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.

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Sports Ebook Best Sellers

Top Football eBook Best Sellers

1

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

A behind-the-scenes tour of the ups and downs of an NFL season focuses on the Baltimore Ravens and reveals the lesser-known aspects of the professional league, from the dangerous conditions under which athletes are expected to train to the unrelenting pressures faced by coaches and players.  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.

2

Playmakers - Mike Florio Cover Art

Playmakers

Playmakers How the NFL Really Works (And Doesn't) by Mike Florio

The “riveting” (Al Michaels) story of a modern NFL that can’t get out of its own way—and can’t stop making money In recent decades, the NFL has simultaneously become an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse—and a League that can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a scandal. Whether it’s about domestic violence, performance-enhancing drugs, racism, or head trauma, the NFL always seems to be in some kind of trouble. Yet no matter the drama, the TV networks keep showing games, the revenue keeps rising, and the viewers keep tuning in. How can a sports league—or any organization—operate this way? Why do the negative stories keep happening, and why don’t they ever seem to affect the bottom line? In this wide-ranging book, Mike Florio takes readers from the boardroom to the locker room, from draft day to the Super Bowl, answering these questions and more, and showing what really goes on in the sport that America can’t seem to quit. Packed with new insights and reporting on scandals past and present, this book will be the talk of the League—whether the League likes it or not.

3

The Spectre of Pep - Jon Mackenzie Cover Art

The Spectre of Pep

The Spectre of Pep How Guardiola Haunts Modern Football Tactics by Jon Mackenzie

'A brilliant book... essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how Guardiola has transformed and dominated modern football ' JAMIE CARRAGHER 'An intelligent and provocative book about one of the most fascinating and confounding figures in all of sport' FINANCIAL TIMES A spectre is haunting European football. Watch almost any game, no matter the level, and you will notice it. From inverted full backs to extreme high lines, the tactical threads of the match will eventually converge onto a singular point: Pep Guardiola. For some though, his near total dominance has come at the cost of the game itself, with modern football's protagonists caught between acknowledging Guardiola's greatness and wanting to evolve the sport beyond him. In The Spectre of Pep , acclaimed tactics writer Jon Mackenzie explores this contradiction. But this is much more than the story of just one man. After tracing Guardiola's ascendancy, displacing giants like Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, it examines how other elite coaches have fought to establish their own legacies within this landscape - including the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Roberto De Zerbi, Luis Enrique and Mikel Arteta. And with his time at Manchester City coming to an end - in a world where his influence is arguably diminishing - it also speculates on what the next generation of tactics may look like, and how Guardiola's legacy will be viewed in the future. If you want to understand football today, you have to understand the tactical spectre of Pep Guardiola. To do that, you need this book.

4

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.

5

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 1990s dynasty. 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, this inside story reveals 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. This gripping work of sports journalism reveals the whole story: The Dynasty’s Rise and Fall: Go inside the locker room and front office, from the unceremonious firing of Tom Landry to the back-to-back Super Bowl victories and the bitter divorce between owner Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson. Unforgettable Hall of Fame Talent: Relive the on-field brilliance of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, and the off-the-field chaos that followed them, Deion Sanders, and the rest of America’s Team. Sex, Drugs, and Pro Football: An unflinching, behind-the-scenes look at the rampant partying, drug use, and jaw-dropping excess that defined the ’Boys when they weren’t on the gridiron. Definitive NFL History: Based on hundreds of interviews, this is the definitive account of how the most dominant—and notorious—team of the ’90s was built and how it all came crashing down.

6

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.

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Football - Chuck Klosterman Cover Art

Football

Football by Chuck Klosterman

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Could this be the best book on football ever?” —Tyler Cowen "Another masterwork from one of our greatest minds.” — Esquire “[An] essential playoff-season read.” —People A hilarious but nonetheless groundbreaking contribution to the argument about which force shapes American life the most. For two kinds of readers—those who know it’s football and those who are about to find out. Chuck Klosterman— New York Times bestselling critic, journalist, and, yes, football psychotic—did not write this book to deepen your appreciation of the game. He’s not trying to help you become that person at the party, or to teach you how to make better bets, or to validate any preexisting views you might have about the sport (positive or negative). Football does, in fact, do all of those things. But not in the way such things have been done in the past, and never in a way any normal person would expect. Cultural theorists talk about hyperobjects—phenomena that bulk so large that their true dimensions are hidden in plain sight. In 2023, 93 of the 100 most-watched programs on U.S. television were NFL football games. This is not an anomaly. This is how society is best understood. Football is not merely the country’s most popular sport; it is engrained in almost everything that explains what America is, even for those who barely pay attention. Klosterman gets to the bottom of all of it. He takes us to a metaphorical projection of Texas, where the religion of six-man football merges with America’s Team [ sic ] and makes an inexplicable impact on a boy in North Dakota. He dissects the question of natural greatness, the paradox of gambling and war, and the timeless caricature of the uncompromising head coach. He interrogates the perfection of football’s marriage with television and the morality of acceptable risk. He even conjures an extinction-level event. If Žižek liked the SEC more than he liked cinema, if Stephen Jay Gould cared about linebackers more than he cared about dinosaurs, if Steve Martin played quarterback instead of the banjo . . . it would still be nothing like this. A century ago, Yale’s legendary coach Walter Camp wrote his unified theory of the game. He called it Football . Chuck Klosterman has given us a new Camp for the new age, rooted in a personal history he cannot escape.

