Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look

Book Description:
Today's NFL fans have more viewing options than ever before. Each and every week, football addicts plant themselves in front of big-screen, high-definition TVs and watch the game they love unfold via slow-motion replays and multiple camera angles, pausing and fast-forwarding the action on their DVRs as they please. Yet while more and more football fans are watching the NFL each week, many of them don't know exactly what they should be watching. What does the offense's formation tell you about the play that's about to be run? When a quarterback throws a pass toward the sideline and the wide receiver cuts inside, which player is to blame? Why does a defensive end look like a Hall of Famer one week and a candidate for the practice squad the next? These are the questions football fans ask during every game they watch, and for too long, they've lacked the kind of insight and information that courses through coaches' offices, locker rooms, and meetings throughout the NFL. Football fans are starving to learn more about the game they love, to appreciate the intricacies of their sport the way baseball fans do theirs. Now Pat Kirwan, popular analyst for NFL.com and Sirius NFL Radio and a veteran front office executive, and co-author David Seigerman present Take Your Eye Off the Ball, a book that takes you inside a coach's mind as he builds a roster or constructs a game plan, to the line of scrimmage with the quarterback, and deep into the perpetual chess match between offense and defense. Take Your Eye Off the Ball is not a beginner's introduction to football, nor is it a technical manual for only the most studious of fans. Instead, it clearly and simply explains the intricacies and nuances that affect the outcomes of every NFL game. No more passively watching the action unfold with only the TV analyst's clichés to guide you, no more wondering why one player is on the field and not another. Take Your Eye Off the Ball: * Explains the pros and cons of different personnel groups* Tells you what to look for when projecting a college quarterback's success in the NFL* Gives fans a simple, easy-to-remember checklist to help them understand the action on the field Baseball claims to be America's national pastime, but football is its passion. Take Your Eye Off the Ball will make fans feel like they've got their own personal head coach by their side each and every Sunday, enhancing the fan experience by making football more accessible, colorful, and compelling than ever before.