iBookstore Top 50 Football Ebooks

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

Purple Glory-History of the Minnesota Vikings - Steve Fulton Cover Art

Purple Glory-History of the Minnesota Vikings

Purple Glory-History of the Minnesota Vikings by Steve Fulton

If you love Football, then you will enjoy reading about the history of the Minnesota Vikings.  Inside you will read about every season in Vikings history. Since 1961 the Vikings have been a staple of the Upper Midwest, drawing fans from all over Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas. Relive some of the great seasons, games and moments in Vikings history.

2

976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground - Scott Orgera & Howie Karpin Cover Art

976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground

976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground by Scott Orgera & Howie Karpin

Sports Phone set out to change the way scores and breaking news were consumed, and in turn ended up setting the tone for the up-to-the-second updates we take for granted today. Found among those who called the service home are some of the most well-known broadcasters, reporters, public address announcers, and other prominent media figures — as well as several who've been successful in Hollywood and the music industry. A veritable breeding ground for these now-polished professionals, the dial-up platform that once handled 50 million calls in a year churned out talent at a level likely not seen before or since. Brought to you by media veterans Scott Orgera and Sports Phone alum Howie Karpin,  976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground  features never-before-told tales of triumph and tragedy, a mix of hilarity, inspiration, and regret from the broadcasting hopefuls and sports junkies that comprised the brains and voices behind the pioneering operation. If you were assembling an All-Star team of media personnel, you'd only have to look as far as Sports Phone's ranks. As colorful as that cast of characters was, those who dialed 976-1313 regularly had their own yarns to spin. They form a tapestry of hardcore fans, award-winning actors, well-known comedians, impulsive gamblers, Broadway singers, and infamous mobsters, each with captivating stories told within these pages. With 75 years of collective experience between them, Karpin and Orgera interviewed more than a hundred people en route to creating what is a must-read. The esteemed list of interviewees includes Rich Ackerman, Joe Benigno, Steve Cangialosi, Chris Carrino, Ricky Cobb (Super 70s Sports), Gary Cohen, Linda Cohn, Ed Coleman, Chuck Cooperstein, Mark Cuban, Jack Curry, Gordon Damer, Frank "The Tank" Fleming, Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), John Giannone, Don La Greca, Bill James, Brian Kilmeade, Denis McNamara, Sweeny Murti, Daniel Okrent (the founder of fantasy sports), Eddie Olczyk, Pat O'Keefe, Bob Papa, Howie Rose, Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo, Peter Schwartz, Dave Sims, Charlie Slowes, Leigh Steinberg (the real-life Jerry Maguire), Jeffrey Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff), Mike "King Wally" Walczewski, Suzyn Waldman, and many more. Much of what we see and hear today was started by Sports Phone, and this tome covers untapped historical territory from every angle, kicked off with a compelling foreword written by revered broadcaster Kenny Albert. Featured between its covers are anecdotes involving Muhammad Ali, The Beatles, David Bowie, Joe Carter, Howard Cosell, Roger Daltrey, Joey Diaz, Roberto Duran, Julius Erving, Joe Frazier, Wayne Gretzky, Marvin Hagler, Hulk Hogan, Keith Hernandez, Brett Hull, Reggie Jackson, Mick Jagger, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tommy Lasorda, Ronnie Lott, Billy Martin, Bob McAdoo, Burgess Meredith, Thurman Munson, Phil Rizzuto, Pete Rose, Bruno Sammartino, Bo Schembechler, Iron Sheik, Will Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Vanna White, and several others. Also included is a chapter on the 1978-79 Boston College point-shaving scandal and the record-setting Lufthansa heist, the latter of which was immortalized in Martin Scorsese's blockbuster film,  Goodfellas . At the center of the scheme to fix games were infamous mobsters Henry Hill (portrayed by Ray Liotta in the movie) and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke (Robert De Niro), as were a slew of calls to Sports Phone placed by multiple defendants. Behind-the-scenes insight from former federal prosecutor Ed McDonald (who played himself in one of the film's most iconic scenes) and ex-FBI Special Agent Ed Guevara (who arrested Hill) is provided, as are the actual phone records from the BC trial.

3

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.