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Game Over - Bill Moushey & Robert Dvorchak Cover Art

Game Over

Game Over Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Cullture of Silence by Bill Moushey & Robert Dvorchak

The most comprehensive and explosive book on the worst scandal in the history of sports, Game Over investigates the devastating sexual abuse case that brought down Joe Paterno and forever tarnished the name of Penn State. In this incisive work of investigative journalism, Bill Moushey and Bob Dvorchak, along with Lisa Pulitzer, go behind the headlines, official statements, and court transcripts to tell the full story of the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the nation—a tale of power, privilege, money, and politics that leads from the football building on the Penn State campus to the administration's boardroom to the highest echelons of the state capital and beyond. Eye-opening and fast-paced,  Game Over  exposes the lies, willful ignorance, and cover-ups that may have allowed a sexual predator to use his position and status to prey on vulnerable young victims for years. Its explosive new discoveries shatter the illustrious image of "Happy Valley"—State College, Pennsylvania, home to one of the nation's most successful and highly lucrative college football programs. Moushey, Dvorchak, and Pulitzer craft a story that is as compelling as it is unsettling. Probing beneath the male-dominated football culture, they share the untold stories of the mothers and wives, the sisters and daughters associated with the scandal. They trace the rise and fall of hometown hero and national icon Joe Paterno—the Nittany Lion's legendary head coach with the most wins in the history of college football, including two national championship titles—juxtaposing Penn State's success and glory with the hidden anguish of former coach Jerry Sandusky's accusers. As it details the rise and fall of the individuals associated with the scandal, it also makes clear the larger implications for the university, its vaunted football program, the community, and all of us. An exploration of the messy morality of pride and loyalty, silence and bearing witness,  Game Over  will leave readers pondering their own values and their beliefs in right and wrong.

9

The Game - Peter King Cover Art

The Game

The Game by Peter King

"After four decades inside the NFL, Peter King has stories no one else can tell." —Troy Aikman "[A] joyful, insightful, colorful, remarkable look at the modern rise and reign of the NFL through the lens of football’s greatest chronicler and storyteller." —Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author With his signature blend of history, insider reporting, sharp opinion, and vivid anecdote, Peter King offers an extraordinary front-row-seat chronicle of the modern NFL, taking us into the defining moments, teams, controversies, and more. For 40 years, Peter King’s unmatched access, curiosity, and passion have made him synonymous with the National Football League. He broke countless stories, giving us the human side of the sport and influencing countless reporters. Players trusted him; coaches and owners revealed information to him. He gathered it all into notebooks and columns that kept fans riveted. Now, in The Game, King has brought all his knowledge and insight together in one place to tell the story of the modern NFL as no one else could. Moving from the mid-1980s, when the league went head-to-head with baseball in popularity, to the present, when it dominates every other entertainment in America, King narrates the NFL’s explosive rise from the inside. He puts us in the room with Pete Rozelle, toward the end of the legendary commissioner’s career and life. He takes us on the Madden Cruiser, on a cross-country journey with John Madden. He goes behind the scenes in the Reggie White free-agency saga, when the small-town Green Bay Packers made the canniest offer you’ll ever hear. He gives us Deion Sanders’s philosophy on how to be great on the field and how to work the system off it. He shows us Steve Young, lying in a bed with IVs in each arm after the greatest game of his life on the biggest stage. He shares the bizarre story of how a tanning bed and some well-timed push-ups helped catapult Peyton Manning to the top of the 1998 draft. He reveals Nick Foles’s mastery of a moment no one thought he could be equal to. He brings us inside the worlds of referees, of owners, of NFL drafts. Looking at the future, he fires a warning shot about the greed overtaking the game. Time and again, King was in limousines, on planes, in locker rooms, and on sidelines where players and coaches told him why they did what they did, whom they hated, whom they thought highly of, what they dreamed of achieving. The result is The Game—a portrait of the modern NFL in all its messy glory, from one of the greatest storytellers the sport has ever produced.

