Twilight's Last Glory

Twilight's Last Glory, Stephen C Perkins, Star Born Publishing LLC, 2018

This near-future novel is about the future of American football.

In the 2030's, football has gone global. The NFL has just merged with a world football league. It is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in TV revenuer, merchandising and season ticket sales to a sport that is totally corrupt.

Everyone is in on it: the referees, the media and some of the players. A man named Gigi Salerno controls all East Coast entertainment, including football, and Las Vegas, for an ultra-secret group called The Octagonal, based in London. Salerno is not totally cruel and heartless. Living in Boston, he has a soft spot for Michelle O'Hara, an old high school crush who has fallen a long way from her beauty queen days.

The book focuses on two teams, the New England Rebels and the London Lightning. The General Manager of the Rebels, Preston Billings, is a member of The Octagonal. Zachary, his son, is the team doctor. The Octagonal. which also controls the police, is looking for an excuse to impose martial law in America. How about to stop a race war started by a couple of popular football players (who know that they are acting for the media)? There is also a crusading sports writer who is starting to put it all together.

It had been previously decided, by The Octagonal, that the Rebels and the Lightning would play for the Summit Cup at Wembley Stadium in London. It is interesting to read British commentators attempting to call an American football game. Meantime, The Octagonal has decided that Salerno is now a liability.

This is a very good, but very dystopian, novel. All football fans should read it, if only to get an idea of the future of their sport.