4

Billion-Dollar Ball - Gilbert M. Gaul Cover Art

Billion-Dollar Ball

Billion-Dollar Ball A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football by Gilbert M. Gaul

•  A Boston Globe Best Book of 2015  • “A penetrating examination of how the elite college football programs have become ‘giant entertainment businesses that happened to do a little education on the side.’” — Mark Kram , The New York Times Two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Gilbert M. Gaul offers a riveting and sometimes shocking look inside the money culture of college football and how it has come to dominate a surprising number of colleges and universities.  Over the past decade college football has not only doubled in size, but its elite programs have become a $2.5-billion-a-year entertainment business, with lavishly paid coaches, lucrative television deals, and corporate sponsors eager to slap their logos on everything from scoreboards to footballs and uniforms. Profit margins among the top football schools range from 60% to 75%—results that dwarf those of such high-profile companies as Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft—yet thanks to the support of their football-mad representatives in Congress, teams aren’t required to pay taxes. In most cases, those windfalls are not passed on to the universities themselves, but flow directly back into their athletic departments. College presidents have been unwilling or powerless to stop a system that has spawned a wildly profligate infrastructure of coaches, trainers, marketing gurus, and a growing cadre of bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to ensure that players remain academically eligible to play. From the University of Oregon’s lavish $42 million academic center for athletes to Alabama coach Nick Saban’s $7 million paycheck—ten times what the school pays its president, and 70 times what a full-time professor there earns—Gaul examines in depth the extraordinary financial model that supports college football and the effect it has had not only on other athletic programs but on academic ones as well. What are the consequences when college football coaches are the highest paid public employees in over half the states in an economically troubled country, or when football players at some schools receive ten times the amount of scholarship awards that academically gifted students do?  Billion-Dollar Ball considers these and many other issues in a compelling account of how an astonishingly wealthy sports franchise has begun to reframe campus values and distort the fundamental academic mission of our universities.

5

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.

6

The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines - Michael Cox Cover Art

The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines

The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines
by Michael Cox

An absolutely essential book for every modern football fan, about the development of Premier League tactics, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition. Back in 1992, English football was stuck in the dark ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The game was physical, bruising and attritional, based on strength over speed, aggression over finesse. It was the era of the midfield general, reducers, big men up front and getting it in the mixer; 4-4-2 was the order of the day. Few teams experimented tactically. And then, almost overnight, it all changed. The creation of the Premier League coincided with one of the most seismic rule changes in football history: the abolition of the back-pass. Suddenly defenders had no-get-out-of-jail-free card, goalkeepers had to be able to field and play the ball and the pace of the game quickened immeasurably. Tactics evolved dramatically, helped by an increased foreign influence. The Mixer is the first book to delve deep into the tactical story of the Premier League, and take a long view of how the game has developed over the last quarter century. From Ferguson’s directness to Keegan’s relentlessly attacking Newcastle outfit, to Mourinho’s cagey, reactive Chelsea, all the way to Ranieri’s counter-attacking champions, The Mixer is one of the most entertaining, rich and knowledgeable football books ever written. Reviews ‘A compelling examination of the evolution of tactics in the Premier League. A fine read, and a powerful reminder of how much has changed.’ – Matthew Syed, The Times ‘Thanks to his meticulous research and his focus on strategy, Mr Cox finds a fresh perspective on a story that football fans will think they already knew’ – The Economist ‘The Mixer, by Michael Cox is a very unusual football writer in that he specialises in the game as it’s actually played, rather than the gossip or folklore around it. The Mixer is a tactical history of the English Premier League, with telling anecdotes on every page. It’s deeply informed and a pleasure to read.’ – Financial Times ‘If you’re in mourning that the footie season is over, this is for you. Delving deep into the beautiful game, it’s a look back at how the sport has changed over the years. Nostalgia will hit as you’ll remember iconic matches, too’ – The Sun ‘Intelligently written. Impressively researched. Fascinatingly addictive. Michael Cox is like a cartographer, remapping the landscape of the Premier League so we see the contours of it afresh. That’s some feat.’ – Duncan Hamilton, two-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year ‘Michael Cox provides brilliant tactical context to our favourite moments of Premier League nostalgia. The Mixer is as entertaining as a Wanchope dribble, with the authority of a Shearer finish and the panache of a Cantona celebration. And you may even learn to love Tony Pulis a little bit.’ – Ben Lyttleton, author of Twelve Yards: The Art & Psychology of the Perfect Penalty About the author Michael Cox is one of the most respected football journalists working today and he has made his name through writing highly entertaining in-depth tactical analysis. He is the editor of Zonal Marking, a football blog dedicated to tactics, and writes regularly for the Guardian and ESPN. The Mixer is his first book.