10

A Payroll to Meet - David Whitford Cover Art

A Payroll to Meet

A Payroll to Meet A Story of Greed, Corruption, and Football at SMU by David Whitford

Southern Methodist University in Dallas is one of numerous prestigious universities in Texas. The school’s football team was the pride of the university and the city. Before the late 1970s, however, the relatively small school had trouble recruiting and struggled to keep up with the big-time football universities that were often more than double its size. Under pressure to compete, the SMU football program engaged in ethics, rules, and recruiting violations for years. When the corruption came to light, the NCAA handed out its most serious punishment in the history of college sports—the “death penalty”—which cancelled the team’s entire 1987 schedule. In A Payroll to Meet , author David Whitford details the Mustangs’ descent into corruption and the fallout when it was discovered. Most egregiously, the football program ran a huge slush fund that was used to pay players from the mid-1970s through 1986. Bill Clements, chairman of the SMU board and soon to be reelected governor of Texas, knew all about the slush fund before the NCAA did. He opted, however, to phase out the payments rather than stop them immediately, for fear that angry players might go public and create still more problems for SMU. Clements and the athletic director Bob Hitch decided that the football program had “a payroll to meet.”

11

Every Day Is Sunday - Ken Belson Cover Art

Every Day Is Sunday

Every Day Is Sunday How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut by Ken Belson

A New York Times  Notable Book of 2025 - One of Barnes & Noble's Best Sports Books of 2025 From veteran New York Times Business & NFL reporter, Ken Belson, a deeply-reported account of how the NFL’s Commissioner, Roger Goodell, and its two most powerful owners, Jerry Jones & Robert Kraft, turned the league into a cultural phenomenon. On February 11, 2024, NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, & the league’s two most powerful owners, Jerry Jones & Robert Kraft, looked down at the spectacle before them. What they saw was the sport’s championship game, the Super Bowl—now a de facto national holiday—being played in a shiny new $2B stadium, home to the first franchise based in Las Vegas, after the league’s embrace of nationwide gambling. The moment was over 30 years in the making. As one of Goodell's colleagues said: “Roger doesn’t view the other leagues as competition. He wants to be mentioned with Disney and the Vatican, these massive institutions.” In Every Day is Sunday , Ken Belson traces the evolution of the league from “one of the four US professional sports,” to the superpower it is today. Belson illustrates how the league’s rise coincided with the arrival of Jones & Kraft in the early 90’s. He provides an inside look on how these two men reshaped the league, taking readers into the secretive owner’s meeting, how they decided Goodell was the right man to place as Commissioner, and how the three built, wielded, and held on to their collective power. Perfect for fans of The Dynasty and Big Game , Belson provides a unique peek behind the curtain of how America’s favorite sport achieved its status—and how these three men let nothing stand in their way.

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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.

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The Missing Ring - Keith Dunnavant Cover Art

The Missing Ring

The Missing Ring How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize by Keith Dunnavant

From the author of Montana , "a stunning look at how a bunch of overachievers was able to accomplish everything—except win a national title" ( The Tampa Tribune ). Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Especially dominant during the era of the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, the larger-than-life figure who towered over the landscape like no man before or since, Alabama entered the 1966 season with the chance to become the first college football team to win three consecutive national championships. The Crimson Tide cruised to a magical season, finishing as the nation's only undefeated, untied team. But something happened on the way to the history books. The Missing Ring is the story of the one that got away, the one that haunts Alabama fans still, and native Alabamian Keith Dunnavant takes readers deep inside the Crimson Tide program during a more innocent time, before widespread telecasting, before scholarship limitations, before end-zone dances. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the still-escalating Vietnam War, and a world and a sport teetering on the brink of change in a variety of ways, The Missing Ring tells an important story about the collision between football and culture. Ultimately, it is this clash that produces the Crimson Tide's most implacable foe, enabling the greatest injustice in college football history. "Evocative and provocative." — Sports Illustrated "Absolutely stunning. The Missing Ring left me breathless." —Paul Finebaum, Finebaum Radio Network "When it comes to Alabama football, nobody does a better job of research and reporting than Keith Dunnavant, and this is another masterful job." —Tony Bernhart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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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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The Price - Armen Keteyian & John Talty Cover Art

The Price

The Price What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos by Armen Keteyian & John Talty

