Story for the Week
I grew up watching football with my dad. He taught me the rules, the plays, the penalties, and I loved it. Despite the fact that the Chicago Bears have won only seven NFC championships and a single Super Bowl, they will always be my team. I know…I know. It was 40 years ago, but the 1985 Bears were freakin’ amazing.
With the legendary Mike Ditka as the hot-headed coach and led by Jim McMahon, the punky QB, the Bears went 15-1 that season. Payton, Butler, Singletary, Dent, McMichael, Perry, Duerson, Thayer, Gault, Fencik, Hampton…so many star players that year. They were so confident that they released The Super Bowl Shuffle, which a lot of people thought was cocky. It probably would have still been perceived that way if they hadn’t trounced the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
Once I lived on my own, I hosted Super Bowl parties each year. I lived in an apartment with a balcony, so I had built-in space for cold drinks. I moved my bedroom television into my small dining area off the kitchen so there were two viewing spaces because I crammed about 30-35 people into my 750-square-foot space. I ordered sub sandwiches and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, decorated like a football field with the team names on opposing sides. During halftime, we would cut the cake, and everyone regularly ate from the side they supported. And the day after the Super Bowl was a vacation day for cleanup and recovery. 😉
When I first started chatting with Dennis in 2002, I jokingly invited him to my Super Bowl party that year. He lived in New York, so I knew he wouldn’t be coming. But his response took me by surprise. He said he didn’t watch “American football” and called it a sissy sport. He didn’t like that there were so many stops in the action and that an hour of game play—which is actually less since the clock continues to run while teams are setting up at the line of scrimmage—takes three hours. And the size of the defensive linemen did not scream “athlete” to him.
Dennis grew up in Trinidad, so as far as he was concerned, the only “real” sport is football…aka soccer. His team became our team, and our team will always be Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. While the Spurs did just win the 2024/2025 UEFA Europa League Cup and have won quite a few trophies in their time, they have yet to secure the English Premier League title. That doesn’t stop us from supporting them, just like I still support the Bears.
In the past two decades, we have watched more soccer than football. Dennis and I went to a number of international friendlies over the years, and I learned to appreciate the pace of the game, which is much faster than the U.S.’s Major League Soccer. When Corinne was in Liverpool, she and her friends pretty regularly went to the pub and watched the games, and she came home referring to soccer as football. She got some looks when Tottenham beat Liverpool and she cheered, but she was not deterred.
Last year, we went to a Chicago Fire game that happened to be at the stadium just a couple miles away from us. It had been a while, and the $40 parking fee was a bit of sticker shock. We also left instead of waiting out a thunderstorm with lightning that forced the evacuation of the stands. The game eventually restarted, but we were soaked and decided to just go home. Despite being drenched, we had a great time and will likely go again.
We will continue to watch soccer at home because everyone in the house enjoys the game. But as I watched the Bears play well in their recent pre-season and with the regular season beginning next week, I realize how much I have missed watching. We have a relatively new quarterback and a brand new coach this season, so I feel like it’s a good time to jump back in.
It will be interesting to switch between the pace of soccer versus football. Soccer is basically done in 90 minutes, plus a few minutes of stoppage time. Unless it’s a championship game that has to go into overtime, games can end in a tie. Football comes in quick spurts of action, and broadcasts take three times as long as the actual gameplay.
The main characters in the book reviewed below compare the pace of soccer to football.
- “Soccer simply doesn’t have the excitement that football does. Sure, it’s infinitely more athletic—you won’t see any pro soccer players with beer guts—but ninety minutes with only a few scoring occasions can make the crowd lose interest.”
- “An agonizing three hours later, the game is still going. I know people criticize soccer for being slow because there’s not a lot of scoring, but American football takes forever. Too many commercial breaks.”
They’re not wrong, but I still love both sports. Maybe there’s a football romance series in the author’s future? 🏈⚽
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Zero to Hero by Kathryn R. Biel
310 pages
Publisher: Resilient Books
Publication Date: September 10, 2024
Purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
Andi Nichols shatters barriers as the first female head referee in a United States Soccer League match, poised to conquer any challenge thrown her way. But when boisterous player Brandon Nix questions her call, she faces unexpected turbulence.
Brandon Nix, the Boston Buzzards’ top scorer and notorious loudmouth, isn’t one to hold back, even against a female referee. Their clash ignites a viral firestorm, thrusting them into an unwanted spotlight.
