American Football

On November 29, 1941, Army played Navy in front of 100,000 fans. Eight days later, the Japanese attacked, and the young men who battled each other in that historic game were forced to fight a very different enemy. Author Lars Anderson follows four players - two from Annapolis and two from West Point - in this epic true story. The tale of these men is woven into a dramatic narrative of football and war that's unlike any other.

This book will transform the way you think about fantasy football. Instead of giving you short-term "tips and tricks" that are bound to fail, Noah Lieberman provides you with a deeper understanding of fantasy sports that will answer all the tough questions. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or you've never played before, If You Think You Know Fantasy Football…Think Again will give you a fascinating perspective on one of the world’s fastest growing games. By the end, you’ll be ready to take on the world of fantasy sports.

Football is at a crossroads, its future imperiled by the very physicality that drives its popularity. Its grass roots - high school and youth travel program - are withering. But players from the small South Pacific American territory of Samoa are bucking that trend, quietly becoming the most disproportionately overrepresented culture in the sport. But the very thing that makes them so good at football - their extraordinary internalization of discipline and warrior self-image - makes them especially vulnerable to its pitfalls, including concussions and brain injuries.

In November 1934, the Princeton football team - unbeaten in its last 15 games - faced the 3-3 Yale Bulldogs, who gave new meaning to the term underdogs. As much a thrilling play-by-play account of college football at its finest as it is a fascinating work of sports history, this book chronicles the season that brought Princeton and Yale together in a game like no other since.

How Football Explains America is a fascinating, first-of-its-kind journey through the making of America's most complex, intriguing, and popular game. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio explores just how crucial football is to understanding the American psyche. Paolantonio tackles varying American themes from Manifest Destiny to “fourth and one” as he goes deep in order to answer the age-old question: Why does America love football so much?

College sports have never been bigger. Once a roughneck intercollegiate pastime, football now commands millions of fans and generates massive revenues. New York Times investigative reporter Mike McIntire chronicles the rise in the popularity and power of college athletics, revealing deeply troubling relationships between college sports programs, the universities that host them, booster organizations, local police departments, and the courts.

Simply put, Mike Westhoff is the greatest special teams coach in National Football League history. Sharp-witted, creative, and intensely focused, Westhoff spent 32 years working alongside and learning from some of the legends of the sport—including Don Shula, Dan Marino, Bear Bryant, and Woody Hayes—while revolutionizing the most misunderstood phase of the game. Over the course of 657 games, primarily with the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, Westhoff was a relentless innovator.

Against the backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women’s Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, their star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, and would-be drill sergeants. Most of all, they were athletes who had been denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play.

While the household was buffeted by the coach's tumultuous firings and hirings, which periodically propelled the family to a new city, Jennifer dreamed of being the first female quarterback in the NFL. But as she grew, she yearned mostly to be someone that her father would notice. In a world where only football mattered, what could she strive for, who could she become?

He is one of the most talented footballers of the modern era and a dual international in rugby league and rugby union. But for a long time, Mat Rogers lived in both the shadow and the thrall of his famous father, and their complex relationship shaped him in ways he couldn’t fathom. Craving paternal acceptance while determined to carve out his own identity and, later, to avoid repeating the sins of the father, he veered between periods of jubilation and depression. Now, in his majestic, evocative autobiography, Rogers tells the story of a life framed by triumph and tragedy.

Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-hear for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game.

During his time as a broadcaster, Kevin Day has spoken to thousands of football fans. He has interviewed countless players and managers from across the generations and he has spent thousands of hours crossing the country on trains, planes, automobiles and coaches, watching football at all levels. This book is the result of that: a tale of being chased down a railway line at Cardiff, an account of interviewing George Best, a story of an 80-year-old lady getting her first Hull City tattoo - quite simply, a tale of football.

Thursday Night Lights tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of African American high school football in Texas. Drawing on interviews, newspaper stories, and memorabilia, Michael Hurd introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where African Americans built powerhouse football programs under the PVIL leadership. He covers 50 years (1920-1970) of high school football history.

The loamy black "muck" that surrounds Belle Glade, Florida once built an empire for Big Sugar and provided much of the nation's vegetables, often on the backs of roving, destitute migrants. Many of these were children who honed their skills along the field rows and started one of the most legendary football programs in America. Belle Glade's high school team, the Glades Central Raiders, has sent an extraordinary number of players to the National Football League - 27 since 1985, with five of those drafted in the first round.

Quarterback Brian kann es nicht fassen, als sich die neue Teamchefin Teddy MacLachlan vorstellt. Das muss ein Scherz sein! Diese Hippiebraut in Flipflops hat keine Ahnung von Football, da ist sich Brian sicher! Doch Teddy lässt sich nicht einschüchtern und verdonnert die harten Kerle erst einmal zu Yogastunden. Zwischen ihr und Brian fliegen bald die Funken, auch wenn der Quarterback widerwillig zugeben muss, dass Teddy nicht nur ziemlich cool ist, sondern auch einiges von Football versteht.

No one can touch Bart Starr's record setting 5 NFL Championships including 3 straight. America's Quarterback tells the story of the man who helped create the legend of Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. This biography traces Starr’s life from childhood in Alabama to stardom in Green Bay and beyond. Not a simple sports story, Dunnavant traces the story of one man reaching for the American dream while professional football emerged from the shadows to capture the nation’s imagination.

Football has been around for more than 100 years. It has had its fair share of controversies. Concussions are just the most recent of those. We wanted to show that the league of today is safer than it has ever been, and it is continuing to improve. We also wanted to show that the we didn't get to where we are overnight, and we won't fix the problems overnight either. We give a history of the sport, the evolution onto television, explain the concussion threat, and even show some ways it can be solved.

In Against Football Steve Almond details why, after 40 years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions: Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia? What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood--run, leap, throw, tackle--into a billion-dollar industry?

In Mavericks, Money and Men, football historian Charles Ross chronicles the AFL's key events, including Buck Buchanan becoming the first overall draft pick in 1963, and the 1965 boycott led by black players who refused to play in the AFL All Star game after experiencing blatant racism. He also recounts how the success of the AFL forced a merger with the NFL in 1969, which arguably facilitated the evolution of modern professional football.

This amazing memoir follows the story of Reggie Williams - ex-NFL linebacker, former Disney executive, renaissance man, and the epitome of determination in the face of extreme challenges.