“An explosive tell-all book.”— Sports Illustrated “This is a must-read masterpiece.”—Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst and New York Times bestselling author Two of the nation’s most respected sports journalists team up for a vital, hard-hitting investigation into the tumultuous state of big-time college football. We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, and the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money, self-interest, and a powerless NCAA rule. The Price is a sweeping, in-depth work of investigative sports journalism that looks at an inflection point in big-time college football. Six time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter John Talty conducted more than two hundred wide-ranging interviews with head coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, administrators, politicians, power brokers, agents and media executives from one corner of the sport to the other. They reveal never-before-reported details on major players such as Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, and Lane Kiffin. Keteyian and Talty’s reporting also lays bare the machinations that destroyed the historic conference that was the Pac-12, purely in the name of greed. As the sport’s premier coaches race for the exits, Keteyian and Talty reveal deep, dark truths about a beloved game under siege—and the financial, physical, emotional and psychological toll taken on everyone whose dreams and fortunes often depend on the final score on a Saturday afternoon. The Price goes behind the headlines to uncover the real cost of the game today: NIL and the Transfer Portal: Uncover how Name, Image, and Likeness deals and the chaotic transfer portal have created a Wild West where money and self-interest rule, leaving the NCAA powerless. Coaching Turmoil: Get never-before-reported details from over 200 interviews with giants like Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh as they grapple with a game that’s spinning out of control. Conference Realignment Chaos: Discover the inside story of the greed and backroom deals that led to the shocking destruction of the historic Pac-12 conference. The Future of College Football: Explore the deep, dark truths of a beloved American sport under siege and what the enormous financial and psychological toll means for its future.

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Strike Season - michael eck Cover Art

Strike Season

Strike Season The True Story of a Team That Played on When the Coaches Walked Out by michael eck

Friday Night Lights meets Lord of the Flies in this unforgettable true story of a high school football team that banded together when a teacher’s strike left them without coaches. Michael Eck had always been captivated by his father’s love of Notre Dame football. Now, they were recruiting him to play quarterback. But just two games into his high school senior season, his teachers went on strike, and the coaches followed. With the season canceled and their college dreams in jeopardy, Michael and his three co-captains had a daring idea: What if we coached ourselves? Secretly thinking this gave them leverage in negotiations with the union, the school board shockingly agreed. Facing the roar of picket lines and corralling adrenaline-charged teammates, the Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils became more than symbols of defiance—they were unwitting pawns in an adults’ game. Every play carried weight; every practice and victory risked unraveling into chaos. And as scouts watched and headlines chronicled their season, Michael and his teammates navigated the unprecedented responsibility of holding the team together, winning without coaches, and chasing their dreams. Strike Season is a poignant memoir about the lengths young people will go to achieve their dreams in the face of overwhelming odds. It is also the story of a boy desperate to make his father proud, a coach wrestling with his loyalties, and a young social studies teacher fighting for his union. At once thrilling and inspiring, Strike Season captures a moment in sports history when youth and courage collide, forever changing a group of young men and the game they loved.

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Football Done Right - Michael Lombardi & August Lamm Cover Art

Football Done Right

Football Done Right Setting the Record Straight on the Coaches, Players, and History of the NFL by Michael Lombardi & August Lamm

Former NFL general manager and three-time Super Bowl winner Michael Lombardi takes readers on the ultimate journey through the NFL's history to present his calls on the greatest players and coaches the sport has ever seen.  From Monday Night Football to Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL is a dominating force in the lives of millions of fans who tune in and passionately cheer for their favorite teams. And when the games are over, the conversation is just getting started. Who's the greatest player of all time? Which coaches truly shaped the game we known and love today? What was the most unforgettable game? Why is professional football such an undeniable part of our culture?  Three-time Super Bowl winner Michael Lombardi has done it all—from scout to executive to coach—and now he sets the record straight on these questions and more. With Football Done Right , Lombardi tackles all aspects of the sport, discussing the best of the best. He channels his 35+ years of experience with the NFL into an all-encompassing celebration of the game. More than just ranking the giants of the league, Lombardi shows how and why each affected the game. Mixing first-person, in-the-locker-room experience with little known history and hard stats, Lombardi makes a definitive case for the most influential coaches and the best players, and also offers an insider look to how drafts and trades operate behind the scenes and honoring the sportscasters who played an essential role in popularizing the sport. Both a full history of the sport and a comprehensive re-imagining of the Football Hall of Fame to honor every deserving athlete and coach, Football Done Right will change the way you watch, discuss, and debate the gridiron.

