Montgomery? Crimson Tide?

Working my way through Sal Paolantonio's book, How Football Explains America, and there's good and bad. The concept is solid, and some of the research is interesting. The repetitive nature of some of the copy makes me think it would have been best served as a series of magazine articles -- the same text cycles in a way that tends to pad chapters.

I like his points about the expression of manifest destiny and the zeitgeist of America built into the game.

But, if you're going to be one of ESPN's lead analysts for football, you really need to know that the University of Alabama is not in Montgomery. When speaking of Bart Starr, who was born and raised in Montgomery, didn't play his games there.

"But this was before Paul 'Bear' Bryant was brought home to coach Alabama, and Starr's final two years in Montgomery did not go well."

Sal, you do know the SEC closest to Montgomery is Auburn? I'd like to think this was a bad proof reader at the publisher, as there were correct references to Starr's birth place, then a following reference on the next page that was vague enough to not say they had confused Tuscaloosa and Montgomery.

It's the most obvious factual error in the book, but Paolantonio plays a little loose with his historical interpretations during the turn of the 20th century cross overs. Trying to tie the start of football to Davy Crockett, linking American's desire to associate and group together to the invention of the huddle and equating the Patriot's signal stealing scam with America's victory at Midway -- these are a bit of stretch. No, seriously:

"Yes, let's call it what it is: you've got to try to steal their signals. Don't be squemish about it. It's the American way. How do you think America won World War II?"

Sal, that's not the American way. That's the military way. The Germans were stealing British intelligence, the British were reading American mail, the Japanese were infiltrating the Hawai'ian island. But not halfway down the same page:

"But equating football to actual combat is an affront to anybody who has ever served in uniform."

Then why in the world did you, Sal.