Forced to collaborate to salvage their reputations with the league, they share one common sentiment: mutual disdain. Yet, as they navigate the public relations storm, their private interactions unveil a different story, one that threatens to upend their worlds.
************
Main Characters:
- Andi Nichols – first woman to work as a head referee for a men’s game in the United States Soccer League, also works remotely for a health insurance company, hopes to start earning enough as a soccer referee to follow that passion full-time, divorced from Mike Barnaby
- Brandon Nix – leading scorer for the Boston Buzzards in the United States Soccer League, started in the league right out of high school, has an image problem and gets thrown out of games a lot, his father manages his career only for the money
- Mike Barnaby – Andi’s ex-husband of four years after two years married, also a referee in the United States Soccer League, constantly second guesses Andi’s ability to referee a men’s game
- Hannah LaRosa – influencer and sports analyst on the video platform ClikClak, social media manager for the New England Patriots, dating Boston Buzzards captain Callaghan Entay who is also the goalkeeper for the U.S. National Team
I have really started to look forward to Kathryn R. Biel’s new releases. 😊 Biel caught my attention on TikTok when she posted a video about her first Boston Buzzards book, XOXO. Each book in the series features a player on the fictional U.S. soccer team and their, shall we say, “complicated” journey to love.
Third in the series, Zero to Hero features Brandon Nix, bad-boy top scorer for the Buzzards, and Andi Nichols, a referee in the United States Soccer League. In the first-ever regular-season men’s game to have a female head referee, Andi faces off with Brandon when she issues a second yellow card, resulting in a red card that ejects him from the game.
Andi stands her ground while Brandon yells in her face, but after the game, videos on ClikClak go viral with comments about the perceived sparks between them. Despite the fact that they pretty much despise one another, Andi receives a warning about fraternizing with players. Brandon ends up on probation because he spends so much time off the field due to ejections.
When both of them decide to take a weekend to visit family, they inadvertently end up on the same flight, which makes an emergency landing due to weather. Brandon, of course, gets recognized, and fans want pictures. Because he can’t help but antagonize Andi (who he has decided to call Andrew just to be annoying), he suggests that fans take pictures with her as well.
To make matters worse, Andi takes a FaceTime call from her ex-husband, and Brandon, jerk that he is, decides to walk behind her and say hello to Mike. It’s clear they’re in an airport, seemingly together, and once the videos from the fans hit online, they are viral once again. Suddenly, Andi’s job is on the line for fraternizing, and Brandon’s job is on the line because of his attitude.
If this isn’t a recipe for enemies to friends to lovers trope, I don’t know what is!
Biel specializes in closed-door romance, so nothing spicy. She also creates fantastic characters. It is clear that Andi fights to be successful in a male-dominated sport, and she is surrounded by men who think less of her because of her gender. To add to the plot, she uncovers the undisclosed pay gap between male and female referees doing the same job and decides to tackle it head on.
Enter Hannah LaRosa to help both Andi and Brandon salvage their images, and of course, they begin to see the other person’s private side, the cracks in both of their facades. Eventually, they start to realize they have more in common than they thought.
Romance is all about the happily ever after for me (despite some of the current debate on BookTok, BookThreads, BookWhateverOtherPlatform where people are trying to say it’s not required). The enjoyment is in the journey, and I really enjoyed this. Both Andi and Brandon need to let their guard down. Brandon, especially, needs to learn how not to be a jerk. (I called both him and Mike another word in the notes I made on my Kindle. 🤫)
Biel does great dialog too. At one point, Brandon tells Andi, “I can’t have you dying on my watch. I don’t watch enough Dateline to know how to dispose of your body without tracing it back to me. Just my hair alone will incriminate me. It sheds all the time.” I mean, fair point, Brandon. 🤣
Book 4 in the series comes out in October and is on my list to review in December. Each book is a stand-alone with some crossover characters. XOXO and You Belong With Me are ideal back to back because there is some crossover in their timelines, but Zero to Hero occurs after both of them in the timeline. These are quick, fun reads that you really can’t help but enjoy.
If you like physical books, Biel just re-released the first three books in the series with new covers so that the spines create a picture. I do not read physical books, but I do buy physical books, and these will definitely look cool on my book shelf.
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