My husband grew up in the Buffalo area, and is a life-long Buffalo Bills fan. He has told me stories about putting baked potatoes wrapped in foil in his shoes to warm them up so they would keep his feet warm during a frigid winter Bills game. We were intrigued to read in Sports Illustrated that former Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy had a novel coming out. I ordered it from my local independent book store (the Vero Beach Book Center) and we couldn’t wait to read it.
Between the Lies is Marv Levy’s first work of fiction. It is an entertaining, fast read that tells the tale of two coaches and the philosophy of two teams, set against the backdrop of an expansion team’s football experience. It culminates in a Super Bowl experience and the resulting revelations.
Marv Levy coached the Buffalo Bills during their record-setting four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, and knows his football from both coaching and front office perspectives. Football players’ names reference former greats (Kelly James/Jim Kelly, Elroy Johnathan/John Elway, Lonnie Mott/Ronnie Lott, Dan Beady/Don Beebe), and his description of football plays puts you in the game. It is easy to think his coaching philosophy mirrors that of Coach Bobby Russell.
Football fans (and fanatics) will enjoy the story both for the football and the behind-the-scenes peek of a football expansion team gearing up from scratch.
Non-football fans will enjoy the story for the moral struggle of one coach to hold true to his personal and coaching beliefs, not folding under the pressure to keep his job at the expense of the integrity of the game itself.
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