Best Selling Football Books

The top 50 most popular and best selling football ebooks at the Apple iBookstore. Chart of the football iBook best sellers updated daily.

Chart list of the best selling football ebooks was last updated:

Sports Ebook Best Sellers

Top Football eBook Best Sellers

1

Friday Night Lights (25th Anniversary Edition) - H. G. Bissinger Cover Art

Friday Night Lights (25th Anniversary Edition)

Friday Night Lights (25th Anniversary Edition) A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger

Named Sports Illustrated' s best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them. Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires -- and sometimes shatters -- the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms. The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

2

How Good Do You Want to Be? - Nick Saban & Brian Curtis Cover Art

How Good Do You Want to Be?

How Good Do You Want to Be? A Champion's Tips on How to Lead and Succeed at Work and in Life by Nick Saban & Brian Curtis

The winning philosophy for creating and inspiring success that will help you triumph at work and in life from renowned football coach Nick Saban—with a foreword by Bill Belichick Excellence doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from hard work, consistency, the drive to be the best, and a passion for what you do. Few understand this better than Nick Saban. With more than three decades of experience as a player and coach, Saban has worked alongside some of the game’s legends and has seen firsthand how great leaders encourage greatness in others. In this candid and thoughtful guide, he shares his unique wisdom: • Organization, Organization, Organization: Create an environment where everybody knows his or her responsibilities—and each is responsible to the entire group. • Motivate to Dominate: Understand the psychology of teams and individuals, and use that knowledge to breed success. • No Other Way than Right: Practice ethics and values—and demand the same from your team. • Look in the Mirror: Maintain an understanding of who you are by knowing your strengths and your weaknesses. How Good Do You Want to Be? is more than the story of how Nick Saban motivates his staff and players to excel—it is also the memoir of one of America’s most successful coaches. Filled with instructive anecdotes and illuminated by never-before-told stories of his life and career, this is a book that challenges and inspires us all to be our best.

3

Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0 - Pat Kirwan & David Seigerman Cover Art

Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0

Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0 How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look by Pat Kirwan & David Seigerman

Renowned NFL analysts' tips to make football more accessible, colorful, and compelling than ever before More and more football fans are watching the NFL each week, but many of them don't know exactly what they should be watching. What does the offense's formation tell you about the play that's about to be run? When a quarterback throws a pass toward the sideline and the wide receiver cuts inside, which player is to blame? Why does a defensive end look like a Hall of Famer one week and a candidate for the practice squad the next? These questions and more are addressed in Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0 , a book that takes readers deep inside the perpetual chess match between offense and defense. This book provides clear and simple explanations to the intricacies and nuances that affect the outcomes of every NFL game. This updated edition contains recent innovations from the 2015 NFL season.

4

Onward to Victory! History of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football - Steve Fulton Cover Art

Onward to Victory! History of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football

Onward to Victory! History of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football by Steve Fulton

Read about the great history and traditions of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football throughout the years. Season by season recaps with game recaps along with schedules for each season. Rivalry games, Bowl games and much more. Whether you are a Notre Dame fan or a College Football fan, this is a must read for all.

5

Next Man Up - John Feinstein Cover Art

Next Man Up

Next Man Up A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL by John Feinstein

In the NFL there is only one certainty: that every day, someone will have to be the Next Man Up. Football is an unrelentingly punishing sport, played and practiced at undiminished intensity, and it devours its players. Confronting injuries, trades, and the grim reality of competition, every NFL team prepares constantly for the likelihood -- the certainty -- that even franchise players can go down at any time. And someone new must be ready, trained, and primed to step in at the highest level. Bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein persuaded one NFL team to lift the extraordinary secrecy that shrouds the sport and let him see how a team operates at the closest level. One team let him join every practice, every coaches' meeting, every players' gathering, every strategy debate. From the give-and-take of draft day, into the grinder of summer training camps, and from 100-degree practice games to the last game in frigid conditions, Feinstein reveals how a football team works -- or fails to work -- as no writer has done before. Next Man Up unveils rituals (what a coach tells a player at the moment he cuts him); rules (the inanities of league-appointed "uniform Nazis"); conflicts (the scouts vs. the coaches, the general managers vs. the agents, the offense vs. the defense, the special teams coaches vs. everybody); money (how much a journeyman makes, and how his life differs from the multi-million-dollar-a-year star players)-every nuance of a team's life, from the owner's goals to the coach's day-to-day travails to the feeling of the sleet-soaked ball in the hands of a receiver on artificial turf. The access John Feinstein enjoyed allows him to discuss with equal understanding the owner's management strategy, the coaches' and coordinators' plans for each new game, and how it all affects the players themselves. Anyone who loves football -- any team, in any era -- will savor the thousands of details revealed here for the first time, and the extraordinary drama that goes into following week after week, the most sensational sport in America.

6

The Football 100 - The Athletic Cover Art

The Football 100

The Football 100 by The Athletic

A masterful ode to America’s game—and an unforgettable portrait of its greatest legends written by America’s best sportswriters. It is a question that has bedeviled football fans for generations: Who’s the best? Of the more than 25,000 men who have suited up during the NFL’s century of existence, which ones stood head and shoulders above all others? At The Athletic, home to the best newsroom in sports, this question would become a labor of love for dozens of the best football writers on the planet, including Mike Sando and Dan Pompei. Over the course of 100 riveting profiles based on many hundreds of interviews with players, coaches, broadcasters, and others, this is a penetrating look at the greatest players to ever don cleats and pads, as well as a view from the trenches of the harsh realities of a brutal game. 100 photographs throughout the text offer testament to both the glory and the physical toll of football. Among them: Walter Payton, who once played with a 104-degree fever—and broke the single game rushing record with 275 yards Jim Otto, the legendary offensive lineman who paid the ultimate price, suffering 35 concussions and undergoing a total of 74 surgeries Johnny Unitas, who began his career playing quarterback, safety, and punter in a semi-pro league for $6 a game Brett Favre whose very first NFL pass was a pick-six, and Tom Brady, whose very first college pass was also a pick-six Bronco Nagurski, who had a size 22 neck, and moonlighted as a professional wrestler—during football season Grambling State, the tiny historically Black university that produced three of the greatest players of the 1960’s The equipment manager who would order 4 different sizes of thigh pad: “Small, Medium, Large, and Earl Campbell" Chuck Bednarik, who once tore his bicep muscle from the bone, fastened it back in place with athletic tape, and returned to the game—an exhibition game Where are these legends as well as today's stars—Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Julio Jones, Aaron Donald, and others--ranked? You'll find out here, among players from 1920 to the present day, from the Patriots in the east to the 49ers in the west, featuring names like “Night Train,” “Iron Mike” “Bulldog,” and “Crazylegs,” The Football 100 shares stunning new stories you’ve never heard before, and resurrects the legacies of unfairly forgotten greats. Deeply reported, beautifully written, and sure to spark heated debate among football fans of all stripes, this book sets a new standard for writing about the game.

