Overall rating: (2.6 of 5.0 possible.)

Available through: www.barnesandnoble.com

If I were forced to describe this book in one word, the word would pretty much have to be "Huh?"

The author, a man named Jack McCarthy, has probably been on a football field once or twice in his life. He might even have coached, but he sure never bothered to learn the rules of the game. In his book he made not one, or two, or even three major errors regarding the rules, he made seven foul-ups.

I don't want to ruin the fun and entertainment you'll get out of digging the mistakes out yourself, so here are three of the most glaring errors:

Pg. 16 - On the subject of the neutral zone, the line of scrimmage is actually the width of the football wide. Only the center's head may break the plane of the point of the football. The author states that a defensive player may enter this area as long as the defender "gets back" before the snap. This is a clear error. As long as the youth organization uses National Federation of State High School Associations Official High School Rules, any defensive player entering the neutral zone prior to the snap is guilty of encroachment. Whether he gets back or not is completely irrelevant. Coach McCarthy has obviously been watching too much TV, because the rule he cited is an NFL rule.

Pg. 30 - Coach McCarthy goes into great detail on the cross body block, almost as if it were commonplace, instead of merely illegal. Throwing your body across the path of a running defender is also a good way to get hurt. Coach McCarthy manages to come up with a few of those ways in his book.

Pg. 35 - Once again we're told, in explicit detail, about the legality of defensive players crossing the line of scrimmage before the snap. What's even dumber about this mistake is that Coach McCarthy actually cites the NFSHSA at the end of his book in figure 50A, which is a pictorial list of the referee's arm signals.

Coach McCarthy makes other lapses in judgment as well. On page 25 he describes the snap count as "...a valuable opportunity. It is the 'edge' the offense has." I know there are coaches out there that might disagree with me, but in my experience and research, a changing snap count tends to get more gains for the defense than it does for the offense, because you will jump offsides at least once a season, but will your 'edge' get you those five yards back? I don't think so. The argument can of course be made that a variable snap count can draw an ill-trained team offsides, but as I have mentioned before, you cannot control the training or confusion level of the opposing team. That responsibility is their coach's.

Going further, Coach McCarthy makes another error, this time about the history of our sport on page 38 where he informs us that Teddy Roosevelt helped to bring about the forward pass. This comes as a shock to those of us who know that President Roosevelt was responsible for the elimination of the "flying wedge", a play that resulted in major injuries. He outlawed the wedge, and changed the game of football. The forward pass had been around for quite a while prior to this alteration.

Also on page 38, is an extremely poor description of a proper tackle. No mention is made whatsoever of the tackler's head and where it should be, and the author obviously allowed poor tackling on his football teams because of the phrase, "The defender should try to get a shoulder into the runner, but he can't be choosy. He must muscle the runner down any way possible..." This might be acceptable on Coach McCarthy's team, but it certainly isn't going to wash on my teams.

Not everything that Coach McCarthy brought up is completely bad. On page 25 he discusses the importance of an explosive first step, and laying into the defender "...before he can move a muscle." Also, the chapter on desire is well written, and may help you evoke this elusive trait in your players.

Unfortunately, use of some of the techniques advocated by Coach McCarthy may get your kids injured. For example, on page 44 the author actually recommends the use of a jump pass to get more power from the quarterback's arm. In the first place, this technique fell out of favor eons ago when it was discovered that the jump actually robs power from the throw, and in the second place, any time your feet leave the ground you risk having a defensive player dump you. Pinwheeling to land head first is not generally enjoyable.

The author recommends leaving your feet again on page 47. This time he wants his receivers to jump after balls to make the thrown ball's flight seem "smoother". While I agree with Coach McCarthy that the pass should be caught at its highest point, I was taught as a high school defensive back to turn any receivers in the air into dog food. Again we come to a pinwheeling impact with the ground. On the offensive side of the ball, we were taught to leap only when it was the only way to make a play.

Further into this section on passing, the author mentions that "few youth football teams bump the offensive ends or wide receivers at the line of scrimmage." He recommends using a "shiver and shed" technique to get free, but unfortunately forgot to describe this technique.

Coach McCarthy does not offer a playbook in this book, although he does briefly describe a few plays. His versions of what constitutes certain positions is entirely at odds with mine, but this is a semantical argument at best.

I'm the very first person to admit that I'm not easy to please. I'm certainly no expert on the subject of football (but I have a web site, so neener neener!). I consider myself first and foremost a student of the game, and it irks me that an author could make so many mistakes involving the one aspect of football that is perfectly clear: the rules. Conversations about which offense or defense is the most effective for youth football revolve around opinions of the people involved, the coaching ability of the various members of the discussion, and other variables. Conversations about the rules have a deciding factor: the official rule book used by almost 90% of the youth football leagues in America.

Coach McCarthy may simply have been a coach in one of the other ten percent, but this does not excuse his wanton assumption that the aberrant rules used by his league are the norm.

I was not what you could call impressed with this book. Although the author provides some good information in a number of areas, his lack of knowledge of the rules of youth football, rampant desire to use dangerous tactics like the jump pass and cross body block, and his inability to tell the difference between youth level and the NFL make this book only an average example of coaching material. I do not recommend that rookie or inexperienced coaches purchase it because of the large number of inaccuracies, and the experienced coaches will probably find that their own knowledge of the game is superior to Coach McCarthy's, at least as much as this book is any indication.

I give the book the following scores:

Readability: 3

Getting through this book was a nightmare for me. I'm not particularly certain why that was. The writing style wasn't particularly dense, nor was the thinking overly constipated, but for some reason I found myself wishing I could curl up with a Pruscht biography or read Grapes of Wrath instead. I think the main problem was with the material, which is really quite basic, and not presented in an insightful or incredibly interesting way.

Usefulness: 2

One of my beefs with this book is the author's clear design, presented on page two that this book is primarily for parents to help coach their sons. Personally, an important part of my meeting with parents in the preseason revolves around asking them to please refrain from coaching their sons at home. Playing catch with them is fine, but I do not want dad, who last played football in 1977 as a sophomore in high school, trying to tell his son how to make a correct tackle or block. Even with, make that especially with, this book as a guide, a parent's knowledge of the sport is not likely to be greater than that of a coach who has been studying football for years.

Practicality: 3

I found few of the drills to be of great use. Tom Bass's Play Football the NFL Way is a much better source of drill material. The book contained practice plans that were very vague and general, which I suppose is normal considering that the book advocates no particular offense or defense. They might give you some ideas, but certainly aren't a good listing of the how and when for a youth football team.

Overall score: 2.6

Don't bother. For a few bucks more you can get Jack Reed's book, and even if you are a parent trying to understand the game, you'll get a better understanding of the sport, more knowledge about what your son's coach is trying to do, and a more effective way of spotting coaching abuse if you purchase Coach Reed's material.

By the way, I don't work for Coach Reed. I just own everything he's ever written on coaching football, and I think it'd be cheap at twice the price.