Review - Take Your Eye Off the Ball by Pat Kirwan

I love football. Specifically professional football. Very specifically NFL football.

I used to pride myself on knowing more about football than my circle of friends. I knew the difference between a 3-4 defense and a 4-3. I knew what "cover 2" meant. I had a firm grasp of the difference in assignments for players depending upon the called play.

In football, there are many little dramas playing out every time the ball is snapped. Most people resort to following the ball since that is "where the action is." However, Kirwan implores us to see the bigger picture and then understand the game better.

Yes, I thought I knew a lot about football. And then I read TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE BALL: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look (Triumph Books) by Pat Kirwan. I see a whole different ball game now. Kirwan is a good teacher. In this book, he focuses your attention one area at a time. First, he explains the personnel groupings that can exist on every play and teaches you how to chart these plays. Then, we learn the basic structure of the week leading up to each game...what the players and coaches are doing on those days between games. Kirwan teaches us what a quarterback really does and why it truly is the "toughest job in sports". Consider this tidbit:

"(Dan) Marino always tells me the same thing. 'If I worked out a quarterback
for an NFL team,' he says, 'he'd have to show me 100 throws
off his back foot.' Still, too many scouts will downgrade a quarterback
prospect for throwing off his back foot. In a collapsing pocket,
it's actually an important skill to have."

We then learn insider information about what running backs really do -- it is way more than run the football. In the remaining chapters, Kirwan gives us the scoop on wide receivers, the offensive line, the wildcat formation, the aforementioned 3-4 and 4-3 defenses, pass rushing from the o-line and d-line perspectives and defensive backs. Then we learn about "football intelligence," and how great athletes who don't have it can get cut off the rosters. The chain of command in NFL team offices is explained as well as what really happens before the draft. Kirwin then gives his opinion on the future of the NFL as well as a handy glossary of terms the reader has probably learned.

I can't say this loudly enough. Get this book for the football fan in your life. He or she will be glad you did...and will probably thank you sometime in February when they come out of their football daze

Kirwan spent 25 years working in the trenches of football, coaching at the high school, college and pro levels. He is now a senior analyst on nfl.com, and a co-host of "Movin' the Chains" on Sirius NFL Radio.

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