The Man Who Ruined Football

A 52-year-old walk-on placekicker who never misses is the premise of this slight tale. In 1982, Vic Waller, an insurance man from Fort Worth, walks into the office of the Dallas Cowboys' Tom Landry and asks for a try-out. After Waller nails a 109 -yard field goal, the Cowboy brain trust signs him on the spot. Soon Waller is a national sensation--he appears on TV and on the covers of Sports Illustrated and People magazine; he falls in love with a young woman named Ellen Wade. But this astounding success has serious implications for the game (and the business) of professional football. Because the Cowboys can score on every possession, they never lose. With chance and the human factor out of the game, attendance and TV ratings plunge. The Cowboys of course reach the Super Bowl but, once there, experience a significant set-back. Brooks, a Texas columnist and author ( Column Write! ), offers no surprise, nor earned suspense. What the readers expect is exactly what they get, nothing less, and nothing more. (Aug.)