America's Game

Been reading "America's Game" by Michael MacCambridge. A short reprieve from Infinite Jest. America's Game is the story of american football's ascendance from a marginal sport played by homophobic millworkers to a America's signature sport played by homophobic professional athletes. Kidding aside, it's a fun book to read. Especially reading about the beginnings of the NFL around the time WWII was ending.

The author does a good job of describing how fragile and bleak the future of the game was back then. Reading about this time, I was reminded about the guy who started the International Federation of Competitive Eating. There are some parallels from a business standpoint. The IFOCE, in its early stages currently, is all promotion and a few competitive eaters grinding it out while still holding onto their dayjobs. It's basically a publicity machine now, promoting and runnning more than 100 events in all variety of venues during its annual circuit.

I'm also reminded of how popular tv poker has become. Makes me think there still might be hope for ping-pong and bowling with the right marketing and camera placement.

All in all, I'm gaining an appreciation of football that I never had before. Before there was Jackie Robinson, the Los Angeles Rams was scouting black colleges for players. I'm also getting a better understanding of the preciseness, strategy, and discipline involved in coordinating plays. I guess the more cerebral/finer things in life aspect of it. I'm looking forward to reading how the leagues starts organizing once it starts tasting mucho success.

Here's a picture of a professional entertainer kissing a lion:

Now, is this bad parenting or future career training?