7

The Mannings - Lars Anderson Cover Art

The Mannings

The Mannings The Fall and Rise of a Football Family by Lars Anderson

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Lars Anderson comes a revealing portrait of the first family of American sports.   What the Kennedys are to politics, the Mannings are to football. Two generations have produced three NFL superstars: Archie Manning, the Ole Miss hero–turned–New Orleans Saint; his son Peyton, widely considered one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game; and Peyton’s younger brother, Eli, who won two Super Bowl rings of his own. And the oldest Manning child, Cooper—who was forced to quit playing sports after he was diagnosed at age eighteen with a rare spinal condition—might have been the most talented of them all.   In The Mannings, longtime Sports Illustrated writer Lars Anderson gives us, for the first time, the never-before-told story of this singular athletic dynasty—a story that shows us how finding strength in the face of catastrophe can be the key to success on and off the playing field.     Growing up, the three Manning brothers dream of playing side by side on the gridiron at Ole Miss. But with Cooper forced to the bench before his prime, Peyton must fight to win glory for them both. Meanwhile, Eli is challenged by his college coach to stop trailing in the footsteps of others and forge his own path. With Archie’s achievements looming over them, the brothers begin the climb to football history.   From the Manning family backyard to the bright lights of Super Bowl 50, The Mannings is an epic, inspiring saga of a family of tenacious competitors who have transfixed a nation. Praise for The Mannings “Anderson, an accomplished storyteller, writes about the Manning football legacy—warts and all—with style and verve, backed by an abundance of research and scholarship.” — Publishers Weekly “An expertly written impressionistic account of the first family of football.” — Library Journal “This is one of the most beautifully written and memorable books I’ve read in years—stunningly spectacular. I couldn’t put it down. Once again, Lars Anderson has shown why he is one of the seminal sportswriters of this generation. The Mannings is an absolute masterpiece.” —Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst and New York Times bestselling author of My Conference Can Beat Your Conference   “Lars Anderson drills to the core of the Manning family. I love this book because it’s not just about football; it’s about how to raise a family.” —Bruce Arians, head coach of the Arizona Cardinals   “Anderson’s yarn never wobbles. . . . A winner for fans of modern football.” — Kirkus Reviews “Anyone who has paid attention to the NFL over the last five decades understands the significance of the Mannings. They are to America’s best-loved game what the Holbeins are to portraiture, what the Bachs are to classical music, what the Kardashians are to mindless reality television, an unsurpassed dynasty. In  The Mannings,  Lars Anderson delivers an incisive, honest, and thorough chronicle of the first family of football.” —Jeremy Schaap,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics

8

Defensive Coordinator's Football Handbook - Leo Hand Cover Art

Defensive Coordinator's Football Handbook

Defensive Coordinator's Football Handbook by Leo Hand

Defensive Coordinator's Football Handbook  is a complete guide for football coaches. The information contained in the book has been compiled by Leo Hand during 47 years of coaching championship teams at both the high school and collegiate levels. Numerous topics are covered that will enable any coach to successfully understand and defend modern offenses. Including:    • An overview of contemporary offensive trends  • A system for identifying offensive formations and personnel groupings  • A system for creating multiple defensive fronts and secondary coverages  • The base reads, reactions, and techniques for defensive linemen and linebackers  • Synopses of the responsibilities and techniques necessary to install different odd and even eight-man and seven-man fronts  • Run responsibilities and techniques for both three-deep and four-deep secondaries  • Strategies and tactics necessary to stop 19 of today's most potent running plays  • An explanation of the adjustments and techniques necessary to install variations of man-to-man pass coverages as well as variations of zone and combo pass coverages versus different contemporary offensive formations  • Different stunt strategies that enable your defense to actually attack the offense

9

The GM - Tom Callahan Cover Art

The GM

The GM The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It by Tom Callahan

