Touchdown Trouble

Fred Bowen Sports Story Series

by Fred Bowen

Sam loves football. There's nothing better than the rush he gets when his team, the Cowboys, are working together—moving closer and closer to the end zone.

But in a key game, the Cowboys beat their archrivals to remain undefeated, thanks to a major play by Sam.

However, the celebration ends when he and his teammates make an unwelcome The winning play was illegal. Is the Cowboys' perfect season in jeopardy? Did they really deserve to win?

Author Fred Bowen delivers exciting play-by-play action along with an important story of winning and losing, truth and consequences, and good sportsmanship. The afterword reveals the inspiration for this the controversial 1940 Cornell-Dartmouth game.

Genres: Sports, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade, Football

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Fred Bowen is the author of Peachtree’s popular Fred Bowen Sports Story and All-Star Sport Story series. A lifelong sports fanatic, he has coached youth league baseball, basketball, and soccer. His kids’ sports column “The Score” appears each week in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post. Bowen lives in Maryland.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Danza is a star player on the offensive side of his youth football team called the Cowboys. They are a very good team and are contending for the championship. The stars are confident without being arrogant and they play as a team with no swelled heads or demanding of special treatment. They regularly meet for pizza and soda and to watch and study the film of their last game.
When watching the film of their last key victory against their main rivals, the Giants, they discover that the referees made an error and gave them a fifth down on their game-winning drive. The issue then becomes, “What do we do about this?” There is significant debate among the teammates whether they will report the error to league officials or not.
This situation has appeared at least twice in the historical records of NCAA football. In 1940, Cornell had the most powerful football team in the nation, and they were playing Dartmouth in their second-to-last game of the season. As a consequence of an error by the officials, Cornell was given a fifth down on their drive that supposedly won the game. When the error was discovered, the Cornell players voted nearly unanimously to give Dartmouth the victory. This action of pure sportsmanship cost Cornell the national title. The second case was a game between Colorado and Missouri where Colorado was given a fifth down on their game-winning drive. In that case, Colorado elected to keep their victory on the books.
This is a good sports book made even better when the conundrum is presented to the Cowboys and the explanation that the situation has in fact happened. Sports stories based on actual events are some of the best.

[Beckett]

good book

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Touchdown Trouble is a great "boy book." As you may have guessed, it's about football. Sam and his team, the Cowboys, are on the verge of an undefeated season and a great shot at the division championships. The only team standing in their way is the Giants, also undefeated. The two teams face off in an action-packed intense game. In the fourth quarter, the Giants are leading, and the Cowboys have to really work to get a win. In the final seconds of the game, Sam scores to win the game for the Cowboys. After reviewing the game tape, however, Sam and his teammates discover that a mistake was made. Their final touchdown should not have counted. The officials didn't catch the mistake. Neither did the coaches, fans, or Giants players. What should Sam and his team do? Should they give the game to the Giants, knowing it ruins the Cowboys' undefeated season and chance at being champions? Or should they keep things quiet since no one but them realizes what happened? What would you do?

This is a great book for teaching ethical and responsible behavior in both sports and life in general. The boys in this book were able to relate their dilemma to a real-life event, the 1940 football game between Dartmouth and Cornell. Cornell faced the same situation as the Cowboys in this book, and the boys were able to look to that story for guidance. The author provided a detailed account of the Dartmouth-Cornell situation at the end of the book. I think this book is a great read for any athlete, from peewee to pro, about doing the right thing and preserving the integrity of the game.

[Ms. Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam is excited when his football team, the Cowboys, beat their rivals, the Giants, with his last second touchdown, and are the only undefeated team in their league. When the whole team gets together at Sam's house for a celebratory viewing of the game on video, they discover that the touchdown shouldn't have counted. Now, they will have to decide whether or not to inform the league, the other team, and their coach about their discovery.

I love watching football, but I rarely read books about football. I think it's because the descriptions don't tell me enough to visualize the play most of the time. Or, maybe, I just don't want to read a play-by-play transcript of a game. What I like about TOUCHDOWN TROUBLE is how the story really isn't the game itself, but what happens at the game to affect all of the players afterwards. It's nice to have a story where the characters are faced with an ethical dilemma, but I wish that the outcome wasn't so clear from the onset. I wanted to be left in suspense a bit on what decision the boys would make, rather than know even before I got there how the vote would end.

Yes, it's a bit predictable, but I still think fans of sports books will love to read. It's probably best suited for 5th-6th graders at the oldest, although some slightly older may want to read. I give it a 'C' rating.

[Lane Long]

What the book is about is a group of kids in a football league for smaller kids are really really good at football and there coach let them play in the championship. When they were in a game to go to the championship they one because the person in charge of what down it was called it 4th when it was supposed to be a turnover and 5th. They won and went to the championship even though the other team should of won. They found out because Sam, the main character. He saw it during a party with pizza at the coaches house watching footage of what they were doing. When they were on the championship game they won by a couple points which was crazy. They regret going to the championship game because it was the giants who won not the Dallas Cowboys.
What I thought of the book was it was great having some crazy things going on. The book was so interesting and caught my attention really easy. The author Fred Bowen is a really neat and cool author and his books are really cool, But by far Touchdown Trouble is the best book he wrote in my opinion. He has other books like hockey, baseball, soccer, swimming, and football. The book was amazing and is a good book for any kid that likes sports.

[Pj Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a young boy named Sam who's all life is about football he lives eats an breaths football. it was there last game of the season it was the championship game they were down by one touchdown they put Sam in at wide receiver. they all thought it was 3rd down but really is what 4th they forgot to change the down marker good thing Sam's dad likes to record the games so he can see how Sam does whenever him an his dad was watching it Sam saw that they didn't change it. Sam doesn't know what he should tell the head of football or just keep it to himself.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every sports story has that "Uh-Oh" moment, when everything that was sure becomes unsure, when everything is on the line. Sports are that way, so sports stories, at least the good ones, are as well. This Fred Bowen beauty has the best kind of uh-oh moment. You will never see it coming, and when it happens, you won't believe you didn't see it coming.

[Sandra Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens if you are playing a game, you win and then find out a mistake was made. This is what happened to Sam's team the Cowboys. He has to make some tough decisions as do the rest of his team. This book is all about doing the right thing. I really enjoyed it.

[Jerrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book, especially for athletes. if your into books such as dragons and stuff, not such a great book.

[Juan]

One of the negative thing from touchdown was that it started off slow explaining about sam's and how he liked "touchdown", the main character was interesting because he started off sleeping and dreaming about football