The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family

Anderson, Lars. The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family. New York: Ballantine Books, 2016.

Most people who know me well know I don't cheer for NFL teams but rather for the players. Ever since Peyton left the University of Tennessee, I've cheered first for Peyton. After Eli graduated from Ole Miss, I told everyone I cheered for Peyton first and Eli second. Why? I grew up in Mississippi where Archie Manning was pretty much everyone's hero. Of course, as anyone in Mississippi could tell you, after he went to the Saints, he never had a team with talent. I was small when I followed Archie's career, mostly on a handheld radio broadcasting our home state team. I chose to follow his sons' careers. The author of this book does an excellent job of following Archie and his sons through their college years (and that includes Cooper's short-lived career). He even devotes considerable time to the decisions Peyton and Eli made concerning the choice each made to attend Tennessee and Ole Miss respectively. He does a fairly decent job talking about Archie's professional career, basically reaching the same conclusion that we Mississippians stated for decades. Where he fails is in discussing the professional careers of both Peyton and Eli. Both are given fairly scant attention. There is a wrap-up chapter detailing Peyton's injuries in his late career. If the book had been intended to cover only the college careers of the men, this would have been a 4.5 star book, but the lack of detail on their professional careers where they spent far more time tossing around a football than in high school and college combined weakens the book. In spite of the major flaw, this book will still garner a large audience because it is about the Mannings. Football enthusiasts everywhere, particularly fans of the Mannings and the Southeastern Conference, will want to read it. The book uses the "hidden footnote" system which I hate -- where footnotes exist but no one knows they are there until they flip to the back and see them keyed to specific phrases on certain pages. This review is based on an advance reader's copy e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

Football Humor

This morning I was reading the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, MS) before we brought Mom to the hospital for her surgery prep. As I was reading, I noticed that Mississippi Valley State University had announced the top candidates for its vacant football coaching position. At the top of the list was Charlie Brown. I immediately began laughing as I pictured Lucy holding that football and jerking it away at the last moment while Charlie Brown once again landed flat on his back. I'm sure that many other readers had the same picture run through their minds as they read that article. I can't find the article in the online edition so I can't share the link.

Good News for Vols Fans

Florida lost!

Blogger's Block

I'm suffering a case of blogger's block at the moment. I know Miriam has the prompt over at Ancestories2, but I'm saving that one for later in the week when I have the time to do it justice. I'm hoping to have something to blog about tomorrow. I could talk about how proud I am of Eli Manning, but I'm afraid that my New England friends might take offense. However, I grew up in Mississippi, and I've been cheering for Mannings since I was a child. It has nothing to do with the team--just the quarterbacks!

Happy 2008!

Hope everyone has a great 2008! I need to go check my black-eyed peas and get the rest of my lunch started, but how can a person do too much cooking when the Vols are playing football? That was a nice pass, Ainge!

Update: It is a nice year. Tennessee won their bowl game, and so far, the SEC is undefeated in bowl play.

Update 2: Okay, Florida has now let the SEC down. I just have a question. Does this mean that Appalachian State is the rightful winner of the Citrus Bowl?

Update 3: Arkansas let the SEC down too.

Football in the SEC

One of my colleagues asked me the other day if I thought Mississippi State (of which he is an alumnus) had a chance against the Kentucky Wildcats this year in football. He explained that it used to be that the 'Dogs could always count on winning two games a year--Vandy and Kentucky. I told him: The one thing I've observed this year in the SEC is that anything is possible this year. Today, the Bulldogs won.

The traditional Georgia vs. Florida match is on now. Later this evening is Spurrier vs. Fulmer (for those who don't know the coaches: South Carolina vs. Tennessee). I'm wearing my Vols orange and cheering for the Vols.

Update (7 p.m. ET): Yes, anything is possible. It is now evident that Georgia will be defeating Florida in the next 1 minute 27 seconds (football time).

Michigan Loses . . . Again

Last week to Appalachian State . . . now to Oregon in what is being called their "worst loss in decades."

Congratulations to App State

Congratulates to our neighbor over in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on their win over Big Ten powerhouse University of Michigan. I checked . . . and Blue Ridge Blog has already posted some photos of the victory.

It's Football Time in Tennessee

Kick-off is in about 30 minutes. Last year at this time, I was watching the game at a restaurant in Boston with a fellow Tennessean beside me. On my right side was an ESPN free-lance broadcaster who was currently covering baseball but would later be covering football. On our left was a couple from South Carolina who were taking their daughter to college in Boston. They had graduated from the college of our opponent on that day, University of California (Berkeley). The opponent is the same today as it was last year except that the game is in California instead of Knoxville this time. We won last year. I hope the outcome is the same once again. Ainge has a broken pinky. Everyone expects to see our backup quarterback Jonathan Crompton on the field at some point, but they say Ainge is playing. GO VOLS!

Watching the Eagles

The academic year has begun again. I have quite a few football players in my classes so I'm watching them tonight on CSS. It's too hot to watch it live from the stadium! It's 3rd quarter, and they are leading 24-14. They are playing Virginia State. GO EAGLES!