R E V I E W
Title of Book: The Safety
Date of Review: 15/03/2021
- Publisher: Create
Space Independent Publishing Platform (June 20, 2015)
- Language: English
- Paperback: 332
pages
- ISBN-10: 150758556X
- ISBN-13: 978-1507585566
Author: P.E. Fischetti
About the Author:
P. E. Fischetti, born and raised
in the suburbs of Washington DC, attended Walter Johnson High School, and The
University of Maryland, where he earned a B.A. in Criminology and an M.S. in
Marriage and Family Therapy.
He currently lives in Silver
Spring, MD, with his wife of 34 years. They have two children in their
mid-twenties living in the DC area.
Presently, Fischetti is the
Creative Writer for Paul Fischetti Publishing and has his website address as www.pefischetti.com.
Previously, he spent twenty years
in counseling and another twenty years running two different businesses.
He ventured into full-time writing
in the year 2011, publishing his first book, The Big Train’s Backyard, in 2013,
followed by The Safety, in 2015 and Ms.Pretty Please in 2020.
Fischetti comes from a family who
has a penchant for playing sports and athletics and is the youngest of four
brothers. He is athletic, enjoys watching sports, and cheers for any DC area
team.
Shobana’s Note:
The Safety, published in 2015, the second book authored by P.E.
Fischetti after The Big Train’s Backyard (2013), is one of the most intensely written
sports stories that have successfully captured the imagination and heartstrings
of his readers.
It tells the story of Guy Finelli (Gaetano Anthony Finelli) and his inner struggle in
dealing with drugs, his involvement with the elusive drug Kingpin (The Turk), the murder of his FBI agent lover, and meteoric rise to stardom to be the greatest
Safety ever to grace the fields of football. He dealt a heavy blow when his football
icon, Sean Taylor was murdered while defending his wife and daughter in his
teenage years.
Safety, historically known as a safetyman, is a position in gridiron football played by a member
of the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up from ten to
fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage who can play as line-backers or deep
as normal safeties. ... Their duties depend on the defensive scheme. (Taken
from Wikipedia)
Fischetti’s third book, Ms. Pretty Please published in 2020, ends the
trilogy detailing the lives of the Finelli and Santucci families of Kensington
and Bethesda, Maryland.
As The Safety, Finelli outshone
his competitors with his panther-like quickness to the ball, lion-like strength
to tackle the runner in the backfield, and always held the football arena with
a suspense-filled game.
As he began to get
into the limelight with his prowess, when his team won with seconds to go in a suspense-filled game, Coach Favarro had tears in his eyes,
I should have known
you would be a block granite for me…I should have believed my eyes watching you
in practice all summer… I should have…
As with his other books, Fischetti begins his book with a historical
adaptation of how football began to take form in the lives of Americans.
During the Civil War
era, organized sports slowly replaced war between states, cities, and towns as
acceptable aggression between conflicting sides. Football was the most
combative of these aggressions. Football – the first attempt was a rough
combination of soccer and rugby - Rutgers University against Princeton
University – November 6, 1869.
All of Mr. Fischetti’s books to-date have a remarkable
account of facts that serve to intrigue as it clarifies. His in-depth knowledge
of dates and times often relates with candor to the characters that he outlines
with ease and creates an exactness to the stories he puts out to the world.
Guy Finelli as The Safety
is a powerhouse and reading his story gives one the feeling that the field he
steps onto is his foothold and that no other player comes to prominence except him.
He takes command of the whole game.
The man in Guy Finelli had
to face many tragic occurrences in his young life that leads to a trying time for
him to overcome. I think the most hurtful of them all was when he lost his love
to a mindless murder at a time when she was carrying his child. He makes wise
decisions within seconds, and while waiting for help had to perform a C-section
to save his child.
In Guy Finelli you find
the runaway too, the man who wants time off from his stardom or personal
disasters. The man who struggles inwardly to keep up to the success of a half-brother
who has risen to the highest ranks both personally and career-wise. However, in
Alex Santucci, he also sees his mental and physical support. He has never once
failed Finelli.
However, with love, dedication,
and his newfound love who he marries, not forgetting his precious love child
that he saved to keep a beautiful past alive, Guy Finelli is an emulation to
those who believe in the miracles of second chances.
Isn’t it interesting that
Guy Finelli chose to rise as The Safety – the last line of defense in football…
I highly recommend
this book for a great read to anyone, especially, fans of football.
The Game:
As no one can
summarize the game better than the author who is as passionate as he is knowledgeable,
as follows in Mr. Fischetti’s words, is the game eloquently explained:
From now on American Football is Football and Mayla Football is Soccer.
The only other kinds of Football are Australian Rules Football (which is more
like Rugby) and Canadian Football( which is like American Football with an
extra player, wider field, fewer downs, etc..)
As I state in "The Safety", Football was played between
Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. It was more like a Rugby & Soccer hybrid.
Soon it was played by Colleges all across America in post-Civil War times. The
rules were set up in the 1880s to make the game uniform.
The point of the game is to score by getting in the other team's end
zone and get six points. The field is one hundred yards with ten-yard end zones
for each team to defend. Total 120 yds. It is 160 feet wide or 53.3 yds(a
soccer field is 65 yds wide & 110 to 120yds long).
A team gets four downs after they receive the ball on a kick-off.
Generally, they have to gain 70 to 80 yds on a drive to score a Touchdown for 6
points. After a TD, they get to kick an extra point(1 point) from thirty-three
yds or a two-point conversion(2 points) if they score on a play from
the three-yard line.
Every series or drive, a team gets four plays to gain ten yards. Usually,
they punt the football on 4th down if they have not made ten yards and play
defense. If they make a first down by gaining ten or more yards, they get the
first Down again...etc.
A team can kick a Field goal if they get close enough, generally within
60 yards of the goalposts that are on the end of each end zone. That is worth 3
points.
A team can gain Safety(rare) and receive 2 points if they tackle the
other team in their end zone.
Each game has 8 referees to call penalties(which is annoying) but it
keeps players from blocking and tackling incorrectly, like holding, blocking
from behind, offsides, etc.
A game has 4 quarters of 15 minutes. The clock stops a lot for
incomplete passes and going out of bounds and team time-out. It usually takes 3
hours to finish most games.
The perfect game for advertisers and parties. Each play takes an average
of six seconds. But each play the team has to be set(not moving, with only one
man eligible to go sideways(in-motion). This takes ten to fifteen seconds, with
each team yelling out adjustments. The defense can move anywhere, except
crossing the line of scrimmage, before the play starts with a snap from Center
to the Quarterback.
On offense, five players make up the blockers, one QB & five
eligible receivers. the offense has to have 7 players on the line of scrimmage,
close to each other or spread wide. The number of formations is endless
but generally, the QB receives the football from the center blocker with two
outside receivers on the line of scrimmage and three players behind him or the
flank or slot.-the end-