7

The TB12 Method - Tom Brady Cover Art

The TB12 Method

The TB12 Method How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance by Tom Brady

The #1 New York Times bestseller by the 7-time Super Bowl champion The first book by NFL legend Tom Brady, former quarterback with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who reached unimaginable heights of excellence into his forties—a gorgeously illustrated and deeply practical “athlete’s bible” that reveals Brady’s revolutionary approach to sustained peak performance for athletes of all kinds and all ages. In this new edition of The TB12 Method , Tom Brady further explains and details the revolutionary training, conditioning, and wellness system that has kept him atop the NFL at an age when most players are deep into retirement. Brady—along with the expert Body Coaches at TB12, the performance lifestyle brand he cofounded in 2013 with Alex Guerrero—explain the principles and philosophies of pliability, a paradigm-shifting fitness concept that focuses on a more natural, healthier way of exercising, training, and living. Filled with lessons from Brady’s own training regimen, The TB12 Method provides step-by-step guidance on how develop and maintain one’s own peak performance while dramatically decreasing injury risks. This illustrated, highly visual manual also offers more effective approaches to functional strength & conditioning, proper hydration, supplementation, cognitive fitness, restorative sleep, and nutritious, easy-to-execute recipes to help readers fuel-up and recover. Brady steadfastly believes that the TB12 approach has kept him competitive while extending his career, and that it can make any athlete, male or female, in any sport and at any level achieve his or her own peak performance and do what they love, better and for longer. With instructions, drills, photos, in-depth case studies that Brady himself has used, along with personal anecdotes and experiences from his legendary career, The TB12 Method gives you a better way to train and get results with Tom Brady himself as living proof.

8

Mourinho - Jose Mourinho Cover Art

Mourinho

Mourinho by Jose Mourinho

Mourinho is a beautiful illustrated book which is both a sumptuous celebration of The Special One's managerial career so far, and an enigmatic insight into his unique brand of football wisdom and philosophy. In the legendary manager's very first book, and in his own images and captions, Jose Mourinho charts the peaks and troughs of the opening fifteen years of what has been a stellar rise to the summit of the global game. Through more than 120 personally selected images (some of which are exclusive to the book), fans will relish an intimate and unmissable opportunity to understand and further appreciate this giant of the sport.

9

The Kids Got It Right - Jim Dent Cover Art

The Kids Got It Right

The Kids Got It Right How the Texas All-Stars Kicked Down Racial Walls by Jim Dent

New York Times bestselling author Jim Dent pens the compelling story of how a black and white player came together to break the color barrier in Texas football in 1965. Jerry LeVias and Bill Bradley bonded as friends at the Big 33 high school all-star game, producing a dramatic finish that fans still talk about. Jim Dent takes the reader to the heart of Texas football with the incredible story of how two young men broke the chain of racism that had existed for more than half a century. In 1965, black and white players barely mixed in Texas. That summer, Jerry LeVias and Bill Bradley came together at the Big 33 game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. When no one else would room with LeVias, Bradley stepped forward. The two became the closest of friends and the best of teammates. LeVias called Bradley "my blue-eyed soul brother.'' Big-hearted, gregarious, and free-spirited, Bradley looked out for LeVias – one of three black players on the team. The Texas team came to Hershey with a mandate to win. A year earlier, Texas had lost to the Pennsylvania all-stars 12-6 in the most significant defeat in the state's proud history. This was considered blasphemy in a place where football outranked religion. Texas coach Bobby Layne was mad-as-hell that he was forced to play with second stringers in '64. So he and assistant coach Doak Walker traveled to Austin and asked Texas governor John Connally to end the scheduling conflict with the in-state all-star game so he could suit up the best players. Layne also sought permission to recruit black players. After all, Texas was flush with black stars, some of whom would mature into the most notable players in the history of the National Football League. Layne's scheme never would have worked without Bradley and LeVias. Together—and with Layne's indomitable will to win—the two led their team proudly to face down the competition at Hershey Stadium. The Kids Got It Right is a moving story, reminiscent of Remember The Titans . Jim Dent once again brings readers to cheers and tears with a truly American tale of leadership, brotherhood, and good-ol' Texas-style football.

10

Go Deeper: Quarterback - Pat Kirwan Cover Art

Go Deeper: Quarterback

Go Deeper: Quarterback The Toughest Job in Pro Sports by Pat Kirwan

Pat Kirwan’s best-selling Take Your Eye Off the Ball was a football fan’s undergraduate education. The Go Deeper series of books from Pat and Real Football Network is a master’s class in understanding the finer points of playing particular positions. We launch the series, of course, with the most important position in sports: quarterback. Go Deeper: Quarterback includes chapters on: • Understanding the utility of mobility (dispelling the myth of the dual-threat quarterback) • The most important tools and traits required to play the position • A look at the mechanics of throwing the football • How to read a defense pre- and post-snap and call plays designed to beat a particular coverage • How offenses evolve to maximize a quarterback’s matchups • Situational execution (two-minute drills, red zone) • How teams need to address all quarterbacks on the roster and the strategy behind finding the appropriate backup The book also includes exclusive play diagrams that will help fans understand their favorite game like never before!

11

The Boys of Riverside - Thomas Fuller Cover Art

The Boys of Riverside

The Boys of Riverside A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller

NAMED A BEST BOOK BY BOOK RIOT , AND MORE! • The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and Page One Correspondent, Thomas Fuller. " The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible.” —Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner "Remarkable"— Wall Street Journal • "Narrative nonfiction at its finest, filled with drama, detail and action."— Los Angeles Times  • " Inspiring." — Parade.com In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, a state-run school with only 168 high school students, was having an undefeated season. After years of covering war, wildfires, pandemic, and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story of this group of high school boys. It was uplifting. During the gloom of the pandemic, it was a happy story. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. The team, and Adams, tackled the many stereotypes and seemed to be succeeding. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus. The Boys of Riverside looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history. It follows the personal journeys of their dynamic deaf head coach, and a student who spent the majority of the season sleeping in his father’s car in the Target parking lot. It tells the story of a fiercely committed player who literally played through a broken leg in order not to miss a crucial game, as well as myriad other heart-wrenching and uplifting narratives of players who found common purpose. Through their eyes, Fuller reveals a portrait of high school athletics, inspiring camaraderie, and deafness in America.

12

The System - Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian Cover Art

The System

The System The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football by Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year  NCAA football is big business. Every Saturday millions of people file into massive stadiums or tune in on television as "athlete-students" give everything they've got to make their team a success. Billions of dollars now flow into the game. But what is the true cost? The players have no share in the oceans of money. And once the lights go down, the glitter doesn't shine so brightly. Filled with mind-blowing details of major NCAA football scandals, with stops at Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Missouri, BYU, LSU, Texas A&M and many more, The System explores and exposes the complex, and perhaps broken, machine that churns behind the glamour of college football.  With a New Afterword

13

America's Game - Michael MacCambridge Cover Art

America's Game

America's Game by Michael MacCambridge

It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.