In the summer of 2006, the NFL’s most senior general manager, Ernie Accorsi, invited Tom Callahan “inside” the Giants organization to experience a season—Accorsi’s last—from the front office, the locker room, the sidelines, and the tunnel. Tom made no promises, except that he’d bring to the project the same fairness and thoroughness that characterized his acclaimed Unitas biography, Johnny U . The result is a remarkable book that is at once a chronicle of a tumultuous season and the story of the NFL over the last three and a half decades, told through the eyes of a man who has dedicated his life to football. The Giants started the season with high expectations, hoping to ride the talent of players like Eli Manning, Jeremy Shockey, and Tiki Barber to the Super Bowl, but the team quickly fell apart due to injuries. The GM goes far beyond the specifics of a single season, though. In a marriage of two great raconteurs, one lobbing stories and the other neatly catching them, Callahan and Accorsi—writer and subject—show how the pro game (and the league that showcases it) really works, and the peculiar role of today’s general manager, who must be part seer, part accountant, balancing psyches and salary caps. At its essence, The GM is the story of the job—of what it means to be the guy who makes the decisions . . . who’s second-guessed by fans and the media . . . who must deal with endless—and sometimes impossible—expectations. Filled with the vivid anecdotes and storytelling that made Johnny U a surprise bestseller, The GM doesn’t just illuminate. It inspires with its portrait of a consummate football-personnel strategist who, over the course of decades, gave everything to the game he loved.

10

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.

11

Bringing the Heat - Mark Bowden Cover Art

Bringing the Heat

Bringing the Heat by Mark Bowden

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

12

The System - Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian Cover Art

The System

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

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

13

A Civil War - John Feinstein Cover Art

A Civil War

A Civil War Army vs. Navy Tag - A Year Inside College Football's Purest Rivalry by John Feinstein

Feinstein follows the Army and Navy football teams through the 1994 season, culminating with an account of the dramatic December face-off, and brings to life one of the oldest and most heated rivalries in American sport.

14

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

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

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

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

15

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

Now a movie starring Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, and Wayne Knight! Jim Dent, author of the New York Times bestselling The Junction Boys , returns with his most powerful story of human courage and determination: Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football. 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 Masonic Home Mighty Mites—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. This is a winning tribute to a courageous band of underdogs from a time when America desperately needed fresh hope and big dreams. The Mighty Mites remain a notable moment in the long history of American sports. Just as significant is the depth of the inspirational message. This 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. A remarkable and inspirational story of an orphanage and the man who created one of the greatest football teams Texas has ever known . . . this is their story—the original Friday Night Lights.

16

Paper Lion - Nicholas Dawidoff & George Plimpton Cover Art

Paper Lion

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

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

17

The Real All Americans - Sally Jenkins Cover Art

The Real All Americans

The Real All Americans The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation by Sally Jenkins

Sally Jenkins, bestselling co-author of It's Not About the Bike, revives a forgotten piece of history in The Real All Americans. In doing so, she has crafted a truly inspirational story about a Native American football team that is as much about football as Lance Armstrong's book was about a bike. If you’d guess that Yale or Harvard ruled the college gridiron in 1911 and 1912, you’d be wrong. The most popular team belonged to an institution called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Its story begins with Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, a fierce abolitionist who believed that Native Americans deserved a place in American society. In 1879, Pratt made a treacherous journey to the Dakota Territory to recruit Carlisle’s first students. Years later, three students approached Pratt with the notion of forming a football team. Pratt liked the idea, and in less than twenty years the Carlisle football team was defeating their Ivy League opponents and in the process changing the way the game was played.   Sally Jenkins gives this story of unlikely champions a breathtaking immediacy. We see the legendary Jim Thorpe kicking a winning field goal, watch an injured Dwight D. Eisenhower limping off the field, and follow the glorious rise of Coach Glenn “Pop” Warner as well as his unexpected fall from grace.   The Real All Americans is about the end of a culture and the birth of a game that has thrilled Americans for generations. It is an inspiring reminder of the extraordinary things that can be achieved when we set aside our differences and embrace a common purpose.

18

Cognitive Bias in Fantasy Sports - R.M. Miller Cover Art

Cognitive Bias in Fantasy Sports

Cognitive Bias in Fantasy Sports Is Your Brain Sabotaging Your Team? by R.M. Miller

Book Summary A cognitive bias is a mental process that leads us to make illogical and sometimes irrational decisions. Most of us are unaware of these mental processes, although they are operating constantly. Most of the time, believe it or not, its no big deal. In fact, there is no doubt that cognitive biases still exist because they help us succeed as a species! In this work, you will learn why and how cognitive biases come about as well as why they might just be beneficial from an evolutionary perspective. More importantly, youll also find out how they play into your management of your fantasy sports teams. Spoiler alert: its not all good! From Confirmation Bias to Omission Bias and the Pseudocertainty Effect, plus many more, youll learn how the biases affect your decision-making and what to do to overcome the subtle sabotage your brain may be exerting on your fantasy season.

