Andra Douglas is the author of the new novel Changing Cadence: Friendship, Football, and the Art of Transition. It's a sequel to her novel Black & Blue. She is a former quarterback and former owner of the New York Sharks football team, and she lives in New York City.
Q: Changing Cadence is a sequel to your previous book, Black & Blue--why did you decide to write this new novel about your character Christine?
A: I didn’t originally set out to write a sequel. Black & Blue explored
identity, belonging, and what it meant for Christine to fight her way into a
world that didn’t necessarily make room for her.
But after that story ended, I realized I was still thinking about her—not during the victories, but during the transitions. What happens when the thing that defined you begins to change? What happens when the game slows down and you’re forced to figure out who you are without the uniform, the structure, or the constant motion?
That felt deeply human to me, and honestly, very familiar.
In Changing Cadence: Friendship, Football, and the Art of Transition, Christine is older, more accomplished in some ways, but also more vulnerable. She owns the New York Sharks and is facing the end of an era while simultaneously watching her mother and her friends navigate aging and reinvention in Florida.
The story became less about proving yourself and more about learning how to let go, evolve, and stay connected to the people who shaped you.
And thankfully, humor survives all of it.
Q: The tennis star Billie Jean King called the book “a love letter to those who are committed to being their authentic selves.” What do you think of that description?
A: First of all, hearing Billie Jean King say anything positive about my work was surreal. She’s someone who changed the landscape for women in sports simply by refusing to shrink herself to fit expectations. So that description means a great deal to me.
I think she understood that the book isn’t really just about football. It’s about the tension between who we truly are and who the world is more comfortable with us being.
A lot of the characters in the book—Christine included—have spent years adapting, surviving, compartmentalizing, or armoring up in order to move through certain spaces. But underneath all of that is this desire to simply live honestly and be accepted without editing themselves.
So yes, I loved Billie Jean’s description because to me, authenticity isn’t always loud or triumphant. Sometimes it’s messy, funny, uncomfortable, or deeply quiet. Sometimes it’s just finally exhaling.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title came from the idea of rhythm changing in life.
In football, cadence is the rhythm that starts the play. It signals movement, timing, readiness. But life also has cadences—family rhythms, career rhythms, emotional rhythms—and eventually those rhythms change whether we’re ready or not.
The book is really about learning how to move through those transitions without losing yourself.
There’s also something musical and emotional about the phrase “Changing Cadence” that I liked because the story shifts between humor and heartbreak, New York and Florida, competition and caregiving, endings and reinvention. The title seemed to hold all of that.
Q: What do you think the book says about the world of women’s tackle football?
A: I hope it shows how extraordinary and layered that world really is.
People often focus on the novelty of women playing tackle football, but what fascinated me was always the humanity inside it—the friendships, sacrifices, humor, heartbreak, obsession, resilience, and chosen family that developed around the game.
These athletes were balancing jobs, injuries, relationships, finances, and everyday life while playing a brutal, beautiful sport largely for the love of it. There’s something incredibly powerful about that.
I also think the book quietly asks why these stories haven’t been centered more often in sports culture. Women’s tackle football has existed for decades, yet so many people still react as though it’s some strange new concept. Meanwhile, the women involved have built entire communities and lifelong bonds around it.
The sport may be the backdrop, but the emotional stakes are universal.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m continuing to develop both Black & Blue and Changing Cadence for television and film, which has been exciting because the characters and relationships naturally lend themselves to that format.
I’m especially interested in preserving the humor and emotional complexity of the stories. I never wanted these characters to become symbols or inspirational slogans. They’re flawed, funny, sharp, stubborn, loyal people trying to navigate identity, ambition, aging, love, and belonging.
I’m also continuing to write. I suspect I always will.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Only that I hope people come away from the book feeling seen.
You don’t have to know anything about football to understand what it feels like to lose a version of yourself, to outgrow something you once loved, or to hold tightly to the people who helped shape your life.
And despite some of the heavier themes, the book is also very funny at times. The older women in Florida—the “Remoras”—might honestly steal the entire thing.
I’ve learned that humor is often how people survive change. That felt important to honor.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
