So I get home from work a few days ago, and I found a nice surprise in my mailbox from the good folks at Sports Illustrated Books. It was a copy of Peter King's new tome Monday Morning Quarterback: A fully caffeinated guide to everything you need to know about the NFL. Now, I know that I've had my differences with Mr. King in the past. . .well not with Mr. King, per se, but with some of the things he's had to say about our Beloved Purple over the years. However, the guy is where he is because he's a heck of a writer, and really seems to enjoy what he does. Hell, who wouldn't?
I've been reading furiously over the past couple of days, and the MMQB book is full of good stuff. A lot of it is a compilation of King's columns of the same name from SI.com, as well has some lists about "What I Think I Think." But he does include some good, original material in there such as his top 100 players in today's NFL. (Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen, Steve Hutchinson, Kevin Williams, Antoine Winfield, Bryant McKinnie, and Chad Greenway all made the list. . .but I won't tell you where.)
King makes lots of good insights, and many of you will be happy to know that the columns taken from previous SI.com entries are limited to just football. . .so, those of you that dislike hearing about stuff like girls field hockey and what he thought about the barista that served him his double-half whipped mocha-choca-latta ya ya he got from the Starbucks at the Denver airport can be spared such things. (Yeah, I worked a "Lady Marmalade" reference in there. . .big deal, wanna fight about it?) In my personal opinion, some of the best columns in the book aren't really football-related at all. . .if you read the story about the King family having to put Woody, the family dog, to sleep and don't get at least a bit of a tear in your eye, you need to check yourself for a pulse. But if you want football, football, and a little more football, King gives you plenty of that as well.
MMQB not only gives you some good, entertaining football stories, it also gives you an opportunity to look behind the scenes and gain a perspective that you ordinarily would get from a book about football. It's pretty light reading, much like King's column is, but you can sit back, read a story or two, and put it away at your leisure. This book will make you laugh and make you think as well. I know I've enjoyed reading it immensely thus far, and I've still got plenty of reading left to do to complete the entire thing. If you're looking for a good read about football. . .and, hey, the Vikings have a bye week coming up, so why not. . .you'd be well-served to grab yourself a copy of this book. Or, in honor of Mr. King, you could go to your local bookstore, get yourself a coffee, and read it in the cafe. Either way, some time with Monday Morning Quarterback will be time well-spent.