(Little, Brown, $29)
This behind-the-scenes portrait of a mediocre 2011 NFL team “may be the best book I’ve ever read about football,” said Mike Pesca in NPR.org. Beginning in January that year, journalist Nicholas Dawidoff spent virtually every day as an embed with the coaches and players of the New York Jets—a team that had hopes of reaching the Super Bowl 12 months later but managed only eight wins in 16 games. But if you happen to be a Jets fan still hunting for a scapegoat, Dawidoff may disappoint you. He emerged from the experience a deep admirer of the dedication exhibited by nearly every man he met, from the data-crunchers to the star cornerback. “If the coaches worked until 3 in the morning, Dawidoff worked until 3 in the morning”—then slept on a couch, like the rest of the gang.
Dawidoff seems to have had an “all-access pass” to every meeting, practice session, and game-time conversation, said Mark Leibovich in The New York Times. For all he learned about X’s and O’s, though, he puts his spotlight on the human drama, as gregarious head coach Rex Ryan works to build a passionate, family-like bond among men engaged in a merciless sport. “Losing locker rooms are usually more interesting than winning ones,” and Dawidoff’s reporting proves the maxim again. Ryan and his assistants “chase after glory” but “run on regret,” said Julian Benbow in The Boston Globe. Dawidoff glimpsed what fuels them when he once was allowed to call defensive plays during a preseason game. One of his calls led to an interception that the Jets returned for a score. “I felt like a kingpin who’d been sampling some of his own product,” he writes.
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All of this is “excellent stuff,” said Jeff Pearlman in Newsday. “If you’re a football fan who simply wants to understand the inner workings of an NFL franchise,” Collision Low Crossers is the book to buy. Still, there’s a deep flaw in Dawidoff’s pages that goes unacknowledged: It’s late 2013—so “why the heck would anyone want to read a tome on the 2011 Jets?”
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