Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love

by Cathy Day

In Comeback Season , Cathy Day, author of the highly praised novel The Circus in Winter, tells the heartwarming story of how she got back in the game of love -- thanks to her favorite football team, the Indianapolis Colts.

In 2005, Day, an Indiana native, moves to Pittsburgh to start her dream job. She's thirty-seven, a college professor, an acclaimed writer -- and still single. Psyching herself up, she thinks, "This is the year for the Colts and for me." Instead, both Day and quarterback Peyton Manning face heartbreaking end-of-season the man in her life decides to punt, and the Colts fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the eventual Super Bowl champs. Her blue heart broken, Day vows that if the Colts can come back in 2006 and try again, so can she.

Inspired by Manning's legendary perfectionism, Day spends the off-season "in training." She gets in shape, imagining that she's Rocky Balboa running through the Philadelphia streets to the tune of "Gonna Fly Now." She quits smoking. She reads dating primers. She watches Sex and the City. She takes notes. She asks everyone she knows, "Um, do you know any men my age who aren't married?"

Come preseason, Day reluctantly joins an online dating service and goes on practice dates while the Colts play practice games. Indy goes 1-4 in the preseason, which is better than Day's record of 0-4. Lonely and dejected, Day returns home to watch Colts games with her family, who are full of well-intentioned relationship advice -- much of it bad.

The 2006 season finally arrives. Each week that fall, the Colts battle a new adversary and Day faces her her own romanticism, indecisive men, and her biggest foe, the singles industry. Friends and family deliver impassioned pep talks but can only watch anxiously from the sidelines as Day marches bravely into bars and coffee shops to meet perfect strangers. On the way to the Super Bowl, she discovers that the key to winning -- in both love and football -- exists somewhere between Trying Everything and Letting Go.

Honest, touching, and frequently hilarious, Comeback Season tells a timeless story about our need to feel connected to people and to places. This year-long chronicle of one woman's journey will resonate with anyone who's ever looked for love...fumbled...recovered! and kept charging down the field.

Genres: Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 2008

About the author

Cathy Day was born and raised in Peru, Indiana, which is best known as a circus town, but is also the birthplace of Cole Porter and the Spanish hot dog. She is the author of two books. Her most recent work is Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free Press, 2008), an immersion memoir about life as a single woman set during the Indianapolis Colts 2006-2007 Super Bowl season. Her first book was The Circus in Winter (Harcourt, 2004), a fictional history of her hometown. She teaches at Ball State University. (Note: she only writes the occasional review on Goodreads. Mostly, she uses Goodreads to keep track of the books she's reading for research and for pure pleasure.)

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

You wouldn't have to be a football fan, or a single woman to enjoy this book. Cathy Day uses the intersection of these two truths of her life to explore a larger human truth: that an attitude of hope and persistence is both shaped by all our life experiences, and can be cultivated deliberately. For all that, it's a compelling read. The writing is clear and confident with equally effective descriptions of football, friendship, and dating frustration. As a memoir, it allows us entry to the author's experience while disclosing no more or less than is needed to suit her larger purpose. She committed herself to fit her story into a structure which follows the 2006 Colts season, and pulls this off with no hint of squeezing, stretching, or moving buttons. If you do happen to be a single, Colts fan and Hoosier, as I am, you are sure to love Comeback Season, if only to relive the joy of the 2006 AFC Championship game.

[Danielle Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I can relate to it both as a Colts fan who had to follow the team from afar, and as a woman who had to make choices about my professional life that impacted my personal life. This could have been a depressing read, but Cathy Day uses humor well to make it lighter. There were many moments where I laughed out loud, recognizing something I myself had done or said. I borrowed this book from the library, but I plan to buy my own copy because I liked it that much.I would never have thought of football as an analogy for dating, but it works. As a Colts fan, I enjoyed reliving this season!

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very well written and is a light, playful read. The author, an avid football fan, is looking for love. The book follows the Colts through their 2006-2007 season and compares their comeback season to her own love life. What I like about the book is that it is very honest. The author goes through the ups and downs of dating, using dating services and just the truth of being a single thirty-something professional woman looking for love. Being that I am a fellow Hoosier and a fellow Colts fan, it was really fun to read all the IN references and to go through that Colts season again.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent memoir. Cathy Day is in her late 30s, and having focused on her career for most of her adult life, she's realizing that she still wants to get married and have a family. Cathy embarks on her quest for a good man, which is suprisingly similar to the quest of the Indianapolis Colts: Cathy and the Colts are all seeking shiny rings (the Colts just want to win theirs in the Superbowl). Witty and funny and self-deprecating. A good read for any woman who wants to have it all and any woman who thinks too much about football.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having searched many years for "Mr. Right", I can relate to many of Cathy's struggles documented in the book. Luckily we both had happy endings!

[Michael Brockley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know what it's like to feel lonely. For me, "Comeback Season" is a masterpiece.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Hoosier and Colts fan, I had a special interest in this book. Still, I think women especially would enjoy Cathy's juxtaposition between football and dating. Fun read.