14

Graham Henry - Bob Howitt Cover Art

Graham Henry

Graham Henry Final Word by Bob Howitt

Explosive and controversial - this is the must-read autobiography of one of the world's most successful sporting coaches. Although he would eventually be knighted in recognition of one of the most remarkable coaching careers in the history of rugby, Graham Henry experienced his share of crushing setbacks and disappointments. this was the man responsible for restoring the glory days of the All Blacks and reinvigorating the spirits of an entire nation, but also the one held accountable for a disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign. When the team crashed out, humiliatingly at the quarter-final stage, Sir Graham thought his time as an international rugby coach was up. the New Zealand Rugby Union had never reappointed a losing World Cup coach, and he couldn't see why they would make an exception for him.that is, until he began preparing his coach's report, which involved a detailed analysis of the video of that fateful quarter-final. What he witnessed initially caused him to vomit, then to reassess his future. His findings and insights ultimately led to his reappointment. In this book, Henry reveals that as a rugby coach he was always more tactical than technical. In partnership with Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, he would go on to rebuild the All Blacks as the most triumphant and entertaining team in the world.Sir Graham is rugby's most successful coach having maintained an almost unbelievable 83 per cent success rate across four decades and more than 500 matches from schoolboy to international level. Now retired, he has teamed up with New Zealand's most prolific rugby author, Bob Howitt, to relate his personal account of the drastic measures he took to change the culture within the All Blacks and set them on the path to becoming world champions.

15

A Fire to Win - John Lombardo Cover Art

A Fire to Win

A Fire to Win The Life and Times of Woody Hayes by John Lombardo

A Fire to Win is an honest and revealing biography of Woody Hayes, a man who ranks in the pantheon of football coaches. Woody Hayes is one of the greatest football coaches in history—and one of the most fascinating. More than a brilliant coach, he was a complicated, contradictory man. The former history teacher would tout the ideals of democracy yet run his football empire as an absolute monarchy. But he had a surprisingly altruistic side, hidden from the public,. and Hayes visited local hospitals, donated his time, money, and advice, and insisted that his players graduate. More than just a standard biography, A Fire to Win explores the psychological motivations of one of the most complex of coaches. First and foremost, Woody Hayes was a coach—and his achievements are stunning. While at Ohio State, he won five national titles, and thirteen Big Ten Conference championships, made eight Rose Bowl appearances, and earned two national Coach of the Year awards. His killer instincts, honed in the navy, where he commanded a destroyer escort in the Pacific during World War II, helped him lead his teams to a 30-9 winning average. Moreover, Hayes's lifetime coaching record, 238-72-10, puts him in the first rank of college coaching immortals. No other coach has won more games in a shorter period. John Lombardo uses his extensive sports writing experience to craft an accurate portrait of one of the most complex and fascinating figures in football. Countless interviews of former players, assistant coaches, administrators, faculty, associates, and friends shape the image of Hayes and his career, which spanned the mid-1940s to the late 1970s during a tremendous period of change in American society.

16

Paper Lion - Nicholas Dawidoff & George Plimpton Cover Art

Paper Lion

Paper Lion Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback by Nicholas Dawidoff & George Plimpton

The book that made a legend -- and captures America's sport in detail that's never been matched, featuring a foreword by Nicholas Dawidoff and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives. George Plimpton was perhaps best known for Paper Lion , the book that set the bar for participatory sports journalism. With his characteristic wit, Plimpton recounts his experiences in talking his way into training camp with the Detroit Lions, practicing with the team, and taking snaps behind center. His breezy style captures the pressures and tensions rookies confront, the hijinks that pervade when sixty high-strung guys live together in close quarters, and a host of football rites and rituals. One of the funniest and most insightful books ever written on football, Paper Lion is a classic look at the gridiron game and a book The Wall Street Journal calls "a continuous feast...The best book ever about football -- or anything!"

17

The Evolution of the RPO - Brent Dearmon Cover Art

The Evolution of the RPO

The Evolution of the RPO by Brent Dearmon

Dearmon and Haas present the evolution of RPO which started with Gus Malzahn’s Auburn offense as the base.  This book details the RPO as it is used with the gap schemes such as power and counter, the inside and outside zone, and the buck sweep with multiple pass options.

18

Why We Love Football - Joe Posnanski Cover Art

Why We Love Football

Why We Love Football A History in 100 Moments by Joe Posnanski

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Kirkus Reviews Most Anticipated Book of the Fall A moving celebration of the history of American football from the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100 , Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America. Why We Love Football is Posnanski’s newest must-have deep dive into the archives and legends of the sport, and the result is a rousing tale of the 100 greatest moments in football lore. This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating, these stories of the sport offer a panoramic look across its history. From hidden gems and classic tales to famous moments told from previously unheard perspectives, this book is the football book for even its most ardent fans. From Patrick Mahomes's magic to the Ice Bowl, from Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to a plethora of football "miracles," Why We Love Football is an unforgettable, conversational masterpiece you won’t ever want to end, and a can't-miss take on football from one of the greatest sportswriters of our time.

19

Football For A Buck - Jeff Pearlman Cover Art

Football For A Buck

Football For A Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL by Jeff Pearlman

From Jeff Pearlman—the New York Times best-selling author of Three Ring Circus—comes the rollicking, outrageous story of the USFL, full of larger-than-life characters and you-can’t-make-this-up stories featuring some of the biggest celebrities and buffoons in the game. The United States Football League—known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL—did not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. In its three seasons from 1983-85, it secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends such as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Reggie White. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic team owner—a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump. In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals and some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and how, forty years ago, Trump was already a scoundrel and a spoiler. For fans of Terry Pluto’s Loose Balls or Jim Bouton’s Ball Four and of course Pearlman’s own stranger-than-fiction narratives, Football for a Buck is sports as high entertainment—and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.

20

Bringing the Heat - Mark Bowden Cover Art

Bringing the Heat

Bringing the Heat by Mark Bowden

“An ambitious, remarkably frank” chronicle of the Philadelphia Eagles’ bid for the NFL championship by the #1 New York Times –bestselling author ( Kirkus Reviews ).   In 1992, the Philadelphia Eagles—a team assembled in the image of their iconoclastic, controversial former head coach, Buddy Ryan—were known for their ferocious defense led by Reggie White, Seth Joyner, and Andre Waters, and for the otherworldly talents of quarterback Randall Cunningham.   Now was the time for the Eagles’ campaign for the championship. But as the season progressed, it disintegrated into an ugly flurry of greed, racism, violence, personal and professional feuds, one tragic death, and a very wild face-off in the stands between a player’s wife and mistress. By midseason, the sentiment of both fans and press was the same: “shut up and play.”   Told through the personal stories of the teammates themselves, as well as the coaches, managers and owner, Bringing the Heat spares nothing—and no one—in “a phenomenal feat of reportage, perfect for football fans coast to coast” (H. G. Bissinger, author of  Friday Night Lights ).   “Overflows with stories of pro football dreams, of bravery in the face of injury. Yet it also unflinchingly tells of the darker side of life in the NFL: uncontrollable egos, ruined families, marital infidelity.” — The New York Times Book Review   “There are now four mandatory books on football: Dan Jenkins’s  Semi-Tough ; George Plimpton’s Paper Lion ; H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights , and the hilarious, incorrigible son of them all, Mark Bowden’s Bringing the Heat .” —Michael Bamberger, Sports Illustrated

