Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter
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Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter (Random House Publishing, 2000) is a book written by Jennifer Allen about her late father George Allen (NFL coach) and her brother George, currently a (Republican Senator from Virginia). The book contains several sections about her brother's sadistic acts and selfishness. [1]
[edit] Quotes
- Ms. Allen explains her fear of heights in that “Ever since my brother George held me over the railing at Niagara Falls, I’ve had a fear of heights.” [1]
- Referring to George’s relationship with one of her boyfriends: “My brother George welcomed him by slamming a pool cue against his head.” [2]
- Jennifer wrote about her brother George: “We all obeyed George. If we didn't, we knew he would kill us. Once, when Bruce refused to go to bed, George hurled him through a sliding glass door. Another time, when Gregory refused to go to bed, George tackled him and broke his collarbone. Another time, when I refused to go to bed, George dragged me up the stairs by my hair.” [3]
- On George’s career aspirations, Jennifer wrote “George hoped someday to become a dentist. George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession - getting paid to make people suffer.” [4]
- George’s habit of terrorizing a Green Bay Packer fan in their neighborhood, Jennifer wrote that the fan’s mailbox often “lay smashed in the street, a casualty of my brothers' drive-by to school in the morning. George would swerve his Mach II Mustang while Gregory held a baseball bat out the window to clear the mailbox off its post. . . . Lately, the Packers fan had resorted to stapling a Kleenex box to the mailbox post to receive his mail. George's red Mustang screeched up beside us, the Packers fan's Kleenex mailbox speared on the antenna.” [5]
[edit] Reviews
From Publishers Weekly:
Journalist Allen evocatively chronicles her unusual childhood in this memoir about being the only daughter of the legendary football coach George Allen. George was devoted to his teams: the Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins. Jennifer and her three brothers knew to stay out of their father's way, especially if he had just lost a game or had had a run-in with one of the team owners. While George could bond more with his sons and take them along to training camps, the author stayed behind with her mother, a French woman who apparently spent most of her time building and remodeling homes while her husband lived and breathed football. Jennifer and her mother cherished their time together eating in the bedroom, watching old moviesAyet the young girl was troubled by her father's devotion to the game and his players at the expense of his children. Her descriptions of dinner table conversation make it clear that the household was not easy to survive in; George tried to rule the family in military fashion, with strict rules and regulations; when it came to the TV, he would watch a video replay of a game over and over while his family looked on in silence. Jennifer recalls some perks, however, such as having a limo take her to school and meeting some famous people. In this touching and often unsentimental story, George Allen emerges as a self-centered man who chose to sacrifice a normal family life for the sake of his career.
From School Library Journal:
To fans, football is a great way to pass a crisp, autumn afternoon. But for Jennifer Allen, it was the culture around which her life revolved. Her father, Coach George Allen, focused like a laser beam on the game. He never learned to spell his daughter's name correctly. He was never home for dinners or birthdays or Christmas. Jennifer recounts her life in short chapters as her father made the L.A. Rams a winning team and brought a championship to the Washington Redskins. The entire family kowtowed to his every wish and whim. Her brothers kept statistics on the sidelines; Jennifer's job was to turn the channels on the television so that her father could see all the sportscasts on the news. Her mother reveled in her public role as Mrs. George Allen, but mother and daughter relished the freedom they had when her father and brothers left for training camp. Jennifer's French mother, a chain-smoker who could swear a blue streak and find irony in every situation, provided the comic relief to her husband's intensity. In a loving look at life with a dominating, driven coach, Allen provides an inside look at football, life in the sports limelight, and the `70s as she grows from a child to a rebellious young woman struggling to find her place in the world.-Jane S. Drabkin, Potomac Community Library, Woodbridge, VA
[edit] References
Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter, Random House Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0812992326
