(#43) / John Elway: Armed and Dangerous / by Clay Latimer / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

John Elway: Armed and Dangerous / by Clay Latimer

ISBN-10: 1-886110-53-0 / Addax Publishing Group

p. 240 / $14.95 (Retail)

1998

Body of Content

Summary: The book is a biographical look into the life and career of John Elway – the legendary quarterback for the Denver Broncos football team – predominately playing through the 1980s and 1990s.  The book starts with his personal life – noting his strong relationship with his father, a college football coach on a rival team.  The book goes through the NFL Draft and early Super Bowl losses.  As the book talks in more depth, Latimer walks readers through Elway’s style and talent under the coaches of Dan Reeves, Wade Phillips, and Mike Shanahan.  The book takes readers through the highs and lows of Elway’s storied career – filled with interviews and quotes.  The book is predominately narrative in themes and content, but it does include 20-30 pages worth of pictures of Elway in action.  

Critique: The book is largely narrative in form.  It does contain a few metaphors throughout its course.  One heavily emphasized simile was the comparison of John Elway to a “gunslinger”.  The imagery is used throughout – the book even devotes an entire chapter to his favorite weapon – “The Arm” – demonstrating the key to his NFL success (p. 10).  Elsewhere, the western simile continues to find resonance as the author notes that Elway was “John Wayne in cleats” (p. 18). Elsewhere, Elway is comparable to other quarterbacks who are fellow “gunslingers” – like Packers-great Brett Favre (p. 202).  The imagery helps produce a picture of Elway – of an independent, football-throwing player capable of wild-west ideals and miraculous fourth-quarter comebacks.  Elway was the face of the franchise for many years and continually carried mediocre teams deep into the playoffs with his gunslinger of an arm.      

Teaser: A storied quarterback’s humble beginnings to his Cinderella conclusion – the career of NFL-great John Elway.

Information about the Author: Currently, Latimer is a freelance writer, though he worked as a sports writer for the Rocky Mountain News for the better part of three decades.  While a newspaper writer, Latimer covered Nuggets basketball and Broncos football.  Education wise, he attended the University of Colorado (Linkedin, 2011).  

Latimer other works include biographies about the lives of Mia Hamm and Muhammad Ali, along with Special Delivery: The Amazing Basketball Career of Karl Malone.  Other topical books in sports include It’s 3^rd & Long So … : 101 Ways to Improve the Game of Football and VIP Pass to a Pro Basketball Game Day: From the Locker Room to the Press Box (and Everything in Between) (BookFinder, 2011).

Supplemental Material

Genre: Sports / Biography

Curriculum Ties: Math – statistics / Physical Education – football, game theory, coach-player dynamics

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Before Tim Tebow, there was one quarterback in Denver who held the sway over the hearts of all those within Colorado. 2) How many wide receivers can you name who caught a pass from John Elway? 

Reading Level: Male teens will likely generate more interest to this football title than female teens – best suited from all ages of high school (15-18).

Challenge Issues and Defense: The book is pretty clean – I would not expect any challenges – though some may come from Raiders fans – though those challenges are not based upon the book’s content, per se.

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: I grew up watching the Broncos play.

Last Thoughts

References:

BookFinder. (2011). Clay Latimer [Webpage].Retrieved from http://www.bookfinder.com/

search/?st=xl&ac=qr&src=dir&author=Clay%20Latimer

Linkedin. (2011). Clay Latimer [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/pub/clay-

latimer/10/687/245

Listening to (Music):

Artist – David Crowder Band / Album – “Church Music”