21

The Complete Handbook of Clock Management (Revised 2012) - Homer Smith & Steve Axman Cover Art

The Complete Handbook of Clock Management (Revised 2012)

The Complete Handbook of Clock Management (Revised 2012) by Homer Smith & Steve Axman

This newest edition of Homer Smith’s The Complete Handbook of Clock Management features updates from Steve Axman on the new 10-second rundown of the game clock rule and the new rules on spiking and the intentional incomplete pass. Other topics covered include:  • Playing fast  • Using the intentional incomplete pass, the spike  • Using time-outs  • Squeezing in next-to-the-last plays  • Using up excess time before scoring  • Letting your opponent score a TD  • Using clock offense in a wind  • Deciding on kicking a FG or going for a TD  • Deciding on punting or going for a first down  • Deciding on an extra point in final seconds  • Trying for two points  • Taking a safety  • Keeping the clock moving  • Playing clock defense

22

America's Team - Jeff Sullivan Cover Art

America's Team

America's Team The Authorized History of the Dallas Cowboys by Jeff Sullivan

Five Super Bowl titles. Thirty-three playoff victories. Seventeen division titles. From Tom Landry and Don Meredith in 1960 to Jerry Jones and Tony Romo today, America’s Team has provided literally millions of fans worldwide with unforgettable memories for the past half-century that have been shared from generation to generation. Bringing their rich history to life, this luxurious volume celebrates five decades of exciting Dallas Cowboys football. America’s Team: The Official History of the Dallas Cowboys is the official book commemorating the 50th anniversary of perhaps the most famous franchise in all of sports. Special features include: Unveiling the Dallas Cowboys Golden Anniversary Team, representing the best of the best at each position. Never-before-told stories from Cowboys greats such as Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, and Troy Aikman. A bonus chapter devoted to America’s Sweethearts, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Original essays by celebrated sports and literary icons such as Dan Jenkins, Pat Summerall, Vern Lundquist, Steve Sabol, and Brad Sham. With more than 300 photos and artifacts from the Dallas Cowboys official archives, America’s Team is essential reading for football fans everywhere.

23

Collision Low Crossers - Nicholas Dawidoff Cover Art

Collision Low Crossers

Collision Low Crossers Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football by Nicholas Dawidoff

An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL: "Riveting . . . an instant classic" ( New York Times Book Review ). By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff entered a mysterious and private world with its own rituals and language. Equal parts Paper Lion , Moneyball , Friday Night Lights , and The Office , this absorbing, funny, and vivid narrative gets to the heart of a massive and stressful collective endeavor. Here is football in many faces: the polarizing, brilliant, and hilarious head coach; the general manager, whose job is to support (and suppress) the irrepressible coach; the defensive coaches and their in-house rivals, the offensive coaches; and of course the players. Wise safeties, brooding linebackers, high-strung cornerbacks, enthusiastic rookies, and a well-read nose tackle: they make up a strange and complex family. Dawidoff makes an emblematic NFL season come alive for fans and nonfans alike in a book about football that will forever change the way people watch and think about the sport.

24

Football For Dummies, USA Edition - Howie Long & John Czarnecki Cover Art

Football For Dummies, USA Edition

Football For Dummies, USA Edition by Howie Long & John Czarnecki

Learn how to tell a first down from a touchdown and get up to speed on the latest trends in the sport Football For Dummies is a comprehensive fan’s guide to football and its many components. This updated edition includes coverage of new players, rules, and strategies. With deep explanations of every position, analysis of offense and defense, and detailed strategies for play, football legend Howie Long and established football analyst John Czarnecki present the basics of football for fans of all ages and experiences. Get the working knowledge that you need to follow the game of football and enjoy it with friends and family. The book covers everything you need to be the most knowledgeable spectator in the stadium! Learn the rules of football so you can follow what’s happening in the game Increase your enjoyment of football by discovering the nuances you don’t know Keep up with friends and family when you watch games together, in person, or on TV Get up to date on the latest players, rule changes, and top strategies This fun Dummies guide is for everyone who is interested in football and wants to get familiar with the sport, including its history, so they can watch games in person and on television, follow all the action, and enjoy football games to the maximum. It’s also a great reference for fans who need to settle bets about the official rules of play!

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Boys Will Be Boys - Jeff Pearlman Cover Art

Boys Will Be Boys

Boys Will Be Boys The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty by Jeff Pearlman

New York Times bestseller From celebrated sports writer Jeff Pearlman, author of The Bad Guys Won, a rollicking, completely unabashed account of the glory days of the legendary Dallas Cowboys They were called America's Team. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin—and lorded over by swashbuckling, power-hungry owner Jerry Jones and his two hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer—the Cowboys seemed indomitable on the football field throughout the 1990s. Off the field the 'Boys were a dysfunctional circus, fueled by ego, sex, drugs, and jaw-dropping excess. What they achieved on game day was astonishing; what they did the rest of the week was unbelievable. Boys Will Be Boys is the story of the Dallas Cowboys in their prime—a team of wild-partying, out-of-control glory-hounds that won three Super Bowls in four years and earned their rightful place in sports lore as the most beloved and despised dynasty in NFL history.

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Take Your Eye off the Ball - Pat Kirwan Cover Art

Take Your Eye off the Ball

Take Your Eye off the Ball How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look by Pat Kirwan

Take Your Eye Off the Ball is not a beginner's introduction to football, nor is it a technical manual for only the most studious of fans.  Instead, it clearly and simply explains the intricacies and nuances that affect the outcomes of every NFL game.

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League of Denial - Mark Fainaru-Wada & Steve Fainaru Cover Art

League of Denial

League of Denial The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth by Mark Fainaru-Wada & Steve Fainaru

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “meticulously documented and endlessly chilling” ( The New York Times ) exploration of the NFL’s decades-long attempt to deny and cover up mounting evidence connecting football and brain damage. “A first-rate piece of reporting [that] adds crucial detail, texture, and news to the concussion story, which despite the NFL’s best efforts, isn’t going away.”— Time   ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR “Professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis.” So concluded the National Football League in a December 2005 scientific paper on concussions in America’s most popular sport. That judgment, implausible even to a casual fan, also contradicted the opinion of a growing cadre of neuroscientists who worked in vain to convince the NFL that it was facing a deadly new scourge: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a chronic brain disease that was driving an alarming number of players—including some of the all-time greats—to madness.   Everyone knows that football is violent and dangerous. But what the players who built the NFL into a $10 billion industry didn’t know—and what the league sought to shield from them—is that no amount of padding could protect the human brain from the force generated by modern football.   In League of Denial, award-winning ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru expose the public health crisis that emerged from the playing fields and examine how the league used its power and resources to attack independent scientists and elevate its own flawed research—a campaign with echoes of Big Tobacco’s fight to deny the connection between smoking and lung cancer. They chronicle the tragic fates of players like Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who was so disturbed at the time of his death he fantasized about shooting NFL executives, and former San Diego Chargers great Junior Seau, whose diseased brain became the target of a scientific battle between researchers and the NFL.    Based on exclusive interviews, previously undisclosed documents, and private e-mails, League of Denial is the story of what the NFL knew and when it knew it—questions at the heart of a crisis that threatens American football—and of the battle for the sport’s future.