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Season of Saturdays - Michael Weinreb Cover Art

Season of Saturdays

Season of Saturdays A History of College Football in 14 Games by Michael Weinreb

From an award-winning sports journalist and college football expert: “A beautifully written mix of memoir and reportage that tracks college ball through fourteen key games, giving depth and meaning to all” ( Sports Illustrated ), now with a new Afterword about the first ever College Football Playoff. Every Saturday in the fall, it happens: On college campuses, in bars, at gatherings of fervent alumni, millions come together to watch a sport that inspires a uniquely American brand of passion and outrage. This is college football. Since the first contest in 1869, the game has grown from a stratified offshoot of rugby to a ubiquitous part of our national identity. Right now, as college conferences fracture and grow, as amateur athlete status is called into question, as a playoff system threatens to replace big-money bowl games, we’re in the midst of the most dramatic transitional period in the history of the sport. Season of Saturdays examines the evolution of college football, including the stories of iconic coaches like Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, and Knute Rockne; and programs like the USC Trojans, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Michael Weinreb considers the inherent violence of the game, its early seeds of big-business greed, and its impact on institutions of higher learning. He explains why college football endures, often despite itself. Filtered through journalism and research, as well as the author’s own recollections as a fan, Weinreb celebrates some of the greatest games of all time while revealing their larger significance. “Wry, quirky, fascinating...This surely is one of the most enjoyable books of the college football season...Weinreb wrestles in captivating prose with the violence, hypocrisy, and corruption that are endemic to the sport at its most cutthroat level” ( The Plain Dealer , Cleveland).

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Freezing Cold Takes: College Football - Fred Segal Cover Art

Freezing Cold Takes: College Football

Freezing Cold Takes: College Football An Incomplete History of the Game's Most Inaccurate Statements and Predictions by Fred Segal

From the creator of the wildly popular Freezing Cold Takes brand comes a laugh-out-loud, nostalgia-packed deep dive into the most ill-fated college football predictions ever made. No American sporting tradition evokes more fervor from its fans than college football. In many regions, college programs dwarf their professional counterparts in both revenue and viewership. This  passion is served by the reporters, analysts, and so-called experts whose bold forecasts power an ever-churning content machine. But in this attention economy, the hotter the take, the more likely it is to freeze over. Fred Segal has built a brand sharing these pundit pitfalls with hundreds of thousands of followers on his Freezing Cold Takes social media accounts. Now, in Freezing Cold Takes: College Football, the internet's curator-in-chief of "how did they get this so wrong?" moments turns his sharp eye and wit to the sport's most infamous misfires. From Heisman locks who fizzled to surefire coaching hires that backfired spectacularly, Segal has assembled a Hall of Fame of head-scratching predictions. More than  a book of blunders; this is  a celebration of college football fandom in all its passionate, unpredictable glory. With can't-miss commentary and the harsh light of hindsight, Freezing Cold Takes: College Football is a must-have for diehards, casual fans, and anyone who enjoys a good laugh at the expense of certainty.

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Just Give Me a Chance to Fail - Paul Domowitch Cover Art

Just Give Me a Chance to Fail

Just Give Me a Chance to Fail The Life of NFL Hall of Fame Linebacker Sam Mills by Paul Domowitch

The inspiring story of NFL linebacker Sam Mills, who outplayed his size on three professional football franchises, earning him a place in the Hall of Fame. Despite his on-field success and chiseled physique, Sam Mills faced hurdles at every level because of his stature: his first high school coach initially wouldn't play him, no major college would recruit him, and the NFL wouldn't draft him—or even take him on as an undrafted free agent. But his irrepressible passion for the game would not be denied, driving him to blaze a unique career path. Veteran journalist and Hall of Fame selector Paul Domowitch brings Mills' extraordinary life and the fast-evolving era he played in into vivid focus. From his humble origins to his emergence as an all-star champion in the startup USFL, to becoming the centerpiece of the legendary Dome Patrol defense that transformed the NFL's struggling New Orleans Saints into a contender, to his pinnacle as the All-Pro leader of the expansion Carolina Panthers—where his foundational contributions are commemorated today in a retired jersey and a statue outside the stadium. Along the way, Domowitch brings to life the players, coaches, and teams on whom Mills left his mark before his tragic death from cancer—and his role in transforming the linebacker position during the fast-evolving era of the 1980s and 1990s that helped shape today's pass-focused NFL. Gripping, insightful, and uplifting, Just Give Me a Chance to Fail is a book for every fan of professional football—and anyone who believes success begins with simply getting a chance. "This is a powerful book. It's easily the most inspirational sports book I've ever read. The life of the great Sam Mills is the kind of life you want to lead, and the kind of life you want to teach your children to live. Paul Domowitch is one of America's most respected football writers, and this is a book you will keep on your shelf to come back to over and over." —Sal Paolantonio, ESPN National Correspondent

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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.

