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Falling Starr by Stanton Green

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:50 am
by JKelly
Okay since no one has complained about my reviews and I received quite a few wished for books for Christmas I have another review.

When I received this book my first thought was uh oh what did I do. A quick flip through showed that the author included game by game stats and brief summaries for every game that Bart Starr coached from 1975 to 1983. So I though all I got was rehashed newspaper accounts. Well I was right and wrong the author does rely heavily on newspaper accounts but he also adds information gathered via interviews some of which he admits was for other books he wrote about the Packers.

I like this book but I can see that others may not. The reasons I like it is the subject matter was one that always fascinated me. I also wondered about this era in the Packers history. Why keep a losing coach for so long only to fire him when he finally starts to succeed? Other than the coach was a QB legend this book does provide insight into the other reasons. I also enjoyed it because it explained certain player acquisitions and why players were let go. In fact I wish it got into this even more. It also shows the interaction between Starr and the press, his dealings with his own staff, players and other officials in the Packers organization. It gives you a peek into a losing team why they lost and the dynamics of the club.

On the negative side I really didn't need paragraphs of what was going on with popular culture at that time. Fortunately they appear only at the beginning of each season so they are easy to skip. Also the way the book is put together is not very smooth not sure if that would fall on the author or publisher. However you can tell this book was written by a true fan who is very familiar with the subject matter.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and found myself scrolling through the box scores and enjoying that as much as reading the book itself. So if your interested in the Packers during the Bart Starr years as a coach get this book.