Quarterback
Dad
A Play by Play Guide to Tackling Your New Baby
by Bobby Mercer
 Combining my two favorite
loves, kids and football just seemed natural for me. The book
approaches fatherhood using a language that guys understand-football talk.
This book will be published
by Adams Media and is scheduled to come out in March, 2008
Introduction
From the time you are born, you learn
about sports—the games, the rules, the playbook. Teachers and coaches
drill you on the finer points of your particular sport, assuring you
that if you play by the rules; you will succeed. A good player always
succeeds. Picture yourself grown up, standing in the delivery room as
your child is born and carefully handed to you. During that first
moment of wonder, you feel the fear of a new parent-- what are you
supposed to do with this new human? What are the rules? Where is the
playbook? With all the babies born last year, not a single one came
with a playbook, leaving many new fathers on the sidelines trying to
figure out how best to get into this game.
Football is the most
popular sport in America. Taking
a lighthearted approach to fatherhood, this book
will approach the phases of becoming
a father as though it was a typical football season, with need-to-know
advice sprinkled throughout. As a football coach for 20
years, I learned many of the skills necessary to help mold a
successful team: organizational skills, the ability to talk to people,
the ability to cajole, persuade and even, dissuade kids from certain
behaviors, and the importance of planning. The transition to being a
dad became easier when I realized the same skills needed for having
and raising a baby were those I had already learned through football.
This book will help many dads learn these same skills. It will be like
your mom hiding medicine in your pudding when you were a kid. Guys
want to be good dads; they just need a little help. This book will be
your guide.
You only get one chance to
raise your kids. That is the single most important thing you should
remember. In a PE
class it may
have been okay, but there are no ‘do-overs’ in raising kids. As one
anonymous NFL player told me,
“close the
laptop, turn off the television, look your kid in the eye, and listen
to them”.
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