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Football Double Threat
Rocky Fletcher is being stretched to his limit. Until recently, he'd only played wide receiver for the Pythons. Now his coaches want him to learn the safety position, too-a position that opened up when Bobby, Rocky's best friend, broke his leg. Even though he believes he is to blame for Bobby's injury, Rocky eagerly takes on the challenge of becoming a two-way player. After all, the only other player available is Jared, a sullen boy who switched from soccer to football this season. Yet as time goes on, it's Jared who excels at the position because, thanks to Bobby, Rocky keeps missing practices! What's going on between Rocky and Bobby-and why is Jared on the team when he clearly dislikes football so much? Football Double Threat combines the action and excitement of football with relatable issues about envy, loyalty, and friendship.
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
20 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 books141 followersMatt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they're looking for fast-paced, action-packed sports novels. He is the best-selling author of more than one hundred sports books for young readers.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 10, 2025
Fun nostalgic trip.
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August 15, 2019The author clearly understands the angst - real and imagined - that adolescents experience as they pass through this phase of their lives. This is a good story, in and of itself, but also serves as a discussion starter for students/athletes.
January 31, 2022
I like how Rocky learned Offense and Defense and the exciting Sports Action never stopped
March 2, 2025
FOOOOOTBALLLLLL IS THE BEST SPORT EVER TO WATCH AND IS FUN TO PLAY
Awesome I love football and it was perfect for me 🥶🫠🫥🏈🏈🏈🏉🏉🏉🏉 Matt Christopher is a great sports writer for kids
Awesome I love football and it was perfect for me 🥶🫠🫥🏈🏈🏈🏉🏉🏉🏉 Matt Christopher is a great sports writer for kids
January 7, 2015
This book is about two best friends who play football together. Bobby takes Rocky's player,and accidentally breaks his leg trying to get it back. Now Bobby, crippled in a wheelchair becomes very needy, and asks Rocky for way too many favors. It seems like nothing at first, just selling his candy bars for them. Then it turns into running his council election, doing his homework, and constantly changing his schedule. Rocky talks to the 'weird kid' on the team and he actually gives him good advice. He finds out that he isn't so weird and that he actually is a pretty cool kid and feels bad for him. Rocky talks to Bobby and they become good friends like they were. I thought this book was really good, and kept me interested throughout it.
April 7, 2011
Football double threat by matt Christopher the mane character is rocky he go to a middle school he plays football for pythons he his star for his team. Every body thinks he is a jerk but he is not .He always threat the other team so he can score a touchdown.
He likes to threat people and bet them up. He always gets in trouble and lies and says he didn’t do it. He wants to be a nil football player. He has a best friend name Jeff. Also every body thinks he is a know it all. He has so many thinks to do that he can’t chose.
bob take down about hundreds hand bills.
He likes to threat people and bet them up. He always gets in trouble and lies and says he didn’t do it. He wants to be a nil football player. He has a best friend name Jeff. Also every body thinks he is a know it all. He has so many thinks to do that he can’t chose.
bob take down about hundreds hand bills.
December 5, 2011
Ever since Rocky thought he broke his best friend Bobby's leg, he's been getting guilt tripped into every single thing Bobby wants to do. For example he guilt tripped Rocky into being his manager for student council to make him late for practice, and since Rocky has to have extra practice to learn to play Bobby's position Bobby throws away Rocky's rock samples for school so he'd be late for extra practice. But he learns some advice from a friend and uses it to tell Bobby how unfair he's being and Bobby says he's sorry and they become friends.
October 29, 2010
I think i dont like the ending because that's not my style. Rocky ended up breaking his best friend's knne cap and now Rocky has a lot more responsibility to do. Most of them are just from Bobby asking him favors because he didnt want Rocky to do his play. At the end Rocky FINALLY knew about Bobby going against him in being in his part(safety). At te end Bobby asked Rocky one more favor and it was to gethim in a better posistion to watch the football game. It was about friendship.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2010
This book has alot of good parts to it but I think the best part of the book was when they mett there rivals in the last game.The raidors are the wons that plaide them and the final score was raidors 13, and pythons 27.
October 13, 2012
You said you liked sports books, and author Matt Christopher is the master! Books full of action and excitement, loyalty and friendship.
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October 10, 2017This was a book that i first read when i was in elementary school. I can remember not being a huge reader at all. Yet when i picked this book i was really able to relate with it. I can remember picturing myself in the story. Imagining the field and plays they were running. So one of the reasons i put it in my portfolio is because it was significant to me. This is a good read for young football players. If they were like me they didn't like to read at all, and also couldn't really relate with much. This book along with others helped me to get into reading a bit. The drama and how fast paced the book is really helps. Plus it is an easy read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews