Monday Night Romance: Scoring with our favorite football movies
Welcome back to Monday Night Romance! Romance author Tracy Solheim and book blogger Kim Lowe are back from their scouting trips. (OK, we were really attending conferences, but there was still some cover model scouting being done!) We're into the second half of the NFL season when records are falling and standings are being shaken up. Professional football is not without some drama, much like the films out there that portray the game and its players.
Kim: I recently attended the New Jersey Romance Writers (NJRW) conference. I took advantage of Amtrak's Eastern corridor for a stress-free train ride through the rolling hills of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. I caught the hotel shuttle from the station — the driver was a diehard Jets fan. We chatted about MetLife Stadium, home to both the New York Jets and the New York Giants. I laughed that the beloved stadium is located in New Jersey. The driver assured me both sets of fans were willing to drive across the Hudson River to celebrate football.
Tracy: Let's hear it for those fans who travel across the pond to see their team play! If Londoners have their way, the NFL could have a team based there by 2022, meaning that eight regular season games would be played outside the United States. Fans in Europe are excited about the prospect. I received an e-mail last week from a reader in England who had attended her first game of "American" football at London's Wembley Stadium. She told me she went to the game because she'd been reading several sports romance novels featuring football players, including my Out of Bounds series. This reader thought it was fortuitous that one of the teams playing in the NFL game was the Atlanta Falcons, my home team. Unfortunately for the Falcons and their fans, this wonderful reader who is a football novice enjoyed the game more than we did! But that's a whole other story.
Kim: When I came home from the weekend conference, I vegged out in front of the TV, only to find The Replacements on cable. The 2000 football film starred Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman and Brooke Langton. It was filmed in Baltimore's own M&T Stadium. This "underdog" movie didn't break records at the box office, but it was entertaining just the same. Hackman, as the substitute coach, closes the film, "When the Washington Sentinels left the stadium that date, there was no tickertape parade, no endorsement deals for sneakers or soda pop, or breakfast cereal. Just a locker to be cleaned out and a ride home to catch. But what they didn't know, was that their lives had been changed forever because they had been part of something great. And greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man. Every athlete dreams of a second chance, these men lived it." That is the spirit of the sport.
Tracy: I remember watching the actual replacements that movie was based on — the Washington Redskins! All was forgiven when they started winning. I like my football movies to be based on real-life players or teams. My kids and I always enjoy watching Remember the Titans (based on a high school team) or Rudy (based on Notre Dame football). But my all-time-favorite football movie always will be Brian's Song — the original 1971 version starring Billy Dee Williams as Gayle Sayers and James Caan as Brian Piccolo. It's the heart-wrenching true story of two Chicago Bears players who defy 1960s racial boundaries and become friends until illness takes one of them away. I STILL cry every time I watch it.
Kim: The Replacements put me in the mood for "second chance" heroes. I am looking forward to reading Tule Publishing's Holiday at Magnolia Bay by Tracy Solheim (smiley face). A Navy SEAL is given a second chance to grab life with a marine biologist at a turtle sanctuary. What's not to love about a military hero, away from the military, on sandy shores with a compassionate heroine?
Tracy: Thanks, Kim! I hope you and the rest of the readers like my holiday offering. I have to say that I love reading the second-chances trope in a romance novel. One of my all-time favorites is easily Lisa Kleypas' Again the Magic. I cry at that one every time, too. Rachel Gibson has some fun ones including Simply Irresistible. And of course, there's always Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook. The first second-chance book I read was Paradise by Judith McNaught. Her book was one that inspired me to write my Second Chance series that debuts with Berkley next year. There's something about putting two people back together again after life has roughed them up a bit and watching them rekindle the magic! Kind of like those Replacement players, huh, Kim?
The party continues on Kim's blog, SOS Aloha, including a chance to win a tote bag of books and swag from the NJRW conference (Jets fan not included).
Tracy Solheim is an avid sports fan who writes football-themed romance for Berkley Sensation. See what she's up to at www.tracysolheim.com.