19

Boys Will Be Boys - Jeff Pearlman Cover Art

Boys Will Be Boys

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

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

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WHAT IS OPEN? - Dub Maddox Cover Art

WHAT IS OPEN?

WHAT IS OPEN? Accelerating Answers for Football’s Most Important Game Planning & Play Calling Question by Dub Maddox

WHAT IS OPEN? How fast can you answer the most  important question in the game of football? Technology is changing football. In the history of the game, it has never been easier to gather scheme and strategy information. Top secret plays, game plans, and play call sheets that were once reserved for coaches at the highest-level can easily be found on the internet. Analytics and algorithms fed into super machines are challenging the thought process of traditional game plan and play calling theory. However, the surge of information that is meant to help human decision making is harming it. Dub Maddox continues the journey from Headset to Helmet and Adapt or Die. In What is Open? he shows coaches and players simple game planning and play calling process that accelerates answers in finding “open.”   In this Book You Will Learn How to…  • Identify key frames of reference that read the reality of space advantage  • Structure mental models that develop an intuition of open space  • Utilize a verbal brevity code that accelerates communication of open space  • Implement three core run and pass scheme strategies that every play should possess  • Include different personnel and formations to increase structural strain on a defense  • Implement progression platforms that sequence plays into a storyboard format  • Advance the ability to game plan an opponent using the R4 grid  • Apply concept grids into a work_ow that becomes the R4 play call sheet  • Assign an organized practice script that covers every play and situation in a game  • Create a championship culture that can empathize and empower any level of coach

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Smart Money - Alex Duff Cover Art

Smart Money

Smart Money The Fall and Rise of Brentford FC by Alex Duff

In 1978, when Alex Duff first went to watch Brentford, players would go on midweek pub crawls near the Griffin Park stadium. Sometimes, in no fit state to go home, they would crash out in a terraced home where one of them lived opposite the stadium gates. The next morning, they clambered into a white van which one of them would drive to training, stopping on the way for a bacon sandwich and cup of tea at a greasy spoon café. Brentford had once played in the top-flight but now, idling in the third division, were a second home for players and supporters, but there was neither the ambition nor money to revive their best days. They bumbled along until in 2005, fed up with trying to make a profit from a club with an ageing stadium in an unfashionable west London suburb, owner Ron Noades agreed to hand over the business to supporters on the condition they take over responsibility for their £5.5 million overdraft. One of the fans, an Oxford University physics graduate called Matthew Benham, was making millions of pounds from professional gambling and threw in a £500,000 lifeline to help keep the club afloat. Initially, as a sort of academic challenge, he began figuring out if he could employ the mathematics which he used in beating the bookmakers to improve the club's performance on the pitch. Smart Money is the story of how a scientist with an inquiring mind was set loose in a backwater of professional football, and how he turned a modest, little-known team into a competitor in one of the world's most-watched sports leagues.

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Playmakers - Mike Florio Cover Art

Playmakers

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

The 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. Known for his constant stream of new information and incisive commentary, Florio delivers again in this book. 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.

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Football Done Right - Michael Lombardi Cover Art

Football Done Right

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

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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Gunning for Greatness: My Life - Mesut Özil Cover Art

Gunning for Greatness: My Life

Gunning for Greatness: My Life With an introduction by Jose Mourinho by Mesut Özil

Mesut Ozil is a midfield magician, casting an elegant spell over opponents and conjuring passes through gaps lesser mortals can't even see. After an eventful sojourn among the Galacticos of Real Madrid he has savoured silverware at Arsenal, while in 2014 he lifted the World Cup with Germany. But his life and career have been a test of resilience. Growing up in Germany's Turkish community, he faced prejudice from those who claimed his dual identity would prevent him giving his all for the national team. Later came questions over a different type of commitment, the kind levelled against those, like Mesut Ozil, who excel in football's finer arts rather than relying simply on running and ruggedness. He has proved concerns on both these issues lack substance. In Gunning for Greatness , Mesut Ozil reveals the inside stories of his relationships with Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger, his quest to help the under-fire Frenchman restore Arsenal's pre-eminence - and how he silenced the sceptics by conquering the world.