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The Playbook - Joshua Robinson & Jonathan Clegg Cover Art

The Playbook

The Playbook The Hidden Forces Shaping Winners and Losers in the Modern NFL by Joshua Robinson & Jonathan Clegg

New York Times bestselling authors Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg turn their sharp reporting and propulsive writing to the NFL, going inside the most influential and successful teams—including the Eagles, the Ravens, and the Rams—and showing what it takes to build winning teams in the most competitive, brutal sports league in the world. The NFL is the toughest league in the world in which to build a winner—and it's not particularly close. Between the hard salary cap, constant rule changes, comprehensive revenue redistribution, and constraining player contracts, the league engineers parity with draconian efficiency. It punishes winners, elevates losers, and goes out of its way to prevent dynasties. By the laws of the NFL, this hard road to the top is a feature, not a bug. And yet, in the face of these intense obstacles, some teams have learned how to thrive, year after year. How does this happen? What separates the champions from the Sunday-afternoon chaff? Talent on the field and on the sidelines helps, but as Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg reveal the modern NFL is not won through Xs and Os alone. Instead there is a new calculus of winning in the world's most lucrative sports league. The teams that triumph exploit a range of loopholes from contract strategy to draft savvy to proprietary metrics, finding ways to extract ruthless efficiencies from a system built to strip away every advantage. Going inside the front offices and locker rooms of the most influential and forward-looking teams in today’s NFL—from the Eagles to the Ravens to the Rams—Robinson and Clegg show the franchises that are using the NFL’s rigid system to their own advantage, examining how they are drafting creatively, winning differently—and how the rest of league has yet to catch up. The result is a fascinating window into achieving success in the modern NFL and an unparalleled look at how the cunning it takes to win on the field starts in the most surprising of places.

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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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Chasing Perfection - Bob Ladouceur & Neil Hayes Cover Art

Chasing Perfection

Chasing Perfection The Principles Behind Winning Football the De La Salle Way by Bob Ladouceur & Neil Hayes

A coaching legend shares techniques, philosophies, and team-building exercises applicable beyond the playing field   In 1979, when Bob Ladouceur took over the head football coaching job at De La Salle high school, the program had never once had a winning season. By the time he stepped down in 2013 and after posting an unprecedented 399–25–3 record, De La Salle was regarded as one of the great dynasties in the history of high school football. In When the Game Stands Tall: Coaches' Playbook , Ladouceur shares, for the first time, the coaching philosophies he employed at De La Salle. Far more than a book on the Xs and Os of football, this resource focuses on how Ladouceur created a culture based on accountability, work ethic, humility, and commitment that made his teams greater than the sum of their parts. This book not only include details on the nuances of the game and the techniques that made the Spartans the most celebrated high school football team in history, it also has chapters on creating what Ladouceur calls an "authentic team experience," which include lessons as valuable in a board room as in a locker room.

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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.

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Vince Lombardi - Fritz Knapp Cover Art

Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi Toughness by Fritz Knapp

As part of the acclaimed Sports Virtues series, Vince Lombardi: Toughness discusses the struggles and triumphs of Vince Lombardi’s life. As with each story in the Sports Virtues series, this book assigns a virtue to a celebrated athlete or coach, and uses that person's story to help the reader achieve that virtue for him or herself. What emerges after reading these stories is not only a greater understanding and appreciation of the virtues that these icons needed to get through life, but also an inspiration for the reader. Each story is followed by a small quotation from literature to amplify the meaning and application of the virtue, and each story is also followed by a series of study/review questions and other interactive activities to help the reader further understand the virtue and how to achieve it. This book is for people of all ages, but it makes for the perfect gift from parents to children or from adult mentors to their students. Other books in the Sports Virtues series include: Lou Gehrig: Appreciation  Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo: Compassion  Roberto Clemente: Dedication  Susan Butcher: Determination Pele: Devotion John Wooden: Discipline  Mike Krzyzewski: Encouragement Cal Ripken, Jr.: Endurance Walter "Red" Barber: Fairness Dennis Byrd: Faithfulness Hank Aaron: Fearlessness Amos Alonzo Stagg: Honesty  Eric Liddell: Humility  Arthur Ashe: Integrity  Bill Bradley: Intelligence Jim Valvano: joyfulness Dan O'Brien & Dave Johnson: Kindness Dean Smith: Loyalty Harvey Penick: Modesty Branch Rickey & Jackie Robinson: Nobility  Althea Gibson: Persistence  Clarence "Big House" Gaines, Sr.: Respectability Joan Benoit Samuelson & Wilma Rudolph: Strength  Vince Lombardi: Toughness Gertrude Ederle: Triumph  Ken Venturi: Trust  The 1980 Men's and 1998 Women's United States Olympic Hockey Teams: Unity  Eddie Robinson: Visionary Happy Chandler: Wisdom

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Our Boys - Joe Drape Cover Art

