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Football is for Lovers, Bob and Kaye – Author Guest Post

Can learning about football be sexy? According to Football is for Lovers, when it comes to your love life, football can be better than oysters.

The good news is that Football is for Lovers makes the basics so . . . well, so basic that learning the game is easy as eating an ice cream cone. And just as much fun.

With anecdotes, illustrations, and a lot of laughs, Football is for Lovers not only makes it easy to understand the game, but also shows you how to put an end to the TV clicker wars, improve your relationship, and spice up your love life.

It just takes looking at the game of football a little bit differently.

Then again, since Football is for Lovers contains references to football great Jerry Rice in a pink tutu, images of paintings by French artist Jean Dubuffet, an alert about the dangers of speaking Northeastern Mandarin, an explanation of the value of M & M's in a relationship, and a Burma Shave sign, to say it looks at football "a little bit differently" may be something of an understatement.

But if your football-obsessed partner has been making you a 'football widow' from August NFL pre-season through the February Super-Bowl, thus convincing you that you hate football, this little book may be just the 'different look' you need to discover that, after all, Football really is for Lovers!

AUTHOR GUEST POST...Feeling like an outsider in your own home? As your dearly beloved leans yearningly toward the TV, hypnotized by the action, hanging on the football commentator’s every word, nodding his head in mute communion with phrases like ‘intentional grounding’ and ‘shotgun,’ do you find your eyes glazing over?

It’s hard enough to follow the chaos.  If they just spoke English, it would help.

But don’t roll your eyes and leave the room. Again.  Hey, you live here, too. And if this stuff sounds more like gibberish than jargon – YOU’RE RIGHT!!!

Moreover, you’re in excellent company.

The first definition of ‘jargon’ in Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary is “confused, unintelligible talk or language; gabble; gibberish.”

Oh, he acknowledges, way down in his fourth definition, that jargon is also “the specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same work, way of life, etc.”

The point is, jargon can be used to include (when it’s used in Webster’s fourth sense) or to exclude when it’s used in his first.

Now, we’re not accusing your dearly beloved of deliberately using jargon in the exclusionary sense. Although . . . well, let’s just say that for those who like the feeling of knowing more than other people, jargon can definitely be a big help.

But it’s also true that when you come in late and miss the information before it gets coded into jargon shorthand, you’re naturally at a disadvantage.

So if you didn’t learn the game at your mother’s knee, jargon is gibberish. And not only to the brilliant Mr. Webster.  Obviously, then, it’s nothing you need to apologize for.

But. Is it nevertheless something you need to know if you want to share The Football Experience with your beloved?

Actually, no.

Look, you might become curious about some terms as you get familiar with football-watching. At that point, it’s the responsibility of the jargon-savvy mate to clarify things for the jargon-disadvantaged half of the duo.

Good relationships work that way.

But without knowing anything more than the name of the game – maybe not even that, except it helps you find it in the TV Guide – you really can understand what’s going on.

Football is, after all, color-coded. Opponents wear different color uniforms, so pretty much all you have to do is watch the ebb and flow of opposing colors. The score is writ large on the TV screen, and if you pay even a modicum of attention, you’ll see the points at which the score changes, and in whose favor.

Personally, we think a lot of this ‘I can’t understand football’ is less about jargon and perceived chaos than about that old ‘he loves football more than he does me’ thing.

So stop rolling your eyes, sit down next to him in front of the TV and watch the colors go cavorting by. Before you know it, you’ll automatically begin to relate the jargon to the action it matches on the field. It’s sort of like that old Berlitz technique where you go to a foreign country and just sort of absorb the language.

And while you’re waiting for the jargon to become your native tongue, enjoy the scenery. And the company.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Bob Brooker and Kaye O'Dougherty have been adventuring together for a lot of years now. They first met at a recording studio on 42nd Street. Yes, that 42nd Street. They recorded a commercial for E.J. Korvette's, who went out of business soon thereafter.

Bob is an old saloon singer who, as Bobby Brookes, recorded for Victor and Capital back in the day. Kaye has trouble carrying a tune in a bucket. Nevertheless, over the years, as Brooker and O'Dougherty, the two have collaborated on a variety of theater projects, performing, writing, directing, managing, and producing. In keeping with the changing times, they have even created a cyber alter-ego named eBobb.

Recently, Bob and Kaye both took long-overdue turns at being rather mature college kids. Kaye now holds a Bachelors Degree in the Humanities from St. Peter's College in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Bob was graduated magna cum laude from Montclair State University with a BA in Theater, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

You can visit their website by going to FootballforLovers.com or their blog by clicking here.