This is a shameless plug to sell a book I wrote some years back. It has nothing to do with Sin City, other than I ended my 20 years as a referee of youth soccer here after becoming New to Las Vegas.
But it has a lot to do with the World Cup, which is hard upon us. One of the great mysteries in all of sport will again rise to the forefront.  What the hell is the offside rule?  I’m here to provide a higher understanding.
“OFFSIDE: A Mystery” is my 2014 novel about the murder of a referee of youth soccer in a southern California suburb at the height of the 2006 real estate bubble. A hot-tempered Latino coach with a gang background is accused of the crime, as it happened after he screamed at the ref over an offside call—caught and posted on a new service called YouTube. It falls to his daughter’s boyfriend, a former high school soccer star in a down-and-out job, to uncover the truth, and in the process learn about himself.
The book includes a fair amount of my trademarked snarky social commentary about money, greed, Southern California history and race relations, and the forces behind it all. Plus a whole lot about the history of soccer (and soccer parents), and particularly the law of offside, which among its many permutations provides the clue to resolving the murder case.
I absolutely guarantee after taking in the book (at only 204 pages in paperback, a pretty quick read) you’ll know everything there is to know about the law of offside–and maybe a few other things, too. You might call the book a historical novel.
After all these years, OFFSIDE remains in print. It’s available on Kindle or Nook for just $6.99, and in paperback on Amazon for $13.95. Click here to order. As I have told folks for years, the book is not autobiographical. After refereeing in four states, I’m still around.