The Face of American Football, Circa 1992

A quick once-over of my storage room indicated a need to pitch some stuff out. The first to go will be this picture atlas, a book I have saved since cleaning out my classroom last spring for the sole purpose of blogging about it. The picture below tells you all you need to know about the rigorous quality controls that all scanned photos here at the Thorzul Will Rule home office must pass.

The Library of Congress information lets us know that this atlas was first published in 1992. Another clue as to the book's relatively old age is the "Room 30" designation on the inside cover. Ever since I have been at my school, room numbers have always been in the triple digits.

Let's flip to the United States page to find the reason this book was worth keeping.
A fan of one of the other 31 inferior professional outdoor football teams in this country might have glanced over this superlative detail. No, not the misplaced computer symbol hovering just north of Los Angeles, although it certainly does belong in a location closer to San Francisco. I'm looking at the off-shore picture of a football player.

To the untrained eye, this is merely a generic #7 for an undetermined green-and-yellow football team. The astute observer easily recognize, however, the unmistakable countenance (even with mullet obscured) of legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Don Majkowski.

In fact, even the laziest of Google image searches found a couple of photos that clearly served as the basis for the atlas sketch.


Yes, for the most fleeting of moments, likely in the glow of 1989's Packers/Bears "Replay Game," Don Majkowski was THE physical embodiment of sport in America. At least Labybird Books of Auburn, Maine, thought so.