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The Bunch Attack - Andrew Coverdale & Dan Robinson Cover Art

The Bunch Attack

The Bunch Attack Using Compressed Formations in the Passing Game by Andrew Coverdale & Dan Robinson

The bunch package presented in this material introduces a fun and imaginative way to add a new look to your multiple formation look. Coaches Coverdale and Robinson have compiled one of the most complete outlines of this principle that I have seen. Its detail and comprehensive approach will be an excellent guide for you to use in implementing these concepts into your offense. We have used the bunch offense a great deal during my coaching career and always felt that it was a viable part of our complete offensive package. Whether you use multiple sets in your offensive scheme or are just looking for something new to add as a changeup to your normal offensive scheme, you will find The Bunch Attack a valuable part of your coaching library.  —Brian Billick, ESPN Analyst, Former Head Coach, Baltimore Ravens. One of the key things to understand about the bunch concept is that it is a principle as opposed to an entire offensive system. As a result, this book can be extremely useful to you, and specifically what you already do, regardless of your basic system and philosophy. The ideas in this book can be applied and taught to enhance the chances of players who are operating within most any fundamental offensive framework. Pro set, wing-T, run-and-shoot, single-back, split-back veer, ace with two tight ends and two wide receivers, and flexbone are among those offensive sets’ general styles of attack that fit this bill. With this goal in mind, we introduce you to the bunch attack. Contents  1: The Bunch Principle of Attack: An Introduction  2: Theoretical Considerations: Understanding Bunch’s Specific Benefits and Concerns  3: Bunch’s Guiding Principles, Package Basics, and General Attack Concepts  4: Systematics: Creating a Versatile, Teachable Framework for Bunch  5: First Things First: Pass Protection and Its Application to the Bunch Attack  6: Building the Mesh Route Package  7: Attacking Coverages With the Mesh Package  8: The Slant Route  9: The Fade Route  10: The Triangle Package  11: The Vertical Switch/Choice Route Package  12: The Smash Route  13: The Dig Route  14: The Cross Package Off Four Verticals  15: The Hinge Route  16: The Over Route  17: The Flood Route  18: Creating Packaged Sides With the Bunch Principle  19: Scratching the Surface: Exploring Other Possibilities Offered by the Bunch Concept  20: Down to Practicalities: Installing Bunch Principles Within the Overall Scope of an Offense  21: Closing Thoughts on the Bunch Principle  22: New Developments in the Bunch

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101 No-Huddle Spread Offense Plays - Brent Eckley Cover Art

101 No-Huddle Spread Offense Plays

101 No-Huddle Spread Offense Plays by Brent Eckley

101 No-Huddle Spread Offense Plays is a great resource for any football coach on either side of the ball. This book will provide coaches with a detailed explanation of how to install, practice, teach, and run the no-huddle spread offense. Coach Eckley's consistent success is a by-product of the staggering numbers his offenses have put up at two different high schools over the past several years. The key to his success is multiplicity through simplicity. His utilization of a no-huddle tempo offense with multiple formations and simple motions, while keeping the handful of route concepts and quarterback progressions the same, makes it easy on his offense and difficult on the defense. This book is a must read for anyone developing an offensive identity or anyone who is looking to change offensive structure in an attempt to win with less talent. The plays in this book are battle-tested on the field and are the reason for his team's great success. Incorporating ideas from this book will put your team on the cutting edge of the spread offense. Chapters include: The Quick Passing Game The Dropback Passing Game The Screen Passes The Movement Passes

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Coaching the Spread Offense: By the Experts - Earl Browning Cover Art

Coaching the Spread Offense: By the Experts

Coaching the Spread Offense: By the Experts by Earl Browning

Coaching the Spread Offense is a band new addition to the extremely well-received Coaching by the Experts Series.

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History of NFL Football for Kids - William Lawson Cover Art