Our Boys

Our Boys A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen by Joe Drape

A New York Times bestseller "about how a coach and a community are building young men with the simple values of love, patience, and hard work" (Joe Paterno). With a New Afterword The football team in Smith Center, Kansas, has won sixty-seven games in a row, the nation's longest high-school winning streak. They have done so by embracing a philosophy of life taught by their legendary coach, Roger Barta: "Respect each other, then learn to love each other and together we are champions." But as they embarked on a quest for a fifth consecutive title in the fall of 2008, they faced a potentially destabilizing transition: the greatest senior class in school history had graduated, and Barta was contemplating retirement after three decades on the sidelines. In Smith Center—population: 1,931—this changing of the guard was seismic. Hours removed from the nearest city, the town revolves around "our boys" in a way that goes to the heart of what America's heartland is today. Joe Drape, a Kansas City native and an award-winning sportswriter for The New York Time s, moved his family to Smith Center to discover what makes the team and the town an inspiration even to those who live hundreds of miles away. His stories of the coaches, players, and parents reveal a community fighting to hold on to a way of life that is rich in value, even as its economic fortunes decline. " Our Boys delves into the heart of America. . . . Joe Drape crafts a terrific tale that will make you laugh, cry, and think. This is a story about small-town America that will make you shout." —Jim Dent, New York Times –bestselling author

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The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football - Paul Zimmerman Cover Art

The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football

The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football by Paul Zimmerman

During his nearly 30 years at Sports Illustrated, Paul Zimmerman—known to readers as “Dr. Z”—rose to fame as one of the top writers in football history. The follow up to Zimmerman’s 1971 classic The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football, The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football builds on the timeless insights of his original work. Filled with personal anecdotes from Zimmerman’s years covering football, this book offers a fascinating insight into the sport that will appeal to any fan that wants a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game. More than a generation later, Zimmerman’s work is as applicable today as when the updated edition came out in the late 1980s. This widely-acclaimed guide covers: Positions Tactics Football scouting Broadcasting Minor leagues Time strategies Great players and top moments

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Flag Football For Dummies - Diana Flores Cover Art

Flag Football For Dummies

Flag Football For Dummies by Diana Flores

Get in on one of the fastest growing and most exciting games in the world Looking for a safe, fun, and exciting new sport to sink your teeth into? Grab a copy of Flag Football For Dummies and discover how to play one of America's fastest growing new games! Set to become an official Olympic sport in 2028, flag football is an amazing game for both kids and adults. Diana Flores, star quarterback of Mexico's gold medal-winning Women's Flag Football National Team, walks you through the rules, player positions, and strategies that form the basics of the game. You'll learn how to score points, run plays, and even set up a properly designed flag football field. You'll also discover how to navigate the wider world of flag football, finding and joining a league near you and gathering the equipment you need to play safely. Inside the book: Explore the foundations of flag football and become familiar with its rules and strategies Find helpful illustrations and diagrams that show you exactly how the game works Get practical tips and tricks for playing, coaching, and enjoying flag football as a spectator An easy-to-follow resource for anyone interested in learning more about this exciting and popular game, Flag Football For Dummies is a must-read for players, parents of players, coaches, and fans alike.

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Battles at Annapolis - David Gendell & Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch, USN (Ret.) Cover Art

Battles at Annapolis

Battles at Annapolis Two Remarkable Football Games in the Army–Navy Rivalry by David Gendell & Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch, USN (Ret.)

On the shores of the Chesapeake, two hard-fought Army–Navy games left a lasting mark on football and the service academies. On two cool late fall Saturday afternoons, separated by forty-nine years, the spectacle of Army–Navy football unfolded at Annapolis, Maryland, on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy. This pair of rivalry games were played in 1893 and 1942, on the edge of brackish tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay and before crowds among the smallest ever to witness the game. While often treated as sidebars in the epic Army–Navy football narrative, these two games had an outsized impact on the series, on the institutions represented on the field, and even on the sport of football. In a series that continues to be defined by toughness and resilience, these were also among the hardest-fought and roughest games ever played. Battles at Annapolis  presents the context of the two most recent Army–Navy football games played at Annapolis: how the games came to be scheduled and the impact of each contest on the participating institutions, the sport of football, and the broader community. Author David Gendell also showcases the unique personalities who represented the service academies on the field, on the sidelines, and in the stands. Many of the players would soon represent the United States in combat. But before they went to war, they played football. Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch, USN (Ret.), a former Navy football captain and 54th Superintendent of the Naval Academy, contributes the book’s Foreword.

