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Book Review
The GM
Author: Tom Callahan
Review by Mark Lyne-Austen
25/1/2009
As the kind of American Football fan who frequents the footballdiner, the inside story of being a General Manager sounds perfect to me. Unforunately this book does not tell that story. Judging a book by the cover is not always what its cracked up to be. The GM is a biography of Ernie Accorsi, the long-time NFL personnel man and General Manager but it is about him and not the job.
Tom Callahan’s writing style is another let-down. He is technically correct in his structure and grammar at all times but his narrative is really weak. There is no underlying theme that holds the book together and it reads as a series of variously interesting anecdotes. Some of the anecdotes are ridiculously underplayed – why does the blockbuster draft deal that took Eli Manning to New York not feature as a major element? All the book reveals is that “Philip Rivers is good, Eli’s better.”
There are some interesting insights in The GM and I did enjoy the brief interlude with former Cleveland coach Marty Schottenheimer. Still, I wonder why a pick-up game featuring local kids merited a chapter to start the book off.
Callahan and Accorsi both appear to be baseball men. It shows. I have no idea who some of the baseball references are and why should I be expected to? I’m a football fan and I love the game, drop me some football bones. Callahan also writes up in-game drives as if it were baseball and frankly I skipped it quite often. I do read box scores, I seldom read drive charts even when I’m looking up a game. I don’t want to read 1-10-C28 Elway Passes Incomplete because it just doesn’t tell me anything.
I’m fairly sure that Callahan intended for this book and his account of Accorsi to read as a nostalgic trip through the eyes of a man who has seen it all. Instead, all that is offered up is Accorsi’s affection for various quarterbacks through the years. I want to know what the salary cap did to his business, what he thinks of the modern day athlete with their agents and personal advisers, what Accorsi’s views are on running a stable and successful franchise. Instead, I get that Tom Coughlin was real strict about people turning up on time.
I have read quite a few books on American Football. This is the most disappointing. Read You’re Okay It’s Just a Bruise because it is great and then read some other book on the sport because it is bound to be better than this one.
 
Diner Rating 2/10
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