David Elfin |
Q: How did your latest book come about, and given all the
years that you’ve covered the team, was there anything that surprised you as
you researched the book?
A: This book was different from my other books—the others
were self-generated, either with co-authors or on my own. They were basically
self-published; we were working with this organization since the 1990s and they
have a deal with the printer. The first book published was with two other
writers, and they also published my next five books.
The last book before this was in 2004—The Ultimate
Washington Baseball Trivia Book—as the Nationals were coming to Washington. It
bombed. Not that many people had been living in Washington when the other teams
were here, or were under age 10 at that time. So I had all these books in my
garage. A couple of books were big hits, a couple were duds.
MVP Books in Minneapolis was doing a series of books on NFL
franchises. They approached another writer, who passed the project on to me.
This was in the summer of 2010. I was given an advance. The team had been so
lousy. I had to write 70,000 words in four months, while working full-time
during the height of football season, raising two kids, taking care of the dog.
A lot of it was in my head, a lot of it was in books I’d already written, but
none had taken the Redskins back before 1961 at D.C. Stadium.
I was researching the first 30 years of the franchise. 1962
was the first year they had a black player. The stadium was on federal land,
and the Kennedy administration [got involved]. Every other team had a black
player. The owner was a racist. There was no other team south [of D.C.] until the
Cowboys. There are still Redskins fans in South Carolina, North Carolina,
Mississippi, because their parents were fans. In the late 1930s, early 1940s,
there were no black players [in football], and the Redskins were one of the
best teams. Then they declined; from 1945-1971, the Redskins were not in the
playoffs. That was [one of the reasons].
Q: What do you think of the controversy over the name of the
team, and do you think owner Dan Snyder will ever change it?
A: This has been going on for a long time, since Jack Kent
Cooke was the owner. It goes back to 1992, when the Super Bowl [Redskins v.
Bills] was held in Minneapolis, and there’s a Native American population near
there and people came and were protesting; there was a lawsuit.
I’m not sure what’s prompted the [discussion at this point].
Maybe it’s because now they’ve made the playoffs, and they have [quarterback]
Robert Griffin. Eventually they could lose, and lose their trademark. Dan
Snyder wants to make as much money as possible, and you’d think it would be
more lucrative—the team would look like the good guys [if they changed the
name], and they could sell a lot more souvenirs with a new name on them.
It may take moving back to D.C. and the federal government
getting involved. But I see no signs unless they lose a court case that it will
change. Colleges [that have changed their team’s names] are different; they’re
more PC, or an alumni says something.
Q: What has the reaction been to your latest book?
A: It came out in 2011; it did very well. In general, the
reaction has been very positive, considering the team went 5-11 that year and
Robert Griffin was not here. It helps that [former player] Art Monk wrote the
foreword. I covered the team [when he was playing] and we have a Syracuse
connection. The book signings would be me and Art Monk. People said, Oh, YOU
have to sign it? I’d say, Well, I did write the book! It helps to have a very
popular player in the Hall of Fame at book signings! I have a fairly objective
chapter on Dan Snyder. Their [team] book is sold in the team stores. [Mine] has
done fine, considering. It’s a hardcover coffee-table book, and my others were
paperbacks. The publisher found great photos for the book.
Q: You’ve covered football and a variety of other sports. Do
you have a favorite?
A: Baseball was my first love growing up. I fell in love
with the Redskins when I was 11, which was the same time we lost the [Senators]
baseball team. In football, every game means so much. It’s one-tenth the number
of games that there are in baseball. As excited as everyone was about the Nats’
[win on opening day], they would have to go 10 games like that to equal one
football game. Every game in football means more; when the stakes are higher,
it means more, and it’s more fun. There’s really something American about it
too.
Q: Are you working on another book?
A: No, I’ve mulled a number of ideas [but am not working on
anything right now].
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: With the first book, we were all relatively young
journalists. It was called Hail to RFK!. It was the last season the Redskins
were playing at RFK, where they had been so great. But 1993-95, they were
lousy. ’96 was a little better—they were 7 and 1, and then they lost the last 6
of 7 games. That’s when the book was coming out. We had a deal with the
Redskins to sell books at the stadium on December 22, 1996. It meant nothing
[in terms of the playoffs, etc.]. The Redskins crushed the Cowboys, and people
were so hyped to have anything that said RFK on it, that the books were gone
before the game even started.
The next book [America's Rivalry! The 20 Greatest Redskins-Cowboys Games] came out the following year, about the
Redskins-Cowboys rivalry—both teams didn’t make the playoffs, and the book
tanked.
[Another book] was about Maryland basketball. 2001-2 was
their last year at Cole Field House, and they won the national championship.
The athletic director wrote the afterword, and the coach, Gary Williams, wrote
the foreword. It was sold at Cole Field House, and the book sold like hotcakes.
In April, they won the championship. Two months later [at a banquet], Lefty
Driesell was coming back on campus. I wanted to thank him for being a part of
the book. I talked to him, and Gary wasn’t there, so I was getting ready to
leave. Then he shows up, and grins, and asks why [Maryland] won the championship. He
said, Book sales! It’s been fun doing these books. It’s not like I’ve ever had
to write about something I don’t have a connection to.
No comments:
Post a Comment