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It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness - Seth Wickersham Cover Art

It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness

It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness by Seth Wickersham

NOW WITH A NEW EPILOGUE ON THE 2021 SEASON AND TOM BRADY’S BRIEF RETIREMENT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SPORTS ILLUSTRATED • NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR National Sports Media Association • Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews • Best Nonfiction of the Year “Seth Wickersham has managed to do the impossible: he has pulled off the definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty.” —Bill Simmons, The Ringer The explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football history—from the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning. Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFL’s most dominant team, but also—and by far—the most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness—and what were the costs? In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the country’s finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted since 2001, Wickersham’s chronicle is packed with revelations, taking us deep into Bill Belichick’s tactical ingenuity and Tom Brady’s unique mentality while also reporting on their divergent paths in 2020, including Brady’s run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raucous, unvarnished, and definitive, It’s Better to Be Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting in the tradition of Michael Lewis, David Maraniss, and David Halberstam.

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Football Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies - Howie Long & John Czarnecki Cover Art

Football Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies

Football Rules and Positions In A Day For Dummies by Howie Long & John Czarnecki

Tackle football basics in a day? Easy. If you've ever wanted to know the difference between a touchdown and a touchback, or how a running back's role differs from a linebacker's, this handy guide gets you up-to-speed in no time. Football Rules & Positions In A Day For Dummies gives you a focused guide to the rules, regulations, and player roles of one of the most popular American sports. The essential information you need to understand and enjoy America's greatest game Expert coverage of the game's rules and regulations Helpful breakdowns of football positions and their roles in offense, defense, and special teams Online component takes you beyond the book with bonus content and features Get set to impress your friends with your newfound knowledge in no time!

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Home Team - Sean Payton & Ellis Henican Cover Art

Home Team

Home Team Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life by Sean Payton & Ellis Henican

The New York Times bestseller that's "heaven in hardcover" ( New Orleans Times-Picayune ) for Saints fans. In the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, no symbol of disaster was more potent than New Orleans' Superdome: it became a horrific shelter of last resort where the utterly desperate rode out the storm. Four years later, in that very stadium, the New Orleans Saints won the NFC championship and earned their first-ever trip to the Super Bowl, where they defeated the favored Indianapolis Colts 31-17. This is the inspirational true story of a city recovering from disaster and a team with a history of heartbreak, as seen through the eyes of the coach who would help elevate them both to long- forgotten greatness.

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Twelve Mighty Orphans - Jim Dent Cover Art

Twelve Mighty Orphans

Twelve Mighty Orphans The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football by Jim Dent

The remarkable true story of an orphanage and the man who created one of the greatest football teams Texas has ever known, now a major motion picture. More than a century ago, a school was constructed in Fort Worth, Texas, for the purpose of housing and educating the orphans of Texas Freemasons. It was a humble project that for years existed quietly on a hillside east of town. Life at the Masonic Home was about to change, though, with the arrival of a lean, bespectacled coach by the name of Rusty Russell. Here was a man who could bring rain in the midst of a drought. Here was a man who, in virtually no time at all, brought the orphans' story into the homes of millions of Americans. In the 1930s and 1940s, there was nothing bigger in Texas high school football than the Twelve Mighty Orphans —a group of orphans bound together by hardship and death. These youngsters, in spite of being outweighed by at least thirty pounds per man, were the toughest football team around. They began with nothing—not even a football—yet in a few years were playing for the state championship on the highest level of Texas football. Jim Dent, author of the New York Times bestselling The Junction Boys, returns with his most powerful story of human courage and determination in Twelve Mighty Orphans : The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football. This is a winning tribute to a courageous band of underdogs from a time when America desperately needed fresh hope and big dreams. A remarkable and inspirational story of an orphanage and the man who created one of the greatest football teams Texas has ever known, Twelve Mighty Orphans is a profound lesson in fighting back and clinging to faith. The real winners in Texas high school football were not the kids from the biggest schools, or the ones wearing the most expensive uniforms. They were the scrawny kids from a tiny orphanage who wore scarred helmets and faded jerseys that did not match, kids coached by a devoted man who lived on peanuts and drove them around in a smoke-belching old truck. In writing a story of unforgettable characters and great football, Jim Dent has come forward to reclaim his place as one of the top sports authors in America today. This is their story—the original Friday Night Lights, now a major motion picture starring Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, and Wayne Knight.

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Earn the Right to Win - Tom Coughlin & David Fisher Cover Art

Earn the Right to Win

Earn the Right to Win How Success in Any Field Starts with Superior Preparation by Tom Coughlin & David Fisher

A top NFL coach offers leadership advice that applies from the field to the office Tom Coughlin led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories with his unique system of relentless preparation and resilience. He teaches his players that you can never guarantee a win, but you can always earn the right to win-with focus, hard work, and anticipation of obstacles. Now Coughlin shows how his teachings apply beyond the gridiron, illustrating his points with previously untold stories about players like Eli Manning, Doug Flutie, and Michael Strahan. His wisdom can help leaders in any field rev up their own organizations. 'Tom Coughlin challenged us and prepared us to handle anything that was thrown at us ... The lessons I learned from him weren't limited to football. They were applicable to every aspect of my life' -Michael Strahan Tom Coughlin is one of the most successful coaches in NFL history. Before winning two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, he coached the Jacksonville Jaguars for nine seasons, leading them to two appearances in the AFC Championship Game. David Fisher is the co-author of seventeen New York Times bestsellers.

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Concussion - Jeanne Marie Laskas Cover Art

Concussion

Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas

NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered something he could not ignore. The NFL tried to silence him. His courage would change everything.   “A gripping medical mystery and a dazzling portrait of the young scientist no one wanted to listen to . . . a fabulous, essential read.”—Rebecca Skloot, author of  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks   Jeanne Marie Laskas first met the young forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu in 2009, while reporting a story for  GQ  that would go on to inspire the movie  Concussion . Omalu told her about a day in September 2002, when, in a dingy morgue in downtown Pittsburgh, he picked up a scalpel and made a discovery that would rattle America in ways he’d never intended.  Omalu was new to America, chasing the dream, a deeply spiritual man escaping the wounds of civil war in Nigeria. The body on the slab in front of him belonged to a fifty-year-old named Mike Webster, aka “Iron Mike,” a Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the greatest ever to play the game. After retiring in 1990, Webster had suffered a dizzyingly steep decline. Toward the end of his life, he was living out of his van, tasering himself to relieve his chronic pain, and fixing his rotting teeth with Super Glue.  How did this happen?,  Omalu asked himself.  How did a young man like Mike Webster end up like this?   The search for answers would change Omalu’s life forever and put him in the crosshairs of one of the most powerful corporations in America: the National Football League. What Omalu discovered in Webster’s brain—proof that Iron Mike’s mental deterioration was no accident but a disease caused by blows to the head that could affect everyone playing the game—was the one truth the NFL wanted to ignore.   Taut, gripping, and gorgeously told,  Concussion  is the stirring story of one unlikely man’s decision to stand up to a multibillion-dollar colossus, and to tell the world the truth.

