Football For Women
and men who want to learn the game
Foehr
1988
Ladies! Are you a bit slow when it comes to understanding football? Are you embarrassed to ask a man to explain the game? Well it is time to step up and learn the game, with help from this lovely feminine styled football instruction book. Written especially for women so you can understand the intricacies of this extremely complicated game. I am sure they will use small words to make it easier for feminine minds.
Washington Redskins
NFL Up Close
Smolka
2017
Since this is a bit more serious than just a discussion on a book, I am filing it under the Practical Librarian tab. This post is a bit longer than usual and illustrates one of the bigger philosophical aspects of collection development. I am only raising questions, and as usual, I am not telling anyone to weed or not weed a particular title. This is only my opinion and reflects some of the discussions I have had with my colleagues.
I was filing some books and this one jumped out at me. It is your basic football book outlining some key players and brief (very brief), sanitized, history of the franchise. Most public library collections probably have a similar set, with extra books on the hometown favorite. My library has a book on all the NFL franchises, but as we are in Metro Detroit, our sports choices will naturally favor Detroit area sports teams.
Pro Football Heroes of Today
Stainback
1973
Believe it or not this book is still in circulation! All they need to do is just change the title to Pro Football Heroes of Yesterday. I remember these guys from when my dad talked football to my clueless pre-teen self.
I picked a handful of notable entries. You youngsters out there will recognize OJ Simpson. Yes, he was a football hero before he had some troubles. (As an aside, I had former co-worker who never knew that OJ had a football career. All of the more senior members of staff had a collective aging crisis.) The other hangup is that this book is dirty (and not in a good way) and is stained on way too many pages. I will give the book props for having a good binding. This book probably should have been retired by the late 1970s.
Strategies of the Great Football Coaches Nuwer 1988 Submitter: I was horrified to find Joe Paterno featured in this book about great football coaches. It is from a high school library. Funny how the quotes and chapter titles can be
Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story
Sandusky with Richeal
2000
Submitter: Hello, I’m a librarian in [NY] and a huge college football fan. Shortly after the sex abuse scandal at Penn State I decided to look on amazon and in our library catalog to see if we had anything by or about Jerry Sandusky. There are 14 copies of his unfortunately titled autobiography, Touched, floating about according to WorldCat.
Penn State University Library owns a copy of Touched and it looks like they put the book in protective custody in “nocirc” archives. http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/gDK2F6pVmM/UP-PAT/123900211/123
I think the autobiography of an accused child molester called “Touched” qualifies as an awful library book.
I Want To Be A Football Player Baker 1972 Looking at the illustrations, I was going to guess this book was much older. I guess I should also cop to the fact that I am older than dirt and I
O.J. Simpson: Football’s Record Rusher
Felser
1974
Submitter:Hard to recall a time when “O.J. Simpson” connoted “great football player” in the zeitgeist. Oddly enough, he didn’t play for the (Ford) Broncos, but for the Buffalo Bills. This is the last page of the book, but I think there was more excitement in his life yet to come, even more exciting than a Super Bowl.
Holly: Ha! The “Ford Broncos!” That’s funny! 1974? What’s the point of a book about OJ Simpson from 1974? The chapter called “Feeling Sorry for OJ” takes on a whole new meaning now, doesn’t it?
Make the Team in Football Anderson 1961 My knowledge of football is limited to the fact that the Detroit Lions are unlikely to see a Superbowl in my lifetime. I cannot comment on if the rules of play have significantly
