Despite a global recession, Englishman Adam Goldstein felt 2008 was the
perfect time to invest in his lifelong passion. So he sold his apartment
and left his job and girlfriend in London for American football.
Goldstein's goal was to achieve what no other fan of American football
has accomplished: to attend one live National Football League (NFL) game
at every NFL stadium during the regular season, plus those played in
London and Canada. He traveled more than sixty-five thousand miles to
watch forty football games in eighteen weeks and to experience and
understand the phenomenal appeal of that classic American pastime, the
tailgate party. He drove from stadium to stadium, tailgate to tailgate,
sometimes eight hundred miles a day, digesting everything that American
football could serve up. He met players and extreme fans alike and was
party to surreal pregame rituals while absorbing the rich cultural
differences of each part of the country. During his football odyssey--a
grueling yet rewarding quest--he compared sports traditions and fandom
in the United Kingdom and the United States. Tailgate to Heaven is a
humorous, moving, and inspiring story about how nothing closes a culture
gap like love of a sport--and the camaraderie that comes with it.