Another Reason to Abandon the NFL

I used to really enjoy watching football. It started with high school football when I was in high school and we had a winning team. It was so exciting to go to the games and cheer the team and swoon over the quarterback, on whom I had the biggest crush. I still enjoy high school football and will sometimes go to watch a game even now. No more crushes, but there is still just a bit of that school pride and excitement for the game that a spectator can absorb just sitting in the bleachers.

When we moved to Texas in the late 60's, I became a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and saw in some of those players - Roger Staubach, Lee Roy Jordan, Drew Pearson, Ed "Too-Tall" Jones, Robert Newhouse - that same love of the game and eagerness to just go out and play.

That has changed in more recent years, and I will admit that I have lost my football spirit. Sometimes I still watch a game with my husband, but I don't look forward to football Sunday like I used to. Part of the reason is that it has become about so many other things than the game itself. It is about salaries and who can make the most money. It is about bigger and grander stadiums, with ticket prices out of sight for too many people because of the stadium price-tag. And it has lost its sense of fair play and good sportsmanship.

In all fairness, maybe that last statement is too broad, but we can't deny that "winning at all costs" has superseded what used to be a sport of men who played with some sense of respect and honor.

That has become abundantly clear with the latest scandal that the NFL wishes would just disappear from the news. Last week the NFL released a report that said that for three seasons the New Orleans Saints had a bounty pool that was handled by a defensive assistant. The pool paid out for big hits that would take out an opposing player, and apparently the coaching staff of the Saints knew about it, as did the general manager.

According to an editorial in The Dallas Morning News, this practice is not limited to the Saints.

This is absolutely reprehensible behavior, and I, for one, resign from the role of being an NFL fan. I'll go watch a high school team when I start missing the game.

On another note. I have put my suspense novel, One Small Victory, up for free for today and tomorrow on Amazon. This is the end of Read an E-Book Week, and I thought I would celebrate by giving my readers a gift. Enjoy....

Book Review - Swept Away by Marsha Canham

Back in March when authors who are part of the Backlist E-Books group were participating in a special sale, the book that kept popping up as a best seller on Kindle lists right along with my One Small Victory, was Marsha Canham's Swept Away. 

At first I thought her book was another contemporary suspense novel, and I was really surprised to discover it is a historical romance set in Regency-period England. The story does have a mystery, and there are some suspenseful moments when the hero and heroine are in danger, but I had a hard time seeing a close connection to my book, until I thought more about the heroine of Swept Away.

Annaleah Fairchilde is a strong woman who wants no part of the conventions of society, and she finds an ally in her Aunt Florence, who long ago thumbed her nose at what is expected of a woman. While visiting her aunt, Annaleah finds a half-drowned, mostly naked man on the beach. She pulls him out of the approaching tide and he is eventually brought to her aunt's house, and her aunt recognizes him as Emory Althorpe.

Being a romance novel, there is of course the attraction between the two central characters, but the story also encompases a mystery and adventure. Emory is being hunted as a traitor to England, responsible for Napoleon's escape from Elba and suspected of a plot to save Napoleon from exile to St. Helena. Annaleah believes in his innocence and becomes involved in his attempt to discover the truth about himself and reveal the identity of the real traitor.

It may have been pure coincidence that our books were so closely together on those Kindle lists, but it also may have been because they both have strong women leads, and readers are always ready to cheer for a protagonist who steps up to the conflicts and challenges instead of sitting back and letting the men handle it all.

Swept Away is  a well-written book with a complex plot and lots of adventure. The historical aspects were well-researched and came across believable. I really liked the characters, especially Aunt Florence, who had some of the best quips in the book.

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FTC Disclaimer: I bought this book myself and made no promises to myself, or others, to do a review. It was just to satisfy my curiosity. The author may benefit from this review in that a few more people might buy her book, and I suppose in a round-about way that may benefit me if our books are still on some of the same best-selling lists. Perhaps I should go check.