Desiree Holt | Football – My Drug of Choice

Everyone has something they obsess about, right? And of course for each person
it’s something different. Movies. Television. Books, of course. Baseball.
Whatever. For me? Football. Yup. You got it. My blood really gets pumping
watching twenty-two sweaty bodies out on that field, the crowd screaming in the
stands, the air filled with the excitement of the game. And that’s just from
watching it on television!

There is something so exciting about seeing a perfectly thrown pass land in the
hands of a receiver, or seeing a running back as he carries that ball into the
end zone. I am always awed at the intricate game plans the teams execute, and
the footwork that is as good as any choreography I’ve seen.

Other women salivate over the likes of George Clooney, Idris Alba, even (for my
generation) Tony Bennett! But for me? It’s always been Joe Montana, former
quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. I remember a player who backed him up
telling the media that Joe was the quintessential field general, so perfectly
prepared every Sunday that he could go out on the field and at any given time
change the call based on what he saw on the field.

Weekends in the fall you can find me glued to my television set every weekend.
College games are the best, for me, because these guys are playing for the
thrill of the game, rather than for enormous salaries. Then there is all the
game-related activity: the cheerleaders, the pep squads, and of course the
marching bands. I graduated from the University of Michigan which has without a
doubt the best marching band in the country. For me one of the biggest thrills
was watching the entrance to the tunnel where twenty minutes before game time
the drum major would appear, the announcer would shout, “Ladies and gentlemen,
your Michigan Marching Band," the band would take the field, and they would run
out of the tunnel marching in triple time quickstep. They still do and watching
them is still one of my greatest pleasures.

So come fall there I am glued to two television sets, overdosing on my drug of
choice.

For forty-eight hours I watch these heroes of the game, awed by their athletic
ability and thrilled at the way they respond to the crowd. I’m not sure any
real drug could get my blood moving any faster or my heart pumping any harder.

I see these men out there so disciplined, so attuned to what they are doing, so
conscious that they are part of a team and that with teamwork they can succeed.
And then, of course, there are all those gorgeous muscles. Enough to make any
woman’s heart beat faster.

But there are other reasons why I love football and football players. I write
about strong heroes, and like any hero they are also flawed. They make
mistakes. But that’s what makes them human, right? Their success is in the way
they handle and rise above those flaws. I see that in the football players,
when things on the field shift against them and they still come out winners.

One of them, who is always on my mind, is Pat Tillman, who was a safety for the
NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. In May 2002, eight months after the September 11
attacks and after completing the fifteen remaining games of the 2001 season
which followed the attacks (at a salary of $512,000 per year), Tillman turned
down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals to
enlist in the U. S. Army. He was killed in Afghanistan and the world mourned
his loss.

Then there is J. J. Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans. Despite being
in the NFL only four years he is considered to be the best player in the
league. He has established and funds a charitable foundation, run by his
mother, that provides after school opportunities for children, in order for
them to get involved in athletics in a safe environment.

So I see wonderful heroes in this sport, I see discipline, I see excitement, I
see very sexy men who get my bloods pumping, and of course, what we pray for—
the thrill of victory. The question is not why I chose to write about football,
but why I waited so long.

About Desiree Holt

Known the world over as The Oldest Living Erotica Author, Desiree Holt proves
every day that she is more than the sum of her years and more than the
grandmother who plays with Barbie and Ken dolls: She is The Hardest Working
Erotica Author, producing one novel or more each month and receiving rave
reviews.

She is a winner of the EPIC E-Book Award, a nominee for a Romantic Times
Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year
Award at The Romance Studio as well as twice a CAPA Award for best BDSM book of
the year, winner of the Holt Medallion, multiple winner of the Whipped Cream
Book of the Week Award and is published by five different houses. She has been
featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA
Today, The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Mail and numerous other
national and international publications.

“Get out the ice water and fan…Desiree Holt delivers smoking hot alpha heroes
and red hot romances.” Lea Franczak, USA Today Happy Ever After blog

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