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Gridiron Genius - Michael Lombardi Cover Art

Gridiron Genius

Gridiron Genius A Master Class in Building Teams and Winning at the Highest Level by Michael Lombardi

Former NFL general manager and three-time Super Bowl winner Michael Lombardi reveals what makes football organizations tick at the championship level. From personnel to practice to game-day decisions that win titles, Lombardi shares what he learned working with coaching legends Bill Walsh of the 49ers, Al Davis of the Raiders, and Bill Belichick of the Patriots, among others, during his three decades in football. Why do some NFL franchises dominate year after year while others can never crack the code of success? For 30 years Michael Lombardi had a front-row seat and full access as three titans--Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick--reinvented the game, turning it into a national obsession while piling up Super Bowl trophies. Now, in Gridiron Genius , Lombardi provides the blueprint that makes a successful organization click and win --and the mistakes unsuccessful organizations make that keep them on the losing side time and again.      In reality, very few coaches understand the philosophies, attention to detail, and massive commitment that defined NFL juggernauts like the 49ers and the Patriots. The best organizations are not just employing players, they are building something bigger. Gridiron Genius will explain how the best leaders evaluate, acquire, and utilize personnel in ways other professional minds, football and otherwise, won't even contemplate. How do you know when to trade a player? How do you create a positive atmosphere when everyone is out to maximize his own paycheck? And why is the tight end like the knight on a chessboard?      To some, game planning consists only of designing an attack for the next opponent. But Lombardi explains how the smartest leaders script everything : from an afternoon's special-teams practice to a season's playoff run to a decade-long organizational blueprint. Readers will delight in the Lombardi tour of an NFL weekend, including what really goes on during the game on and off the field and inside the headset. First stop : Belichick's Saturday night staff meeting, where he announces how the game will go the next day. Spoiler alert : He always nails it.      Football dynasties are built through massive attention to detail and unwavering commitment. From how to build a team, to how to watch a game, to understanding the essential qualities of great leaders, Gridiron Genius gives football fans the knowledge to be the smartest person in the room every Sunday.

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Big Game - Mark Leibovich Cover Art

Big Game

Big Game The NFL in Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich

“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League." —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town , an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxiety Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing were a Hail Mary at best, but Brady returned Mark's call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous. So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "peak football"--the high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear. Players have long joked that NFL stands for "not for long," but as the true impact of concussions becomes inescapable background noise, it's increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious consequences. And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark's day job caught up with him, and the NFL slammed headlong into America's culture wars. Big Game is a journey through an epic storm. Through it all, Leibovich always keeps one eye on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the 2018 Super Bowl. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve.

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I Feel Like Going On - Ray Lewis Cover Art

I Feel Like Going On

I Feel Like Going On Life, Game, and Glory by Ray Lewis

In this New York Times bestselling memoir, Ray Lewis—legendary Baltimore Ravens linebacker and one of the greatest defensive players of his generation—holds nothing back on the state of football as well as his troubled childhood, his rise to athletic greatness, the storm that threatened to ruin his NFL career, and the devastating injury that nearly cost him a final moment of glory. Ray Lewis is undeniably one of the biggest names in football—not only for his seventeen years in the NFL, but also for the dramatic events that nearly brought his career to a halt in 2000. In his memoir, Lewis shares honest accounts of his difficult childhood and delves into the anguish and controversy that he found away from the game. But these heartbreaks gave him the courage to trust in God and continue his dream to play for the NFL and win the Super Bowl. From a rookie player to a football veteran, Lewis has experienced everything imaginable during his football career, and has become one of the best defensive players in the history of the NFL. I Feel Like Going On is the story of his incredible journey, and a sincere look at the most popular sport in America from one of football’s most revered players.

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Death to the BCS - Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter & Jeff Passan Cover Art

Death to the BCS

Death to the BCS The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series by Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter & Jeff Passan

A team of award-winning sports reporters takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series. Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Division I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship. It is, without a doubt, the most hated institution in all of sports. A recent Sports Illustrated poll found that more than 90 percent of sports fans oppose the BCS, yet this system has remained in place for more than a decade. Built upon top-notch investigative reporting, Death to the BCS at last reveals the truth about this monstrous entity and offers a simple solution for fixing it. Death to the BCS includes findings from interviews with power players, as well as research into federal tax records, Congressional testimony, and private contracts, revealing: ?The truth behind the "Cartel"-the anonymous suits who run the BCS and who profit handsomely by protecting it ?The flawed math and corruption that determine which teams participate in the national championship ?How the system hurts competition by perpetuating "cupcake" schedules ?How "mid-major" teams are systematically denied a chance to play for the championship ?How a comprehensive sixteen-team playoff plan can solve the problem while enhancing profitability The first book to lay out the unseemly inner workings of the BCS in full detail, Death to the BCS is a rousing manifesto for bringing fairness back to one of our most beloved sports.

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The Last Headbangers: NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless '70s: the Era that Created Modern Sports - Kevin Cook Cover Art

The Last Headbangers: NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless '70s: the Era that Created Modern Sports

The Last Headbangers: NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless '70s: the Era that Created Modern Sports by Kevin Cook

The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history—pro football’s raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana’s gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today. Kevin Cook’s rollicking chronicle of this pivotal decade draws on interviews with legendary players—Harris, Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Ken “Snake” Stabler—to re-create their heroics and off-field carousing. He shows coaches John Madden and Bill Walsh outsmarting rivals as Monday Night Football redefined sports’ place in American life. Celebrating the game while lamenting the physical toll it took on football’s greatest generation, Cook diagrams the NFL’s transformation from second-tier sport into national obsession.

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Belichick and Brady - Michael Holley Cover Art

Belichick and Brady

Belichick and Brady Two Men, the Patriots, and How They Revolutionized Football by Michael Holley

New York Times bestselling sportswriter Michael Holley takes readers behind the scenes of the relationship that transformed the Patriots from a middling franchise to the envy of the NFL. No head coach-quarterback pair has been more successful in NFL history than Bill Belichick and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. They have won four Super Bowls, six AFC championships, and thirteen division titles. And now Holley takes us inside their relationship, dissecting how these men and their team came to dominate football. Belichick, a genius as a defensive coordinator, had been a five-year flop as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Upon his controversial arrival in Foxboro, though, he quickly began to remake the team at every level--scouts, coaches, and players. His bold, calculated approach had fans up in arms, sportswriters questioning his intelligence, and players wondering how long they would last on the team. Meanwhile, buried down in the 2000 NFL draft, the 199th overall pick was a skinny kid from the University of Michigan named Tom Brady who many scouts thought would never succeed at a professional level. The lowest of the four quarterbacks on the team's depth chart, he appeard to be just one of the guys. Like Belichick, though, he lived for football, and he knew the playbook as well as Drew Bledsoe, the franchise quarterback. And when Bledsoe was injured in 2001, Brady took the job and vowed to never give it back. The handsome Brady became a star, wearing hand-tailored suits, appearing in movies and on magazine covers, and marrying a supermodel. Belichick, with his trademark cut-off hoodies, was the opposite of a fashion plate. Together, the odd couple somehow rose above controversies and tragedies. Draft picks were lost, suspensions given, lawsuits filed. As their legends have grown, so have their critics, with some of those critics operating from NFL headquarters. Despite that, with Belichick's deft and brilliant strategy in the draft year in year out and Brady's exacting decision-making on the field, the Patriots cultivated an atmosphere of success and won a stunning 75 percent of their games together. Respected and reviled, Belichick and Brady have set the bar high for excellence in a league designed for parity. They have rarely been understood. Until now. Based on dozens of interviews with former and current players, coaches, and executives, Belichick and Brady is an eye-opening look at the minds, motives, and wild ambitions of two men who have left an indelible mark on the game of football.

