Offsides! : Fred Wyant's Provocative Look Inside the National Football League [Hardcover]

Rene A. Henry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2001

Fred Wyant, who spent 19 of his 27 years in the NFL as a referee, gives the reader an inside the look at America's most popular sport. He lashes out at owners and coaches who allow players who perform on the field to abuse women, drugs and alcohol and break society's laws off the field. He asks: "Where are the role models today?"

He criticizes the greed of owners who want the public to finance their stadiums, discusses the pros and cons of instant replay, the influence television has on officials, names the calls in a game that officials miss most and why, criticizes TV announcers who do not know the rules and mislead their viewers and dileniates how an officiating team works and how each member of the seven-man crew is challenged with more than 1,500 decisions in a game.

The book is G-rated with no profanity and will appeal to children, women and sports fans of all ages.

Author Rene A. Henry blends Wyant's experiences with more than 75 interviews of sors leaders including Mike Ditka, Don Shula, the late Tom Landry, Lou Holtz, Marv Levy, Chuck Noll, Johnny Unitas, Peter Ueberroth, Sam Huff, Kellen Winslow, Sonny Jurgensen, Bart Star, owners Michael Brown and Dan Rooney and referees Jim Tunney and Red Cashion.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

This is author Rene A. Henry's sixth book. Amazon is currently selling "You'd Better Have a Hose if You Want to Put Out the Fire," the definitive book on crisis management and communications, "Marketing Public Relations -- the hows that make it work!," "Bears Handbook -- Stories, Stats and Stuff About Baylor University Football," and "How to Profitably Buy and Sell Land."

The current chair of the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America, he has had diverse careers in public relations, sports marketing and management, housing and construction, television and entertainment, politics, higher education, a trade association CEO and in government service.

He began his career as sports information director at West Virginia University when Wyant was the quarterback. His agency was the first in the U.S. to establish an international sports marketing division, he directed the global media campaign to bring the 1984 Olympic Games to Los Angeles and served as assistant to the president and on several committees of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He has received numerous honors and awards for his works, is a member of both the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has judged the Primetime Emmy Awards 10 times.

He received his A.B. degree in economics from The College of William & Mary and did graduate work in marketing at West Virginia University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (June 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738878952
• ISBN-13: 978-0738878959
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,454,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rene A. Henry has had diverse careers in public relations, sports marketing, housing and real estate, television and entertainment, politics, federal service, higher education and as a trade association executive.

He has created and produced award-winning videos and television documentaries and authored books on land investment, utility cogeneration, sports and public relations. His latest book, The Iron Indians, is about the remarkable 1953 William & Mary football team that lost only once in its first six games with only 24 players and 15 scholarships.

His two books on crisis - Communicating In A Crisis; You'd Better Have a Hose If You Want to Put Out the Fire - and Marketing Public Relations are used by professionals, professors and students. Offsides!, a book about officiating in the National Football League, was published in August 2001.

He received his A.B. degree in economics from The College of William & Mary, did graduate study in marketing at West Virginia University and has taken executive courses at Harvard University and Georgetown University law schools. In 2010 he was awarded the William & Mary Alumni Medallion, the highest honor the college's alumni association can bestow on a graduate.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the Inside on the NFL Official's Strike, September 7, 2001

By 

Rene A. Henry (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Offsides! : Fred Wyant's Provocative Look Inside the National Football League (Hardcover)

If you think coaches, players and fans have been upset in recent years over controversial calls by experienced NFL officials, how will they respond to 140 rookies? In "Offisdes!", which is available in hardcover and paperback, Fred Wyant says it takes at least 5 years to become a good NFL official. He notes that from 1991-1997 there was a turnover of 52% of the most senior and experienced officials who were not there to mentor the new recruits. Since an official is challenged with more than 1,600 decisions in a game, how is a rookie, with no mentor, going to respond? Also, ask Amazon to display Wally McNamee's award-winning photograph on the cover of Vince Lombardi expressing his feelings to Wyant. This was the White House News Press Photographers "Best of the Year."

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Info Poorly Written, April 1, 2009

By 

M. Schultz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Offsides! : Fred Wyant's Provocative Look Inside the National Football League (Hardcover)

This book contains great information about NFL officiating and Wyant takes you inside to some of the political manueverings in the NFL officiating office.

However, this book was poorly written. There were many grammar and surface errors.

This book is for hardcore NFL Official fans only, and be prepared for an adventure in proofreading misses.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Much to be desired, April 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Offsides: Fred Wyant's Provocative Look Inside the National Football League (Print on Demand (Paperback))

While the book provides some insight into the inner workings of not only pro-football, but of NFL officiating (the section on the actual duties of each of the 7 man teams is very interesting), whatever value the contents may offer is compromised by very poor writing (occasional awkward and disconnected sentences and paragraphs), a glaring lack of editing (an inordinate number of typo and spelling errors) and a format that is interruptive (relevant and not so relevant quotations are sprinkled throughout the text). The book is only marginally worth the time and cost.