Sports Biographies Football

Tiaina Baul "Junior" Seau is widely considered one of the best linebackers ever to play the game. A 10-time All-Pro and 12-time Pro Bowl selection, Seau was picked for the NFL's All-Decade Team in the 1990s. His incredible career spanned two decades, during which time he played for the Chargers, Dolphins, and Patriots. In 2012, at the age of 43, Seau committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the chest. News of his death sent shockwaves through the NFL.

Every four years, Americans turn their attention to the world’s game - soccer. As recently as 1998, the USMNT merely made up the numbers at the biggest sporting tournament of all, but once Bruce Arena took over the team, American soccer started to find its footing. In the 2002 World Cup, a highly-fancied Portugal team, featuring the great Ronaldo, lost to Arena’s US team in a shocking 3-2 victory, and but for a handball that wasn’t given, they could well have knocked off eventual winners Germany.

In Slow Getting Up - hailed by Rolling Stone as "the best football memoir of all time" - Nate Jackson told his story facedown on the field. Now, in Fantasy Man, he's flat on his back. Six years have passed since the former Denver Broncos tight end wore a helmet, and every day he drifts further from the NFL guy, the sanctioned-violence guy, the psychopath who ran headfirst into other psychos for money. But Nate hasn't quite left the game.

Alan Curbishley has spent a lifetime in football as a fan, player and manager. In his 40 years, he has seen the game he loves change beyond all recognition. The money, the media, the celebrity culture, the agents - when Curbishley began his playing career in 1975, no one could have foreseen a future in which television rights sold for £10 billion. Through incredible access to the biggest names in the game, he takes a look at the modern game in all its guises, from the chairmen and chief executives at the very top to managers and players and all the way to the fans and ground staff.

There was never a player quite like Dudley before he came and there will surely never be another one. He was the most versatile player in football history, college and pro. An NFL team today suits up eight men to play the positions Bill played by himself in a single season. He won the only Quadruple Crown in NFL history, leading the league in rushing, punt returns, interceptions, and lateral passes in 1946. He also won the NFL MVP award in 1946 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though he played in the NFL at five-foot 10, 175 pounds.

Meet Harry Kane - Ultimate Football Hero. When Harry Kane was released by Arsenal at nine years old for being too small, he had to use all his self-belief to prove that he could make it as a footballer. Now a superstar striker for Tottenham Hotspur and England, his hard work and determination have paid off. Kane is the amazing story of how the boy from North London became the Premier League's most lethal goalscorer.

In this book, you will learn the inspirational story of one of football's premier quarterbacks, Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck entered the league as one of the most promising prospects in recent league history. Some analysts said he was the best prospect they had ever scouted. To date, he has lived up to much of his hype.

I had a hunch we'd be champions! The most unlikely story in the history of sport, told by our greatest football writer. On 25th March 2015, when King Richard III, recently rescued from a municipal car park, was reburied in Leicester Cathedral, his beloved football team had just lost 4-3 to Tottenham Hotspur and were bottom of the Premier League, relegation certainties. With King Richard finally at rest, everything changed for Leicester City.

High school players in a working-class neighborhood in the 1970s gain desperately needed structure and guidance from Jack "Clyde" Dempsey, a scrappy, charismatic coach who seems like nothing more than a football geek. But Coach also happens to be the toughest guy on the streets of Boston, with a temper to match, and it's his secret life as a mob enforcer/collector that forces him to flee the country, becoming one of America's most wanted.

With over 110 million viewers every year, the Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events in the United States. The final showdown between the two best football teams in the NFL attracts some of the biggest musicians to perform at the half-time show. But the Super Bowl is more than just a spectacle - it's a high-stakes game to win the championship and claim a place in history. Go back in time, and relive all the magic from years past - from excruciating fumbles to game-winning plays.

Had anyone told Ben Malcolmson that he'd someday be a wide receiver on the national champion USC football team - after not playing football since an unfortunate fifth-grade Pop Warner experience - he would have called them crazy. As a reporter for The Daily Trojan, in the spirit of George Plimpton, he participated in walk-on tryouts for the team and was dumbfounded to find himself listed on the roster. His position on the team never amounted to much in a game-time contribution, but Ben felt strongly that his faith was inextricably linked to his purpose.

Thou Shall Not Pass (the title comes from a command England captain Terry Butcher would shout before every match) celebrates the football position where brutal characters are loved for their hard-hitting tackles and bruising mentality and yet laughed at for their apparent lack of skill. As well as covering the long and illustrious history of the centre-half, the book will take the listener into the muddy penalty area frequented by our protagonists, into their domain.

In this edition, your child can learn all about their hero, super Jack Grealish of Man City and England.

In Adam Thielen: The Inspiring Story of One of Football’s Star Wide Receivers, you'll learn the inspirational story of one of football's top wide receivers, Adam Thielen. Thielen has had an impressive professional football career, holding several league records, while also being selected to two Pro Bowl selections at the time of this writing.

Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men. Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority.

El primer recuerdo en la vida de Ander Izagirre es una explosión de gritos, saltos y abrazos en casa de sus abuelos: el gol de Zamora que daba la liga a la Real Sociedad en el último suspiro. A partir de ese primer recuerdo luminoso, Izagirre va tirando del hilo, recogiendo historias asombrosas de su familia, de su ciudad (San Sebastián) y de un mítico estadio, Atocha, en donde "se mezclaba el tufo fermentado y dulzón del mercado de frutas con el aroma fresco de la hierba recién regada y el humo de los puros".

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has won the Super Bowl five times. Young football fans will love this sports biography with engaging text to help with critical-thinking questions....

In the fall of 1977, there was an aura about the night, the likes of which none had ever experienced. It was just another Friday night in Azusa, California, or was it? The Gladiators of Gladstone High School were set to kick a late field goal that could solidify a brilliant come from behind victory. It was against the undefeated Walnut Mustangs who were the number one ranked team in CIF Division AA. If successful, the Gladiators would have done what no other Gladiator team had ever done - win a championship.

In J.J. Watt: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Greatest Defensive Ends, you will learn the inspirational story of one of football's premier defensive ends, JJ Watt. Since joining the NFL, JJ Watt has quickly emerged as one of the league's best defensive players, causing opposing teams to double and sometimes even triple team him to try to contain him. His impact on the defensive end of the field is truly invaluable.

In Russell Wilson: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Greatest Quarterbacks, you'll hear about the inspirational story of football's star, Russell Wilson. This short unauthorized biography of Russell Wilson highlights the greatest moments of his career. Russell Wilson may have recently entered the NFL, but his impact on the Seattle Seahawks' franchise was immediate. In just his early 20s, Wilson is already a Super Bowl Champion, a feat very few quarterbacks can ever say they've accomplished.