Quarterback Dads. Teddy Greenstein with Donovan Dooley.

 

Quarterback Dads.     Teddy Greenstein with Donovan Dooley. 

Wild Tales from the Field.   Wise Words for Players and Parents.

 

Kids play organized sports, and it is a growing, burgeoning industry.     Parents are known to lend their support to their sports-playing children, often traveling long distances and many hours so they can participate in the games.  And then some parents provide their support to another level altogether.    This is where the book, Quarterback Dads, fits into the cottage industry of developing young athletes in hopes of reaching a potential seen sometimes only by the overly appurtenant parent.  

The author is Teddy Greenstein, a long-time sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune and his co-author is Donavan Dooley, a real live private quarterback coach to students of all ages.   Overzealous parents do not have to have their children participate in football games to be a “quarterback dad”.    This could easily apply to any sport such as baseball, tennis, soccer or even rowing.   For this book’s purposes it is all about football and its most important position in the sport, which happens to be one of the most critical positions in all team sports, quarterback.   And their “supportive” parents.  

The idea for the book was born from the overwhelming number of parents seeking training for their sons to become better at playing the position, sometimes at ridiculously early ages even, all in hopes of greater rewards such as starting quarterback in high school, earning a college scholarship, and even reaching a pay for play level.  Co-author Donovan Dooley operates a quarterback training business in the greater Detroit Area.    His experiences and interactions with all kinds of quarterback dads seemed to serve as the impetus behind the collaboration with Greenstein, who helped bring those ideas to life in this paperback.    

Early in the manuscript chapter three attempts to define a quarterback dad.  Dooley put together a list containing fifteen different types of quarterback dads.  Twelve of them are not flattering.  Some of the problematic behaviors include the expected bragging dad, the not in touch with reality dad and the over-the-top dad.    For those fathers taking their roles into another level, they might fall into the categories such as the stat hungry dads, the gym rat dads and then the really not in touch with reality dads.   According to the authors it is possible that some quarterback dads morph into a variety of types throughout the child’s quarterback development.    It is not all bad, though, Dooley outlines a few parenting types that are better adjusted such as the helpful dad, the hands-off dad and the coach dad.     

Upon reflection of completing the book, it seemed as though reading about the over-the-top parent’s behavior or idiosyncratic tendencies was far more interesting than the “low key” parents (entirely fathers in this case study) or those who seemingly “did it the right way”.  In reality, the average parents are appropriately supportive of their athlete offspring.    One wonders if there is a book to publish without the colorful parent behavior noted by Dooley at his quarterback camps and those skillfully documented by Greenstein.       

One of the most impressive attributes of this book is the fact that Greenstein was able to cite stories from many well-known parents in the world of football.   In fact, the book covers interviews with football luminaries such as Archie Manning, Kurt Warner, Todd Marinovich and Warren Moon.    One of the most insightful parents is the former college quarterback and one time college head coach and current college football analyst Rick Neuheisel.    His story and experiences are relayed later in the book but Neuheisel, who also happens to hold a law degree from USC, provides sagacious advice for how parents may go about comporting themselves when attending their athletes’ games, practices or even camps.  

Neuheisel asserted to stress the positive and hold off on critical feedback particularly after a bad outing.   For the good games “revel” in the euphoria.    He even goes on to suggest evaluating what can be learned from the experience and analyze why it happened and how it can be avoided from happening again particularly if the game performance did not go well.    One other token suggests that parents may consider sitting away from the action where they can’t be heard in the distance “because you’re gonna say things you cannot believe will come out of your mouth”. 

This was a fun, light and easy book to read.   Each chapter contains a new set of insight from a host of interesting characters including coaches, scouts, trainers, parents and even the players.    The book contains 28 chapters and a brief postscript that fits nicely into 210 pages.   One of the testimonials on the back side of the book suggests that this is a guide for how NOT to do it when it comes to raising a star athlete.   One does not have to be the parent of an athlete, a coach or even a sports fan to appreciate the many lessons and messages that are skillfully put on display for the readers' enjoyment and for some a much-needed reality check. 

 

You might like to read this book if you are a football fan.

You might like to read this book if you are a quarterback trainer.

You might like to read this book if you are a football player.

You might like to read this book if you are a football coach or parent of a player.

Read more about the author on X:   https://x.com/TeddyGreenstein and/or https://x.com/QuarterbackUniv