Gotcha Down: A Novel
Chris Earl

About the Book
Gambling and big-time sports team up to make and break careers in the world of college football. A television sportscaster conspires with a Big-Ten assistant football coach to reel in the big money by fixing four key games. Clark Cattoor is a 32-year-old sports anchor at the top station in town. His recent divorce has left him in a money crunch and looking for love. Larry Munson is 45 and feeling the pressure from the university administration after another losing season and financial problems at home. To pull off the winning bets, they need the help of naive yet ambitious small-town place kicker Jake Steffon. Gotcha Down captures the corruption, excitement and sheer guts of one suspenseful season in big-money football.

College athletics makes honest men behave dishonestly in this debut novel about a fictional school, Wisconsin State, and its efforts to join the football elite. There seems to be hope for the newest member of the prestigious Big 10 conference, thanks to their star receiver, Tyrone "Touchdown" Collins, although his off-the-field antics, buoyed by an inexplicably large bankroll, are occupying too much of his time. New on the scene is kicker Jake Steffon, a small-town boy who just might succumb to the temptations of a big-time program. The coaching staff and local reporters all have their stake in the team, too, especially offensive coordinator Larry Munson, whose special-needs child makes every day a challenge, and Clark Cattoor, a local sports anchor with an ex-wife milking him dry. These strange bedfellows concoct the Plan—an elaborate gambling scheme that leads to disaster. Earl, a sportscaster in Duluth, Minnesota, gets the details right in an engaging football story.

About the Author
Chris Earl is a sportscaster at KDLH-TV in Duluth, Minnesota. Earl lives in Duluth with his wife Erica and their son Sam. This is his first novel.

Gotcha Down in the News

'GOTCHA DOWN' HAS LOCAL FLAVOR, The Capital Times, By Joe Hart
AUTHOR WINS WITH TALE OF GRIDIRON TURMOIL, The Capital Times, By Noah Seligman
'GOTCHA DOWN' should pique local interest, Chippewa Herald, August 12, 2004
KDLH sports anchor writes a book about a Wisconsin scandal, 91.3 KUWS, September 14, 2004

Paperback:
ISBN 0-9763539-8-9
6 x 9, 338 pages
$14.95 Paperback—Fiction
(Can. $18.95, UK £7.95)
September 2006

Also in Hard Cover:
ISBN 0-9721217-6-5
6 x 9, 350 pages
$23.95 Hardcover—Fiction
September 2004

Gotcha Down: A Novel Chris Earl

Gotcha Down: A Novel
Chris Earl