Word: schaap
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Schaap, apparently, attempted to make his book serve as a sort of Namath's Great Reply to the critics, and the arrangement of chapters alone shows...
...inevitable comedown-when his AFL champion team would be crunched by the NFL powerhouse Colts. The comedown, of course, never occurred. In the best Cassius Clay tradition, Namath brashly predicted a New York victory in the Super Bowl, then had the gall to actually bring it off. Schaap had his book...
...what causes "I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow..." to fall short of its potential is Schaap's hasty effort in writing it. Granted, the time element threatened to make the book outdated if the author delayed longer than six months to have it published. But other authors, John McPhee, for example, have created fairly competent accounts of other athletes within a roughly comparable time span. Schaap's biggest failure, it seems, is that he relied too heavily upon his experience in writing Instant Replay, with Jerry Kramer, in his effort to put together a similar effort on Namath...
...book, explains the crumbling of the Green Bay football dynasty in the late '60's, as seen by Kramer, a then recently-retired Packer lineman and kicking specialist. I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow recounts the embryonic construction of another dynasty, as seen by one of its creator. And Schaap falls easily into the trap of using a parallel style for the latter...
What is most irritating about Schaap's style is his blatant pandering to a narrow audience. One chapter entiled, "I Like My Girls Blond and My Johnnie Walker Red," is devoted to Namath, the stud, and one can just imagine the segment of America that fancies itself he-man. Schlitz-drinking, duck-shooting and hard-loving smugly saying, "Yeah, goddamn, Namath's one of US, Fcrissake...