History of NFL Football for Kids

History of NFL Football for Kids by William Lawson

The History of NFL Football for Kids Basic Knowledge of NFL Football History With Some Fun Facts and Records By William Lawson Get Excited about the Colorful History of America's most Popular Sport ,  Even if you don't know the first thing about Football... Football is one of the great American Pastimes. From the Super Bowl to the Thanksgiving game, Millions of Families Gather Throughout the week to watch their Favorite teams duke it out. Kids and Grandparents alike share the thrill of watching their team get that perfect tackle or last minute Save. Now you have the Opportunity to Share the History of the sport with your kids with one Engaging Guide. Don't have a clue about how Football Works? Don't Worry -- Within these pages, you'll learn everything you need to know about the game, from punts to Passes . Your kids will love Learning about the history and Stories that make the game what it is Today. Written by a Football fan, for Football Fans , you'll find the answers to the most common football-related Questions. Who's the Greatest Quarterback of all Time? How does the timing of the game Work? You'll Discover all this and More… And have a blast while doing It! In The History of NFL Football for Kids, Here is just a fraction of what you will Discover: The Birth of Football and how it's Evolved over the years into the sport that you know and Love Easy-to-Understand Definitions of Common Football Terms , so you'll be Talking like a pro in no Time How the "Father of American Football" shaped and Revolutionized the game with the start of the first "Football Craze" across the Nation The Basics of the Game, Including Positions, rules, and movements on the Field How the 32 Unique Teams of the NFL Landscape got their Names When helmets first Became Required for Players and other Notable Changes to the Uniforms for Maximum Safety The top 26 teams with the most Championships -- The most dominant franchise in NFL history may surprise You! Top Players and Coaches of all Time -- and what made them such Great Figures in the NFL World Records, Fun Facts, and Underdog Wins that will Wow Your Friends and Family And Much More. Football Doesn't have to be a Sports Mystery. While it might seem Complicated, You'll be Shocked at How Quickly you and your kids pick up on the Rules and Regulations of the Game. Already got a Football Fanatic on your Hands? These Inspirational Stories and Facts will have them Seeing the Game in a Totally new Way. Go the "Goal" Nine Yards with this fun, fact-filled book: Scroll up and click the "Add to Cart" Button Right Now.

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Historia del FC Barcelona - Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó Cover Art

Historia del FC Barcelona

Historia del FC Barcelona by Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó

El mejor libro para conocer de manera rápida y rigurosa la historia del FC Barcelona desde el año de su fundación en 1899 hasta la actualidad más reciente. La obra del profesor Sobrequés, un gran barcelonista que durante años asumió responsabilidades directivas en el club y que ha estudiado como historiador el pasado del FC Barcelona, ofrece una síntesis brillante y al alcance de todos los lectores, desde los primeros días de Gamper hasta los recientes años triunfantes, liderados por Johan Cruyff y Pep Guardiola, que han llevado al club a ser considerado uno de los mejores del mundo. Estas páginas contienen asimismo una amplia noticia de las exitosas secciones profesionales de balonmano, baloncesto, hockey patines y fútbol sala, y de los equipos amateurs del club.

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Swing Your Sword - Mike Leach Cover Art

Swing Your Sword

Swing Your Sword Leading the Charge in Football and Life by Mike Leach

Newly-minted Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach tells his captivating story––from rural Wyoming to law school to the upper echelons of the SEC. SWING YOUR SWORD is the first ever book by one of the most fascinating and successful coaches in sports today. A maverick who took an unlikely path to coaching through law school, Mike Leach talks about his unorthodox approach to coaching and the choices that have brought him success throughout his career. A lover of the game who started creating formations and drawing his own plays as a kid, Leach took his Texas Tech Red Raiders to numerous bowl games, achieving the #2 slot in national rankings and being voted 2008 Coach of the Year before being unceremoniously fired at the end of the 2009 season. The scandalous nature of his dismissal created a media frenzy and began a personal battle between Leach and his accusers that remains unresolved.

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

League of Denial

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

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

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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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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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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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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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I Feel Like Going On - Ray Lewis Cover Art

I Feel Like Going On

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

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

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Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football - Rich Cohen Cover Art

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football by Rich Cohen

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is the New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime team and their lone Super Bowl season. For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever—a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won, but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan "Danimal" Hampton and "Samurai" Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on TV, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video the morning after the season's only loss. Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What's it like to win? What's it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended? The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football , a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it's about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.

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Belichick and Brady - Michael Holley Cover Art

Belichick and Brady

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Fourth and Long - John U. Bacon Cover Art

Fourth and Long

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

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

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Brady vs Manning - Gary Myers Cover Art

Brady vs Manning

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

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

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Next Man Up - John Feinstein Cover Art

Next Man Up

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

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

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Coaching Confidential - Gary Myers Cover Art

Coaching Confidential

Coaching Confidential Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers

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

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Tim Tebow - Belmont & Belcourt Biographies Cover Art

Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow An Unauthorized Biography by Belmont & Belcourt Biographies

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

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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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