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Fourth and Long - John U. Bacon Cover Art

Fourth and Long

Fourth and Long The Fight for the Soul of College Football by John U. Bacon

From New York Times bestselling author and Michigan football expert John Back, an analysis of the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it. In search of the sport’s old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—and captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a team’s angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his master’s exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio State’s Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigan’s athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn State’s tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill O’Brien to save the university’s treasured program—and with it, a piece of the game’s soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old game—a game he sees at the precipice. Bacon’s deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.

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Brady vs Manning - Gary Myers Cover Art

Brady vs Manning

Brady vs Manning The Untold Story of the Rivalry That Transformed the NFL by Gary Myers

New York Times Bestseller  From Acclaimed sports journalist Gary Myers comes the definitive inside account of the greatest rivalry in NFL history Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are perhaps the two greatest quarterbacks of all time. They are living legends who have come to embody the quarterback position and shape an entire generation of the NFL. They have also been fierce rivals every step of the way, and their many epic duels have not only ranked among the best and most exciting games ever played, they have fundamentally shaped the lives of and careers of both men. But for all their shared brilliance, they are a study in contrasts. Tom is the underdog turned ultimate winner, an unheralded draft pick who went on to win a miraculous Super Bowl and become the leader of one of the NFL’s greatest dynasties. He is as firmly associated with big game brilliance as anyone who has ever played. Meanwhile Peyton was born into NFL royalty and a mountain of outsized expectations, yet somehow lived up to and exceeded all the hype, claiming virtually every passing record along his path to football immortality. The contrast in greatness—between the overachieving underdog and the crown prince of football, between postseason brilliance and statistical dominance—has served as an endless source of fascination for fans and media, and over the years as the two players have faced off again and again in classic games, the argument has only intensified. But until now, there has never been a definitive treatment of the debate that tells the real story. What do Tom and Peyton actually think of each other? What do their coaches think of them? What about teammates and opposing players? What are they like behind closed doors and in the locker room, and how does that influence their careers? How did their vastly different upbringings shape them, and how has each handled the injuries, setbacks and defeats they’ve dealt with over their careers? In this extraordinary book, veteran NFL correspondent Gary Myers tackles this subject from every angle and with unprecedented access and insight, drawing on a huge number of never-before-heard interviews with Brady and Manning, their coaches, their families, and those who have played with them and against them. The result is a remarkable collection of the most entertaining and revealing stories ever told about Peyton and Tom, from how they developed their vastly different leadership styles, to the unlikely friendship they’ve built over the years, to their respective exploits as locker room pranksters. Wildly entertaining and deeply thought-provoking, Brady vs Manning is essential reading for anyone who truly wants to understand these extraordinary players.

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Coaching Confidential - Gary Myers Cover Art

Coaching Confidential

Coaching Confidential Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers

A behind-the-scenes look at the high-pressure lives of NFL head coaches Coaching Confidential chronicles a year in the life of an NFL head coach. But not just one head coach. A composite portrait is drawn through interviews with at least 20 current and former head coaches (including Super Bowl winners such as Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin, Jimmy Johnson, Tony Dungy, Sean Payton, Mike Shanahan, Dick Vermeil, Mike Holmgren, Brian Billick, and Joe Gibbs), taking us through the professional and personal challenges of the job. This book covers the draft, free agency, big trades, training camp, family crisis, player troubles, coaching relationships with members of the staff, coach-owner dynamics, rivalries, Xs and Os, the playoffs--all the way to the Super Bowl.      Just getting to Sunday is almost a relief for NFL head coaches. It's during that three-hour window 16 days a year when they can simply concentrate on what they do best, which is trying to win football games. But the job is, of course, much more than that.

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The Cost of These Dreams - Wright Thompson Cover Art

The Cost of These Dreams

The Cost of These Dreams Sports Stories and Other Serious Business by Wright Thompson

The instant New York Times bestseller! From one of America's most beloved sportswriters and the bestselling author of Pappyland , a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports. "Wright Thompson's stories are so full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail that I sometimes thinks he's working my side of the street - the world of fiction." - John Grisham There is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN (and it's not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers (see back of book). But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. He jimmies the lock to the furnaces inside the people he profiles and does an analysis of the fuel that fires their ambition. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Pat Riley or Urban Meyer, he strips the away the self-serving myths and fantasies to reveal his characters in full. There are fascinating common denominators: it may not be the case that every single great performer or coach had a complex relationship with his father, but it can sure seem that way. And there is much marvelous local knowledge: about specific sports, and times and places, and people. Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporter's art, and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.

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Tim Tebow - Belmont & Belcourt Biographies Cover Art

Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow An Unauthorized Biography by Belmont & Belcourt Biographies

Tim Tebow is one of the most talked about athletes of all-time. Everybody seems to have an opinion about him – especially his religious beliefs. But in order to truly understand Tim Tebow, you must first understand where he came from. Tim Tebow: An Unauthorized Biography , explores Tebow’s upbringing, his high school and college football career, and details his breakthrough into the NFL – all the way through his trade to the New York Jets . “Tebow-mania” has fans and critics alike questioning his motives and looking for where God and his career will take him next. By reading this book you will find out where it all started and learn why so many fans are “Tebowing” alongside their new national hero. From family to football to the future, all you need to know about Tim Tebow is right here, right now, in the most up-to-date coverage of Tim Tebow’s life. This book also includes all of Tim Tebow’s college and professional football statistics.

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When the Game Stands Tall - Neil Hayes, John Madden & Bob Larson Cover Art

When the Game Stands Tall

When the Game Stands Tall The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak by Neil Hayes, John Madden & Bob Larson

De La Salle High School in Concord, California, is home to perhaps the greatest dynasty in sports history. At age 23, Coach Bob Ladouceur launched a legend, "The Streak," with no teaching or head-coaching experience, and with his teams amassed the highest winning percentage in all of football history with 138 consecutive victories. This book takes readers behind the scenes, closely following individual players, as Ladouceur guides his team through the most daunting schedule in school history, the 2002 season. Numerous interviews with major-league coaches such as Bill Walsh, Steve Mariucci, and John Gruden show the depth of respect accorded to Ladouceur and his methods and philosophies. Written with full cooperation from the coach and including dozens of photographs, this book is perfect for anyone interested in the factors behind phenomenal team success.

