Balls: A Novel

by Nanci Kincaid

BALLS is the story of a college football coach, his rise, his fall, and his fallback position. You could say BALLS is the story of a coach's kick-off, his first, second, and third downs . . . and his punt. But BALLS is a coach's story that belongs to the coach's wife. To her, and to his mother, his mother-in-law, his daughter, his assistants' wives, his players' mothers and girlfriends, and even his players' grandmothers. It's the women standing behind this handsome football hero who tell the story behind the headlines of Mac Gibbs, Birmingham University coach Catfish Bomar's star quarterback, who married Dixie Carraway, the beautiful homecoming queen. Set in Alabama, home state of the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, BALLS is told by fifteen women and one little girl touched by Mac Gibbs's fall from fame as a college quarterback to infamy as head coach of the Birmingham University Black Bears. It's told in those women's voices, from their seats in the stands. They watch the other women, worry when players are slow to get up off the ground, pray when players are carried off on stretchers. They don't care much for the "science" of the game--or its brutality. They see football as it really is--sexy, dirty, sweaty, painful, empowering, corrupt. The story they tell is often funny and not always pretty, as the view from deep inside rarely is. This is a novel that moves with the force of a fourth down charge, and shimmers with the tears of the women waiting outside the locker-room door when the game is lost. The author, twice a head coach's wife, knows whereof she writes so brilliantly. She also knows a lot about love. And BALLS is, above all, a love story.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Southern, Literature, Sports

409 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[John Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this book contained a subtitle, it would be "The Rise and Fall of Mac Gibbs." The rise and fall are told from the perspective of several women in Mac's wife, including his wife and daughter, his mother and mother-in-law, the wives from the various football coaches and the mothers of several black athletes. The novel begins with Mac as the quarterback of a winning Alabama college football team. Although good, he wasn't good enough to be picked up by the NFL. However, this did not seem to bother Mac because his desire was to coach. Beginning as a high school football coach, he advances to an Alabama university and eventually becomes the head coach. As a coach, he continues the reputation as a winning football team through the recruitment and development of the team players. Much of his time is spent with public relation opportunities and courting monies from sponsors. However, his passion for football is at the expense of his relationship with his wife and children. It is also a novel how a man's love for football costs him his integrity.

This novel's structure reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible in that a primary character's story is told through the perspective of those who love him. The various voices included in this book provided a clear description of these characters as well as Mac Gibbs. If your hesitation of reading this book was like mine because football is central to the plot, please don't let this defer you. It is actually about a man whose obsession causes him to lose perspective regarding what is truly important, your family.

[Lauren Denton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently this is my fourth time reading this book. and like last time, I still love it. Can’t believe the similarities between this and Friday Night Lights. So glad I’m not married to a football coach. Nanci Kincaid can take the smallest moment and illuminate a truth or revelation so well.

Read a third time, 2020. Still love it.

I loved this book the first time I read it in college and I think I liked it even more this time around. It tells the story of football coach Mac Gibbs through the eyes of his wife, mother, daughter, other coaches wives, and various players' mothers and girlfriends. Seeing that it's about to be football season again and headlines are starting to crank out about recruitment and such, I feel like I've seen behind the curtain into what it's like to be part of a "football family." I'm very glad Matt isn't a college football coach! Mac is the coach of the fictional Birmingham University, and there are similarities to other famed Southern football coaches. Dixie, Mac's wife, is a strong woman, even though she mostly keeps her mouth closed and her head up while Mac puts his family in firm second place after football.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never would have thought a book about the women in the lives of college football coaches would be interesting to me but I love Nanci Kincaid's writing so I gave it a try. Once again, she came through with a book that was difficult to put down. Themes of sexism and racism are woven throughout- I found the characters very interesting. And I liked the way she presented it- each chapter from a particular female character's perspective. My favorite book by this author, however, is "As Hot as it was you Ought to Thank Me" so read that one as well!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I really enjoy college football and I am a tiny bit obsessed with the television show Friday Night Lights, I didn't actually expect this book to be as good as it was. I think I have sports on one end of my brain and good books on the other, and ne'er the twain shall meet.

But Nanci Kincaid, an author I picked up in my Read Local campaign, proved me wrong. With razor-sharp insight most likely gained through her own experience as the wife of a college football coach, she narrates the story of Dixie and Mac Gibbs through the voices of Dixie, their daughter Sarah, their mothers, and other women who are connected in various ways to the Gibbs' lives. The book follows Mac and Dixie from high school and college, when he is the quarterback and she is a cheerleader, into marriage, parenthood, and Mac's continually evolving career in coaching. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that this is a story of how football--and winning--can become the other woman.

Kincaid did a great job of bringing us into the world of college football in the southeast, using the story to peel back the facade on the pressure coaches are under to cheat, the pervading culture of sexism and racism, and the absurd bedfellows made by church and college ball. Folks outside the SEC may have a hard time suspending disbelief for much of this book; but for those of us down south, it almost seems like a work of non-fiction.

