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Friday, August 17, 2007

Pick, pick, pick

I'm reading Double Down by Tess Hudson (another name for Erica Orloff, in case you don't know) and so far it's following a more gritty tone, which is aces by me because I think that's what I'm in the mood for. The heroine is a compulsive gambler trying to earn her thirty day coin with Gamblers Anonymous and failing miserably since she lives in Las Vegas. Her sponsor is a disgraced former NFL-er who got kicked out of the league for betting on games.

My problem? His nickname is T.D. - for touchdown.

What's the problem, Wendy? Touchdown = NFL. Um, yeah, except this guy is a former offensive lineman. How the heck does an offensive lineman get a nickname like that? Maybe he's a such a good blocker that he opens up huge running lanes for the running back? But then wouldn't the running back be nicknamed T.D. since he's the one actually scoring the points? Generally speaking, guys on the O-line block. They can score touchdowns but only under certain conditions:
  • They recover a fumble and run it in
  • They catch a deflected pass and run it in
  • They declare themselves as an "eligible receiver" - which means reporting to the referee before the play is snapped
Outside of these instances, if an O-line guy touches the ball it's a penalty. Penalties are bad folks.

So it just seems really odd that Hudson would give her character this nickname. I mean, sure a guy on the O-line can score a touchdown, but it's hardly an every day thing. I mean, it's usually an oddity, or trickery the coach whips out in the hopes of surprising the opposing team. Frankly, guys on the O-line have enough on their hands with blocking, they don't have time to worry about catching the ball as well. That's why they pay wide receivers.

More believable nicknames for offensive lineman would follow along the lines of Ox, Bubba or Tank. But I'm giving Hudson time. I'm only 30 pages into the story. She very well could explain the nickname later on. Maybe he scored one touchdown in his entire career and it happened in the Super Bowl or a playoff game and a nickname was born?

Either way, the lesson here is girls watch sports too. Authors, do your homework.

4 comments:

tvaddictgurl said...

Thank you!!!! I just read a baseball themed romance where the team played one game and then had a 2-3 off and then played a couple and another couple off. Basically I liked the book, but being a HUGE baseball fan myself that just pulled me right out of the book and made me wonder if the author had ever looked to see what an MLB schedule actually looked like.

Gwen said...

Wendy - I was decidedly UNDERwhelmed with Orloff's "Blood Son" that came out on Nocturne earlier this year. So formulaic it should be a chemistry text book. A chem book might have been more interesting.

Oh the lines of "author do your research," I was reading "Tall, Dark, & Cajun" a while back when I read the heroine was in the kitchen "peeling okra". DOH! I went, "Ewww! Slimy!" Hey author - YOU DO NOT PEEL OKRA! It's a small thing, but to us Southerners, an important one.

Wendy said...

Gwen:
I loved Orloff's The Roofer, which was a Mira trade paperback from a few years back. Double Down is very similar in tone, so I think I'll really enjoy it once I get past my nitpicking :)

TV: Since my team all seems to be suffering from the flu, I do kinda wish that's what the MLB schedule was like in real life.

RandomRanter said...

Yeah, the only excuse for this I can come up with is if his initials were TD which would be too easy to pass up even if he was a kicker. Hopefully the rest is good enough to make up for that.