Why We Love Football is an odd choice in two ways. It’s slightly odd for me to read this book, and it’s maybe even more odd for Joe Posnanski to write it. Why? Because we’re both bigger fans of baseball. This book is a follow-up to Posnanski’s Why We Love Baseball, and follows a similar format: 100 ranked and numbered entries (there were only 50 for baseball), each pertaining to a specific moment in the history of the sport and accompanied by a short essay on it’s meaning and impact.
In his preface, Posnanski himself notes that he is more publicly associated with baseball, but insists that his love for football is on a par. As evidence, he offers his youthful obsession with the Cleveland Brown, an early and constant source of heartbreak. For myself, my relationship with the game of football is in conflict with my dislike of the NFL as an entity. (For clarification, Posnanski’s book covers football at all levels, though mainly the NFL and major college football.) The game of football is almost irresistible, but the hegemonic greed of the league and the owners really puts me off.
Still, at times during the countdown you can, at least in my opinion, tell that Posnanski’s heart is not fully in this one. The baseball version of this list was full of surprising choices, backed up by real arguments and passionate essays. Unsung heroes were plucked from obscurity, and even a huge baseball fan could read it and learn something. Whereas this list is largely pro forma, albeit with a genuinely interesting choice for No. 1. Any football fan worth his salt could probably guess 75 or more of the 100 entries on this list, and the essays are frequently very short.
Posnanski is still a gifted writer who can’t help but tell good stories, but overall this book is a tad underwhelming.
