BAUGH TO BRADY

The Evolution of the Forward Pass

By LEW FREEDMAN

  Genre: Sports History / Football

Publisher: Texas Tech University Press

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Date of Publication: December 15, 2017

Number of Pages: 296

There are three things that can happen when you throw a pass, and two of them are bad.   –Woody Hayes

 The quarterback pass is one of the leading offensive components of today’s National Football League and college football’s top level of play. This was not always the case. In early American football, the strategy focused entirely on advancing the ball one running play at a time, with the player tucking the then-roundish ball on his hip and sprinting ahead until tackled by a swarm of defenders. The revolution that transformed the sport began in 1906, when passing was first legalized. The passing weapon made the game safer, altered strategy, turned the quarterback into a key offensive player, and made possible the high-scoring games of today.

Lew Freedman traces football’s passing game from its inception to the present, telling the tale through the stories of the quarterbacks whose arms carried (and threw) the changes forward. Freedman relies especially on the biography of “Slingin’ Sammy” Baugh–who hailed from Sweetwater, Texas–as a framework. Baugh, perhaps the greatest all-around football player in history, came along at just the right time to elevate the passing game to unprecedented importance in the eyes of the sports world.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: LEW FREEDMAN

Why did you choose to write about sports history?

I am a very big sports fan who has long been fascinated by sports history and how the games we follow today were shaped by the past. From my reading I also became a very big fan of Sammy Baugh, the one-time Texas Christian University star and NFL quarterback. I came to believe that he is probably the greatest football player of all time because he was an all-star in the pros as a quarterback, defensive player and a punter, demonstrating a remarkable versatility. This volume traces the history of the forward pass from the time it was first permitted to the way it gradually gained in importance in the sport to the present day when its offensive value has eclipsed the running game.

Much of the story focuses on the life of Sammy Baugh and the pivotal role he played in this evolution.

Where did you love of books, writing, reading and storytelling come from?

I grew up in a family where everyone read, my mother and especially my father, who was a public relations man whose job involved writing. By the time I was in the sixth grade I began writing fictional short stories with my friends as characters and I always believed I would write novels.

In eighth grade I had an English teacher who heavily emphasized reading. She wanted us to read as much as possible on any topic. We were asked to write a book comment (it could be as short as a few paragraphs or a page), basically to prove we actually read the book. This turned me into a voracious reader of everything from popular novels to mysteries to sports books. I read – and turned in more book comments – than anyone in the class. Reading stuck and I do not go out the door any day without a book with me.

By my sophomore year in high school I was writing for my high school newspaper and before that year was out I obtained a job writing about sports for my hometown weekly newspaper. I then majored in journalism in college. Over the 50-plus years since I have almost always written for a newspaper, though briefly only for the Internet. In 1988 I wrote my first non-fiction book and since then I have written 100 of them, virtually all about Alaska or sports. Alas, I never have had the chance to write those novels, though short stories and novels remain goals to fulfill.

What are some day jobs that you have held? Have any of them impacted your writing?

My regular jobs over the decades have included writing for the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Anchorage Daily News and currently for the Cody Enterprise in Wyoming. When I was a kid I was such a big sports fan I kept all types of statistical lists about sports such as baseball, football and basketball.

When I became a sportswriter, it was a treat just to go to the games and write about them. Over time, as I matured and my writing matured, I realized the real stories were about the people behind the scores, not so much those statistics. The appeal of telling unique, individual stories expanded and I still get excited to tell someone’s unusual tale. The stories about what makes people tick or what obstacles they must overcome are the most satisfying to write.

I have worked long hours and long weeks for many years to keep improving and do believe even at this point in my life I can still get better. I believe I wrote some of the best in-depth stories of my life this very year, even after all of this time. When you work for a newspaper there are some basic stories that must be written, but the challenge is to find the juicy ones no one else is doing to tell.

The opportunities that came my way to write longer, in-depth features for a newspaper (space tougher to come by these days depending on where one works) helped me develop style and an eye for what works in a longer piece. Writing many, many of those stories helped me write better books and writing the books helped me write better long newspaper stories.

It seems to be working since I have won nearly 300 journalism awards.

What do you like to read in your free time?

I enjoy mystery/suspense novels by a select group of authors whom I follow at all times when they write new ones, novels that take you back in time sometimes simultaneously taking a fictional look at real-life events, biographies, and sports books about the sports I like best and which I also write about.

I read collections of Best American Sports Writing, Best Travel Writing and a few others for the opportunity to learn what somebody considers to be the best non-fiction newspaper or magazine tales out there – and to find out what I missed by not subscribing to a publication.

If you could time travel, what time period would you first visit?

I can think of two time periods that I would prefer for different reasons, both of them allowing me to explore different aspects of the United States. The first would be the 1870s-1880s as the American Frontier was closing, Buffalo Bill Cody was starting his Wild West show, Sitting Bull was still around, and the bison had not yet disappeared completely from the West.

