A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America's Favorite Game [Paperback]

Mark Oristano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Want to know what everyone is cheering about? Learn to enjoy and understand the game with the football fanatic in your life. This book is the ultimate football guide for the novice fan. You will get answers to such complex questions as:. What is that yellow line on the field and why does it keep moving?. What down is it and why do I care?. What is a "T formation"?Laced with hilarious and insightful anecdotes from Mark Oristano's thirty-year career as a pro football sportscaster, [i]A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football[/i] will turn you into a football-watching pro, or at least, let you fake it.[i]Time Out:I was in the locker room before a game, and I saw an Oilers linebacker furiously drawing on his shoes with a permanent marker. This player, like many, had his ankle tape applied over the outside of his shoes instead of inside, which obviously covered the shoe logo. And he was drawing the logo of his shoe contract on the tape."Wouldn't it be easier," I asked him, "to get taped inside and not have to do the artwork?"Yeah, it would," he replied, "but then I'd actually have to wear their damn shoes, and I hate 'em. So I wear the brand I like and do it this way instead." [/i]

Editorial Reviews

Review

Offense, defense, the referees and the rules, what the numbers on the football jerseys mean re their position on the team - the 146 page book covers it all. -- Book Bird Dog blog

A Sportcaster's Guide to Watching Football is a small volume - less than 150 pages. Stocking stuffer size, really. But I don't know that I have ever read such a clear explanation of the various positions and how they relate to one another. -- Lisa Hura/When Falls the Coliseum blog

Short, yet packed with useful information. This is the guide for those that want to know more about the game yet don't have a lot of time in front of the TV to figure it all out. --Bookchatter.net

About the Author

Mark Oristano spent thirty years as a professional sports broadcaster. A die hard Cowboys fan, he has worked on both the Houston Oilers and Dallas Cowboys Radio Networks, including the Cowboys' win over the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. His long and varied career in broadcasting includes stints as a TV sports anchor, sportswriter and radio show producer for NFL Films.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Synergy Books (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982160119
• ISBN-13: 978-0982160114
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark is a 35-year veteran sportscaster whose assignments have included work on the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers radio networks. Mark was one of the broadcasters for Super Bowl XXX between the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's also worked for NFL Films, the Dallas Cowboys P.R. department, and numerous radio and TV stations.

His first book, A SPORTSCASTER'S GUIDE TO WATCHING FOOTBALL, was published in 2009. He's at work on a second and, without spilling too many details, it has nothing to do with sports, and lots to do with hearts and surgery.

Mark's on-air colleagues have included Verne Lundquist, now the CBS voice of college football, who hired Mark at WFAA-TV, Dallas in 1973; Oprah Winfrey, with whom Mark co-anchored in Nashville at WLAC-TV in 1974-75; Ron Franklin, now with ESPN, who shared the Oiler radio booth with Mark from 1978-1981.

Mark was born in New York City in 1952, and moved to Texas in 1970 to attend Texas Christian University, gaining a BFA in Mass Communication in 1974.

He left broadcasting in 2002, and is currently a much sought-after portrait photographer in Dallas, as well as a successful actor. His daughter Stacey lives in L.A., and continues the family football tradition as a cast member on FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on NBC-TV.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recruiting the Latent Fan in Everyone, August 6, 2009

By 

Don Chappell "Don Chappell" (Arlington TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America's Favorite Game (Paperback)

Mark Oristano has done us a great favor in laying out and explaining the basics of an already beautiful and accessible game so that we can make it more so. What's even better is that Oristano's easy going conversational style makes the book delightful and smooth to read. His stream of consciousness is not so tight as to remind one of reading technical journals; it is lubricated by parenthetical wise cracks, the occasional pun, and a self depreciating style.

To keep the main text on track without too many tangents, Oristano has intentionally placed a lot of his best material into sidebars. One class of sidebars is labeled "Cool Thing to Say During the Game". This may or may not be directly helpful depending upon how self-confident you are. (Remember, Mark Oristano is a professional actor as well; he's far more comfortable delivering lines when he doesn't have the slightest idea of what he's actually saying than you and I would be!) But indirectly, these canned comments will prove to be very helpful to the new fan. Trust me - someone nearby will say exactly what Oristano has written. When one of these old bromides, like "They put pointy ends on the football just so it will make those funny bounces!", is passed around and it will be as familiar and comfortable to you as it is to everyone else

My favorite sidebars are the one's labeled "Time Out". This is where Oristano's sportscaster heritage really shows through. Most of them are first person accounts of some funny or poignant encounter that he's had with professional football players or their coaches. My personal favorite is the speech given to rookies every summer by Gene Stallings, long time defensive secondary coach for Tom Landry's Cowboys. I dare not say more for fear of ruining it for you. The poignant "Time Outs" typically deal with the injuries and the players' responses to them and they serve to point out to the new fan just how fast, strong and tough the players in the NFL really are.

A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football is a quick, smooth read. It will prove to be a great way to introduce latent fans to the game. As such it should enjoy a very large, but specific audience. It will prove to be a disappointment to any who buy it for any other reason. This book gives good value to the reader who wants to make the game more accessible to someone they care about and with whom they wish to enjoy the Sunday, Monday or Thursday Night game.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Football 101, November 11, 2010

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America's Favorite Game (Paperback)

This is an enjoyable & quick read on what is (in my mind) the greatest game ever invented: FOOTBALL! The author is a lifelong sportscaster who has an affinity for the Dallas Cowboys & the former Houston Oilers.

The book is filled with humerous Maddenesque football anecdotes that are sure to bring a smile to your face. Oristano also clarifies some of the nuances of the game to the layman without surrendering his sense of humor.

Perhaps the biggest criticism of the book is that it may be a bit too basic for avid football fans. For a more technical look at the inner-workings of pro football, I would highly recommend Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look. I found Kirwin's book to be far more illuminating than the present one.

The perfect target-audience of Oristano's book would be wives who want to learn more about football in order that they may understand their husband's obsession with the game. Young people who know little to nothing about football will benefit a great deal from the present book as well.

That said, I would still encourage football fans of all ages & genders to give this book a read. The beauty of it is that it can be read cover-to-cover in one sitting. Hence, even if it doesn't tell you a lot of stuff that you don't already know, it still won't waste your time. Also, some of the author's stories are sure to bring a smile to your face, too. All-in-all, it's a very fun read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very basic, December 1, 2009

By 

Brooks Johnson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America's Favorite Game (Paperback)

I was not really sure how many stars to give this book. It is not bad if you don't know anything about football. I stress that you must have zero understanding to get anything out of this book. If that is the case you will probably enjoy this and learn a lot. But I don't think the editorial reviews tell you how basic this book is. I was hoping to increase my understanding of things like Cover 3 and the Wildcat and instead got a book that was meant for people that don't know what to call the guy who throws the ball or what 1st and Ten means. Too sum up for me this book was a one star but for my wife it is probably worth 5 if I can ever get her to read it.