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The Road Back - Star Tribune Cover Art

The Road Back

The Road Back Adrian Peterson's path to recovery and domination in the NFL by Star Tribune

Adrian Peterson had major surgery on his left knee on Dec. 30, 2011, making it unlikely the Vikings’ All-Pro running back would be ready for the start of the 2012 NFL season. He vowed to return better than ever, even as his team tried to temper enthusiasm. Over the past year, Star Tribune writers chronicled Peterson’s offseason recovery, his impatient training camp, his return to the field and the remarkable second half of his season. The Road Back brings together the Star Tribune's exclusive coverage of Peterson's pursuit of  NFL records and efforts to lead his team into the playoffs.

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I Think Therefore I Play - Andrea Pirlo & Alessandro Alciato Cover Art

I Think Therefore I Play

I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo & Alessandro Alciato

Andrea Pirlo is one of the finest footballers of his generation - a World Cup and Champions League winning playmaker who has redefined his position at the base of midfield, and one of the most deadly free-kick takers the game has known. This is his story, in his words. It is written with a level of humour and insight which confound his image as a dead-eyed assassin on the field of play. All the big names are in there: Lippi, Ancelotti, Conte, Maldini, Shevchenko, Seedorf, Buffon, Kaka, Nesta, Balotelli, Costacurta, Gattuso, Berlusconi and Ronaldo ("the real one"). But they're not always in their work clothes. We hear Berlusconi playing the piano and telling "various types of jokes" at Milan's training ground. We see Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi drawing Nesta's ire as they take him on a mystery tour of the German countryside in a hire car days before a World Cup semi-final. And we smell the aftermath of Filippo Inzaghi's graphically-described pre-match routine. With the 2014 World Cup being his last international tournament, this is a timely salute to a special talent who may yet have one final chapter left to write.

48

4th and Goal Every Day - Phil Savage & Ray Glier Cover Art

4th and Goal Every Day

4th and Goal Every Day Alabama's Relentless Pursuit of Perfection by Phil Savage & Ray Glier

4th and Goal Every day tells the improbable story of how Alabama won 5 national titles in 9 seasons. Fans want to know, “How does Alabama do it?” With a Preface by Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban and a Foreword by ESPN's College Gameday Host Rece Davis. Phil Savage first worked with Nick Saban when they both joined the Cleveland Browns’ coaching staff in 1991. They were reunited in 2009 when Savage became part of the Crimson Tide Sports Network as the radio color analyst. Since then, Savage has enjoyed an up-close view of the Alabama program’s dedication to recruiting, its commitment to practice, and devotion to fundamentals. Now comes his 360-degree perspective on Alabama football and Coach Nick Saban’s unique coaching style, a style that has led the Crimson Tide to five Southeastern Conference titles, three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances and four national championships. Savage details Coach Saban’s year-round preparation, his willingness to adjust and his belief in “complimentary football.” The book offers a close look at their player development and practice habits and gives a glimpse of the Crimson Tide’s approach of playing every single down like it’s 4th and goal. You won’t find another person who can intelligently discuss Alabama football in public better than Phil Savage. Together with Ray Glier, this in-depth story chronicles how the Crimson Tide re-emerged as one of the true superpowers in college football.

49

The QB - Bruce Feldman Cover Art

The QB

The QB The Making of Modern Quarterbacks by Bruce Feldman

With unparalleled access to Heisman Trophy-winning phenom Johnny Manziel, Bruce Feldman has written a modern-day tale about the making of the next superstars in football's most important position: the quarterback.   In the world of modern football, with NFL teams worth more than a billion dollars, no position defines a franchise like the quarterback. The QB is the story of a year in the making of those star players, and of the most significant year in QB development in sport’s history… with the meteoric rise of various quarterback gurus finally coming to light. George Whitfield, profiled in the New Yorker and called the “Quarterback Whisperer,” gets a regular spot on ESPN’s College GameDay, Trent Dilfer, former Super Bowl quarterback, starts his own qb business, Steve Clarkson, another qb maker, gets profiled on 60 minutes, among many others. It is also the year 5’10” Russell Wilson wins the Super Bowl and for the first time in over 60 years a sub-6-foot QB, Johnny Manziel, gets drafted in the first round, forcing NFL power brokers to re-examine how they look at the position—and the game.          To tell the story of all that goes on to create the perfect quarterback, bestselling author Bruce Feldman gained unique access to "Johnny Football" (that's Johnny Manziel), George Whitfield and many other players in what has become a specialized and high-stakes business. In the past decade the boom of the private quarterback-coach business, with its pageant-world-for-boys vibe, has changed the position and the game. The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel’s portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics.  His guru is a man who has come to be known for making QBs--George Whitfield, unparalleled in the business. And then there is Trent Dilfer, the quarterback who never could get to the superstar level, despite winning the Super Bowl.  He is the Salieri to Manziel's Mozart. There is the computer/brain analysis company trying to quantify how playmakers think, the biomechanics expert who saved Drew Brees’s career, and many more fascinating behind-the-scenes looks into this world. Never before has the game so relied on the development of the quarterback. In The QB , the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback’s game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.

50

Football Scouting Methods - Steve Belichick Cover Art

Football Scouting Methods

Football Scouting Methods by Steve Belichick

Reprint of the 1962 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Considered the bible of scouting techniques" according to the Los Angeles Times, Football Scouting Methods explains the basic scouting strategies and insights of author Steve Belichick. He was widely viewed as the ablest football scout of his time and coached at the U.S. Naval Academy for 33 years; his son is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a three-time Super Bowl winner. When Steve Belichick died in November 2005, the New York Times headline cited him as "Coach Who Wrote the Book on Scouting," and quoted Houston Texans General Manager Charley Casserly calling Football Scouting Methods "the best book on scouting he had ever read." Joe Bellino, Navy's Heisman Trophy winner in 1960, told the Times that Steve Belichick "was a genius. On Monday nights, he would give us his scouting reports, and even though we were playing powerhouses, I always felt we were prepared because he found a way for us to win." In recent years Football Scouting Methods has been one of the top ten most sought out-of-print books; used copies have been quite scarce. This reissue edition makes the original 1962 text available once again in exact facsimile. The book covers how to scout opponents, recognize defenses, analyze offenses, discover "tip-offs" that reveal the opponent's plays, compose a useful report, self-scout, and conduct postgame analysis. "Steve Belichick taught many younger men how to scout and how to watch film and how to prepare their teams for the next week's game," David Halberstam noted in the Washington Post, and his best student was his own son Bill Belichick, "one of whose greatest skills as a coach to this day remains his ability to analyze other teams, figuring out both their strengths and their vulnerabilities, and shrewdly deciding how to take away from them that which they most want to do." When CBS asked Bill Belichick to name his favorite book, he replied "Well, I've got to go with my dad's. Football Scouting Methods. I'd have to go with that."

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