts to recapture the original pleasure behind playing football as a game and not as a job. Athletes and fans will recognize some of themselves in these stories, while non-fans will come closer to understanding the near-inexplicable allure of sports and fandom. By turns moving and hilarious, thoughtful and thrilling, Football's Best Short Stories not only offers a valuable insight into the important role that football occupies in the American way of life, but also gives voice to the myriad facets of the male sense of self.