The Galactic Football League series features huge Humans, as well as other species. One of my goals in writing this series was to draw attention to just how big players are today are compared to, say, 50 years ago, then try to realistically project how that steady growth could produce absolute giants in the future. […]
6-foot-8, 370-pound 8th Grader — GFL material?
Kiyaunata Goodwin is a large young man. He’s currently 6-foot-7, 370 pounds (200cm tall, 168 kilos). But wait, here’s the best part … He’s 14 years old. He’s in the eight grade. The eighth grade. That’s him in the picture at right, playing against a typical eight-grader. Pretty impressive, is it not? Here at the Galactic […]
GFL self-chilling “MagCan” becomes reality
Ancestors of John Tweedy, rejoice! The self-chilling “MagCan,” a staple of Ionath Krakens linebacker John Tweedy and his brother Ju, has leapt from the pages of science fiction and into the modern world. Joseph Company International is pimping the dream of every hapless beverage-imbiber presented with a cooler- and fridge-free dilemma — the “Chill Can,” […]
Awesome, inclusive gesture by the All Blacks
The GFL series is a metaphor for the racially unifying power of sports. Sports has done so much to bring different cultures together. The New Zealand rugby union team, the All Blacks, has used their new jerseys to make a statement about inclusiveness in general, with a focus on supporting the LGBTI community.
Watch the video. This gesture is not only touching, it’s a significant leadership stance on acceptance in the larger sporting world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sLLEdBgYYY
If you want to know more about the All Blacks storied history, check out their Wikidepia page.
This post brought to you by the “GoDaddy Coupon” CJCSIGLERC, which gets you a new dot-com domain for just 99 cents.
Good list of scifi/sports stories
This list does not include the GFL series, but if you’re on this website we assume you know all about that already. This list was compiled on the Tor/Forge blog to celebrate Super Bowl LII (the Eagles notched their first Super Bowl win, prevailing over the Patriots 41-33). Want to check out some sweet books, […]
Eight-thousand-pound racing mechs? Yes please!
In the GFL novella THE RIDER, jockeys pilot ten-ton dinosaurs (and other primitive, alien monsters) in a violent bloodsport. Arenas are torn asunder by the punishing battles of armored pre-historic beasts battling it out in a quest for glory. But since we can’t make a living T-Rex (yet), what option do we have for a […]
SciFi Sports: STARSHIP TROOPERS
Recently on StorySmack (a podcast hosted by me, Scott Sigler, and AB Kovacs), we covered the 20th anniversary of the scifi movie classic STARSHIP TROOPERS. Love it or hate it, this flick has endured as a lightning rod of science fiction cinema. One of the things that makes the movie stand out for me is […]
32 Years Ago This Week: Joe Theismann’s Leg
If you follow this blog, you know Scott has been a football fan for as long as he can remember. He talks about some of his earliest memories being of sitting on his father’s knee as Coach Sigler reviewed films of his team’s games. It’s no accident that the Galactic Football League grew out of Sigler’s scifi and sports soaked brain.
Me? I wasn’t really a football fan until Sigler forced me to pick a team in 2009. “Have to root for someone, have to have a team.” So, I picked the New York Jets on a whim. Or so I thought. As it turns out, just like so many other fans, I was probably strongly influenced by my family’s football fandom, even though I didn’t know it. My brother is a Jets fan, even though I distinctly remember how he loved the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers. (Heck, even today I know that team included “Mean” Joe Greene, Lynn Swann, Donnie Shell and Terry Bradshaw. I couldn’t tell you why they were so important to Jude way back when, but he talked about them enough that I remember their names.)
My stepdad Jake (aka my Fairy Stepfather™ for how much goodness and grace he brought to our family) is also a Jets fan. More than that, he’s a fan of the whole game. He is a true blue member of the Gang Green Nation (the Jets Fandom) but is also the type of fan who is happy to watch whatever game is on TV once his team is done.
This is how it came to be that on the day of one of our very first meetings we were watching football on TV. My brother was super excited to have someone to watch football with; my Mom was excited her kids were getting along with her beau; and I was pretty excited about the massive sausage and cheese plate that Jake had prepared for Monday Night Football. (Hey, a girl’s got to know her strengths!)
And just about as soon as it began, my nascent football fandom was crushed. Or, more precisely, broken just below the knee. A quarter into the game, New York Giant Lawrence Taylor crashed into Theismann on the 42 yard line at RFK Stadium. The hit broke the two bones in Theismann’s lower right leg, with one of them breaking through his skin. It was a career-ending injury for the Washington Redskins’ quarterback, and unsurprisingly put the brakes on my interest in football.
While I don’t think anyone could blame me (I was a 14-year-old girl convinced that she would someday meet and marry John Taylor from Duran Duran afterall) I think I’m just as surprised as anyone that I remember so much of that moment so vividly.
It would take 24 more years for me to come back to the sport through the Galactic Football League. I ended up bonding with my Pops not over football, but rather over science fiction, and his abiding love for Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, which certainly helped when the football/scifi crossover THE ROOKIE came into my life.
Big thanks to our longtime sponsor “GoDaddy Coupon” page, which helps make this free podcast possible.
“Madden Cam” for all: the NFL finally buys in
The Thursday, November 16 NFL tilt between the Tennesee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers could be a ground-breaking experience for football fans — at least those who have never played the Madden video game franchise. That’s because “Madden Cam” will be the primary viewing angle for that clash. “What’s Madden-Cam?” you ask? It’s a view from […]
Sale on full-cast audio dramas of the GFL series
Graphic Audio has adapted the GFL series as a full-cast audio drama, with over 30 actors playing the various parts of Quentin Barnes, John Tweedy and the gang. They are having an overstock sale on audio CDs. At $10 a pop, that’s 50% off their normal price. And if you buy six, you get a […]