[Mike Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun read. Another book that's been sitting on our book shelves for 15+ years. My son Nick had always told me I would like it and he was right. Balls is about football and football culture -specifically SEC football - in the South and is primarily told from the vantage point of a coach's wife, Dixie Gibbs, whose husband is head coach at Birmingham U, a fictional school that could just as well be Alabama, Auburn, Georgia or Ole Miss. But we just don't hear from Dixie; the narrative is told in the voices, all women, of Dixie's family, friends (mostly the wives of other coaches) and the mothers and sisters of her husband's players. These distinctive voices, each one wonderfully realized, really give Balls its punch, its laughs and its distinctly Southern quality.
As the wife of a college football coach herself, the author knows what she is talking about. She sees the game as a secular religion, one around which men can express themselves in ways they cannot with their wives and families. I don't think it would be going too far to say she sees college football as ultimately corrupting and destructive.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for lovers of southern fiction--even if you're not a football fan.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written twenty-five years ago, this book still resonates, especially in the world of Name-Image-Likeness and the transfer portal.
Coach Mac Gibbs gets his chance to lead his alma mater Birmingham University. After some early struggles, Mac decides to do whatever it takes to win. It costs him everything.
The story is told through the viewpoint of all the women in Mac's circle of influence, his wife, Dixie, his daughter, Sara, fellow coaches wives, recruits' mothers, his mother, and his mother-in-law.
As the wife of not one but two Division I head football coaches, Kincaid's fiction reads as real to life as any memoir about football that I've read.
This book was ahead of its time, and I'm surprised it didn't garner more attention when it initially was published. Glad I found this on the bargain rack at BAM.

[Doug Lewars · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** Possible Spoilers ***

This wasn't a bad book but it wasn't as advertised. I selected it from the library where it was classified as 'humour'. Admittedly, everyone has a different idea as to what constitutes humour but I think this one was stretching it a bit. In any event, the book deals with sports as an obsession. The author attempts to understand the men and women involved in college football. Since I'm far from an expert on anything athletic, I can't say whether she was successful but I found the story interesting. There were a few places where it dragged a bit but mostly I wanted to keep reading.

[Kristina Surgeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this in college and have reread it several times since. As someone who's not a sports fan it says a lot that this book is memorable. Though the story centers around football it is not a story of football. At its core, Balls, is about sports culture and ambition, masculinity, marriage, and the cost of defining your worth around a game.

It gives an important reminder that sometimes it can be too late to remember what is truly important (love and family) and that in the end trophies are empty. Kincaid reminds us that ultimately it is home and the love from those in that home that truly matters. She writes with a mix of grit and grace to display small town truths at their best.

[Rick Reitzug · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was MUCH better than I expected it to be. I th0ught it would be a somewhat silly, slapstick, lightweight novel. I picked it up to read only because I was in a reading slump and needed something light and entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised. The book, while entertaining, is actually somewhat of a fictional ethnography of the culture of big-time college football coaching told from a wives, girlfriends, and family members' perspective. If you have any interest at all in football at the collegiate level, I'd recommend this book.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a southern woman I thoroughly enjoyed this book even as I wished for a happier outcome for the star character. Kincaid nailed the flawed, believable characters as well as the worship of football and male athletes in the south. Baptists may think they have a lock on southern souls but they those souls truly belong to the football gods.

[Mary Kurth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of college football, this proved to be a fascinating take on the sport in the deep south. Hard to take in at times and definitely not a "feel good" story but very well written and it nailed Southern culture. It was especially interesting to see the dialects in written form. I'll be looking into Kindcaid's other books after reading this one.

[Suzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a heavy book to read in bed alone. Highly recommended and not a fast read. Women of a certain age can relive their youth.... and have no regrets about what might have been. Good analysis of being a wife, mother, football widow, "has been", and someone making a new future. But it does weigh a lot.

[Noemi Uribe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought Friday Night Lights was good, but this story is better. Focus is not just on a team, but how football affects the lives of coaches, players, and their families. Takes place in Alabama and is told from the point of view of the coach's wives.

[Jon Nielson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life of football in the eyes of the head coach's wife.
So much time and energy, heartbreak, and money spent on something that means nothing.

[Cindy Grossi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Football and southern culture told by an author who has lived it. Loved the subject; loved the quality of writing.

[Kathy Sandlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heart college football. Especially football with the southern conferences. This is the story of Dixie and Mac as they make there way through football in Alabama. The whole book is told by Dixie and all of the women that enter her life. Could be her mother, mother in law, daughter, friends, foes, mothers of players etc.. Each chapter is told by a different character. The author changes the dialect to reflect the character. The other interesting set up in the book is that sometimes the next chapter can pick up where the last one left off or it can jump a few years. The book works even if you don't like football. But I will say I have never started signing the Florida State fight song when I was reading a book before! During the story they mention Mac's team playing FSU!!

[M Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the height of football season, with many coaches changing jobs, it was interesting to read this novel told from multiple points of view about what life is like for a head coach and those around him. With clear references to "Bear" Bryant and the Crimson tide, this book also takes on issues of race and celebrity in big time college football. A light read.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that was picked at random at the library. I was impressed with this book. Each chapter is in a different characters' point-of-view about their lives surrounding a fictional college football team.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. I don't usually like books that have several narrators, switching back and forth in self-titled chapters, but this author uses it to her advantage. An interesting look at sexism and racism through the lens of high school and college football.

[Lenoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I'm not a huge fan of college football having gone to a college with no football team and being raised in NC where basketball is king. It's more about the lives of the women surrounding the game than it is about the actual game.

[Stephanie Burt · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the wife of a football coach. Really interesting. I would've enjoyed this book anyway, but she was my creative fiction professor! :)

[Lori Madsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised I liked this one. Tale of a college football coach told through the voices of the women in his life.

[Jennifer]

Great book - Nanci Kincaid is married to SJ state coach Dick Tomey, so she has a great perspective on the game.....

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book...seems based on true story for sure. Loved being in love with the football coaches from the south.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love football so this is a very interesting book for me. Looks deep into the lives of the player, coaches and their wives. A good read

[Pam Shank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad story

[Stacie (BTR) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was better than a lot of other southern fiction in that I did not find it to be overdone. Dixie was a well developed character.

[Pam Fuller]

Loved the book. So many truths. Our best to you and Dick. Leon and Pam