Word: schaap
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...size of the book's potential readership, it seems hardly worthwhile to even bother writing it. But the financial rewards, if only temporary, can be considerable; the case and rapidity with which a collaborated autobiography can be put together are tempting. So it is not surprising that Dick Schaap, a well-known freelancer, has undertaken an "As told to..." book about New York Jets' quarter-back Joe Namath. And it is also not surprising that his effort falls short of its mark, plagued primarily by built-in style barriers...
...Wait Until Tomorrow... Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day makes no attempt to avoid the "potboiler" label. Schaap wrote it at the most opportune time possible-shortly after Namath had silenced his critics by engineering an improbable upset of the Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl game a year ago-and he consciously played up the personal qualities that had given Namath his notorious charisma...
...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 Granted, the time element threatened to make the book outdated if the author delayed longer than six months to have it published.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...