End Zones and Border Wars by Ed Willes

[ArgoRavi]

Has anyone read this book yet? It is about the U.S. expansion era and all the wild and wacky stories that came out of that time. I wasn't even aware of this book until I saw Damien Cox mention it in one his columns this week. I am looking forward to purchasing and reading it.

[paulwoods13]

My copy is on order. Can't wait to read it.

[ArgoGabe22]

Never knew a book like this existed. Thanks for sharing Ravi.

[argonaut11xx]

Got my copy today, through amazon.ca

very excited to delve into it...

thanks for letting us know about it...

[jerrym]

If anyone has read the book, could he/she give me their impressions of it? I might end up buying it myself.

[argonaut11xx]

Just finished the book. Very much enjoyed the stories, and especially the memories it brought back.

Its a snap shot of the expansion era, and some of the crazy wild stories around each new franchise, the book finishes up with the re-trenching into Canada. The last few pages are about Grey Cup 96 (which i attended in the hammer).

(Lots of focus on the '94 cup, not so much on '95)

Best CFL book i've read this year. (but im sure what appears to be Paul's book, wrapped up under our Christmas Tree will be far superior.

As an aside, i found the writing very "simple", and there was an over-use of "swear-words" by the author (not quotes), but thats just my take.

Because its a CFL book i'd give it an 8 out of 10, however if the same author wrote on another subject, im not sure i'd make the purchase.

[paulwoods13]

Just finished the book. Very much enjoyed the stories, and especially the memories it brought back.

Its a snap shot of the expansion era, and some of the crazy wild stories around each new franchise, the book finishes up with the re-trenching into Canada. The last few pages are about Grey Cup 96 (which i attended in the hammer).

(Lots of focus on the '94 cup, not so much on '95)

Best CFL book i've read this year. (but im sure what appears to be Paul's book, wrapped up under our Christmas Tree will be far superior.

As an aside, i found the writing very "simple", and there was an over-use of "swear-words" by the author (not quotes), but thats just my take.

Because its a CFL book i'd give it an 8 out of 10, however if the same author wrote on another subject, im not sure i'd make the purchase.

I hope you get mine, too! It has some swear words, but all of them are in direct quotes. (I'm expecting Ed's book for Christmas, so I won't be able to report my impressions for a several weeks.)

[ArgoRavi]

I just finished this book last night and quite enjoyed it. While I had a general knowledge of many of the stories Willes recounted, he was able to provide further details that I did not know. Obviously, there are some funny stories about the U.S. expansion teams but there are also some good ones about the '94 Lions who were as dysfunctional as they come. For those who haven't read this book yet, you won't believe what Lui Passaglia did to teammate James Jefferson during that season.

[gilthethrill]

I will be ordering this book in the near future. I always have shelf space for a football book. I want to know what happened to the Miami Manatee franchise. That made Larry Smith and the CFL look bad.

[ArgoRavi]

I will be ordering this book in the near future. I always have shelf space for a football book. I want to know what happened to the Miami Manatee franchise. That made Larry Smith and the CFL look bad.

I think that you are referring to the Orlando franchise rather than the proposed Miami one. The Orlando debacle is addressed in the book. The Miami one never really went anywhere - and isn't discussed at length in the book - although the Stallions and Barracudas played a preseason game at the Orange Bowl in 1995 IIRC.