The second would be the 1920s, the Roaring Twenties in the U.S. after World War I and before the Great Depression, when Babe Ruth was the king of baseball and several other of the greatest Hall of Famers were still playing, and when a glimpse of the huge cities of today like New York and Chicago could be compared.

What’s your funniest flaw?

My complete lack of electronic gadget mastery (I don’t even text) and this dovetailing with my total lack of ability as a handyman. Whatever it is, I would probably buy a new one rather than try to fix it. Luckily, my wife is a bit sharper on these fronts.

Secondarily, despite an enthusiasm for singing along with the radio in the car, a total ability to sing on key without making others laugh would be another weak point.

What projects are you working on at the present?

First thing that needs finishing is an encyclopedia of professional wrestling that I hope contains every weird, silly and off-beat side story about that half-sport/half-entertainment industry.

This will be followed by a biography of the late Hall of Fame baseball star Ernie Banks, a biography of Buffalo Bill Cody, and hopefully a personal memoir based on my 50 years of sports writing.

Lew Freedman is a veteran newspaper sportswriter and experienced author of more than seventy-five books about sports as well as about Alaska.

He spent seventeen years at the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska and has also worked for the Chicago Tribune and  Philadelphia Inquirer. Freedman is recipient of more than 250 journalism awards.

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SEA OF RUST

By C. ROBERT CARGILL

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Robot Western
Publisher: Harper Voyager, an imprint of Harper Collins
Date of Publication: September 5, 2017
Number of Pages: 384

It’s been thirty years since the apocalypse and fifteen years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI—but not all robots are willing to cede their individuality—their personality—for the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. These intrepid resisters are outcasts; solo machines wandering among various underground outposts who have formed into an unruly civilization of rogue AIs in the wasteland that was once our world.

One resister is Brittle, a scavenger robot trying to keep a deteriorating mind and body functional in a world that has lost all meaning. Although unable to experience emotions like a human, Brittle is haunted by the terrible crimes the robot population perpetrated on humanity. As Brittle roams the Sea of Rust, a large swath of territory that was once the Midwest, the loner robot slowly comes to terms with horrifyingly raw memories—and nearly unbearable guilt.

SEA OF RUST is both a harsh story of survival and an optimistic adventure. A powerfully imagined portrayal of ultimate destruction and desperate tenacity, it boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, yet where a human-like AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.

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Praise for Sea of Rust:

“Sea of Rust is a forty-megaton cruise missile of a novel – it’ll blow you away and lay waste to your heart. It is the most visceral, relentless, breathtaking work of SF in any medium since Mad Max: Fury Road.”  

— #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill 

“Cargill…effectively takes a grim look at a war-torn future where our nonhuman successors face complex moral dilemmas, exploring what it means to be alive and aware [….]This action-packed adventure raises thought-provoking and philosophical questions.”

   — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Innovative worldbuilding, a tight plot, and cinematic action sequences make for an exciting ride through a blasted landscape full of dying robots.”  — Kirkus Reviews

This book is science fiction at it’s finest. Extremely compelling from the very beginning, I was absolutely hooked by the time it was over. Humans gone and the world a victim of it’s past, there is now only the ruling intelligence of collective memories. Individuality from the One World Intelligence is now an act of rebellion.

We know from the start that Brittle is one of these rebels in her own way. As she goes through the sea of rust, we learn more about the history that led to this world. More dominantly, the history of Brittle and what it takes to survive. Despite humans being gone, this does not stop the constant struggle and conflict as other robots struggle to exist and simply have freedom to be. I found it interesting that Brittle identified as a she or that any of the robots followed gender roles. Though I suspect it fit Brittle’s character to adapt to more human characteristics, especially considering their roots and desire to live. Brittle’s memories of the humans she once knew takes part in this identity as well. As once a caregiver, the question of evolution and adaptability is always present. When their own creators are gone and they have an empty space of existence, what can they become?

This book could be as brutal as the summary suggests. Though that didn’t stop the odd humor and unpredictable moments that seemed to fit a chaotic world. It stays true to pure apocalyptic and rough world. Brittle is flawed, powerful, remorseful, and very likable. Cargill does an excellent job with the details into the characters and world building that are so precise and inspiring.

C. Robert Cargill is the author of Dreams and Shadows and Queen of the Dark Things. He has written for “Ain’t it Cool News” for nearly a decade under the pseudonym Massawyrm, served as a staff writer for Film.com and Hollywood.com, and appeared as the animated character Carlyle on spill.com. He is a co-writer of the horror films “Sinister” (2012) and “Sinister 2” (2015), and the new Benedict Cumberbatch superhero movie, “Dr. Strange” (2016). He lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

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