I Dream in Blue

July 30, 2007
The 2006 New York Giants were a team whose victories, though not plentiful, offered much hope, and whose ugly losses, far too plentiful, seemed oddly uncharacteristic for a team with such evident talents. Few teams were so frustrating, few talented teams had such poor chemistry, and few playoff teams made so many pivotal mistakes. If they weren't the championship team rabid fan Director clearly hoped for when he commenced this seasonlong memoir, the combination of the author's past Giant-related tribulations and the interest of a team imploding result in a diverting read. A fan of Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber, lukewarm but hopeful on Eli Manning and positively brutal on coach Tom Coughlin, Director suffers his way from the Albany training sessions through the promising 6-2 start and the bewildering 2-6 second half to the playoff loss to the Eagles. A more apt title might have been Director's frequent plea of desperation, “Someone make a play.” In his narrative, Director, a onetime editor of Sport
magazine and coproducer of the sitcom Mad About You
, combines the hangdog obsessive who is an axiom in such books with an otherwise cool veneer of a Santa Monica entertainment veteran.