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Gang Green - Gerald Eskenazi Cover Art

Gang Green

Gang Green An Irreverent Look Behind the Scenes by Gerald Eskenazi

Question: What is the only team dating back to the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that has yet to win a division title? Question: What is the only team in the four major pro sports that has existed since the early 1960s and never had a coach leave with a winning career record for the team? Question: What is the only team in sports that plays its home games in a stadium named for another team? If you bleed green and white, you know the answer to these questions as well as you know the color of Joe Willie Namath's shoes. The New York Jets have a record for futility and self-sabotage that is unmatched in the history of professional sports. And nonetheless, they have been rewarded with a loyal following that has made Jets tickets as hard to come by as Jets winning seasons. For Jets fans, the bright beacon of promise has always turned into an onrushing train. They reveled in the joy of the Jets' epic victory in Super Bowl III, when their team beat the 18 1/2-point odds to defeat the Baltimore Colts, just as their cocky young quarterback had guaranteed; they then watched as contract squabbles broke up the core of the team, which would reach just one playoff game in the next twelve years. They cheered as their sleek, explosive team roared into the AFC Championship Game in January 1983; the team was held scoreless after overnight rains pelted the uncovered Orange Bowl field, turning the gridiron into a quagmire that favored the defense-oriented Dolphins. They dared to hope when the Jets went on an unprecedented spending spree in 1996, signing a Super Bowl quarterback and adding a host of fleet receivers and experienced linemen; they saw that team go 1-15, as Rich Kotite's Jets career coaching record sank to a jaw-dropping 4-28. In Gang Green, New York Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi details the bizarre history of this remarkable team. From the poor decisions (drafting Ken O'Brien instead of Dan Marino) and bad luck (Joe Namath's knees, Dennis Byrd's near-tragic neck injury) to the horrendous leadership (see Kotite, above) and outright strangeness (team practices held in an open area alongside the Belt Parkway, leRoy Neiman's presence as team artist-in-residence, the Richard Todd/Matt Robinson quarterback duel that wasn't) that have typified the Jets' mystifying approach to football, Gang Green captures the history of this most unusual franchise in a funny, rollicking, nostalgic tale. If you can name the Jet who is the only man in NFL history to run more than 90 yards on a play from scrimmage without scoring; if you remember the glory days of the New York Sack Exchange, when practice was often disrupted by the distracting presence of Mark Gastineau's inamorata, Brigitte Nielsen; if you can still hum the fight song coach Lou Holtz made the team sing after victories -- not that there were enough for them to memorize the lyrics; or if you know which Jets coach told which Jets punter that his flatulence traveled farther than the punter's kicks -- then Gang Green is the book for you.

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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.

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Freezing Cold Takes: NFL - Fred Segal Cover Art

Freezing Cold Takes: NFL

Freezing Cold Takes: NFL Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions—and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them by Fred Segal

Sports fans love holding media "experts" accountable for bad predictions. Since 2015, Fred Segal has chronicled “unprophetic” sports predictions on the internet. His Freezing Cold Takes social media pages feature quotes and predictions from members of the sports world that have aged poorly or were, in hindsight, flat-out wrong. The pages have become a guilty pleasure for hundreds of thousands of sports fans who love to see (okay, and mock in good humor) sports media’s infamous “hot takes” that went cold.   With this book, Segal focuses on the NFL, and provides a vast collection of poorly aged predictions and analysis from NFL media members and personalities about some of the most famous teams and players in the league’s history.  He also explores ill-fated commentary related to draft picks, hiring decisions, and some of the NFL’s most notable games.  But this book is not simply a list of quotes. It delves through content mined from internet archives and original interviews with media, players, and coaches. Segal provides important background surrounding each featured mistake to offer essential context as to why the ill-fated prediction was made as well as why the personality who made the prediction is eating their words. Together, the fourteen chapters—each spotlighting Freezing Cold Takes about a specific team or topic within a certain defined period—create a wholly unique and endlessly entertaining lens through which to explore NFL history.   A few illustrative examples: (1987-94 San Francisco 49ers) : “The 49ers should do everyone a favor. Trade Steve Young. The myth.  And the man.” (1989-93 Dallas Cowboys): “The Vikings fleeced the Cowboys to get Herschel Walker” (2000 New England Patriots) : "The Patriots will regret hiring Bill Belichick" (2008 Green Bay Packers) : "Brian Brohm has more upside than Aaron Rodgers" (NFL Draft Picks) : “The Dolphins could have had their next Dan Marino if they selected Brady Quinn” (2007)

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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.

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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

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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.

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It's Better to Be Feared - Seth Wickersham Cover Art

It's Better to Be Feared

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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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 brain damage from football with CTE. “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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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, NFL legend Ray Lewis—Baltimore Ravens linebacker and one of the greatest defensive players in football history—shares an unflinching account of 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 - Kevin Cook Cover Art

The Last Headbangers

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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Collision Low Crossers - Nicholas Dawidoff Cover Art

Collision Low Crossers

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

An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL, as told by the writer who was there.  "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.

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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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