# Kavalier and Clay

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 14, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638 "2003-04-14T14:44:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/1 "2003-04-14T14:44:51Z")

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Just now I am reading Michael Chabon’s novel **The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay** , and two questions vex me.

First: Chabon refers to someone “blocking” like a “back” for Sammy Clay’s “beloved Dodgers”. Joe Kavalier was a Czech immigrant and frequently puzzled by American culture. His cousin Sammy, however, surely knew the difference between baseball and football. Overlooking for the moment that it is ordinarily the line, and not the backs, who do the blocking, was there ever a football team called the Dodgers, or is there some joke here I am missing, or is this just a plain mistake which got past the editors?

Second: Chabon refers to Sammy Clay’s courage as disappearing “like Mike Campbell’s fortune”. I have found numerous citations to people named Mike Campbell on the Web, but none of them seem to be well-known for their connection to a fast-disappearing fortune. Can anyone explain this reference?

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/2 "2003-04-14T14:57:56Z")

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There was a Brooklyn Dodgers football team. [This site](http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Sideline/5960/brooklyn.htm) has a pretty good history.

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**Author:** ![Schnydes03](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Schnydes03](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnydes03)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/3 "2017-05-31T12:44:38Z")

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Mike Campbell is a character in The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. He is bankrupt, literally and metaphorically (morally bankrupt). At one point the main character asks how he went bankrupt and he says, “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.”

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/4 "2017-05-31T12:57:26Z")

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Also, football in that time frame used the single-wing formation, where the quarterback was primarily a blocking back and rarely handled the ball.

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/5 "2017-05-31T14:43:07Z")

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Typical of Chabon’s almost magical writing ability… the familiar that isn’t.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kavalier-and-clay/168638/6 "2017-05-31T16:16:36Z")

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Direct from the NFL

[What is a blocking back?](https://www.sportingcharts.com/dictionary/nfl/blocking-back.aspx)

> [@](#):
>
> A player who lines up in the runningback or fullback position, but whose primary job is to block a defensive player or open up a hole for the ball carrier.