Football (American) Books - Page 4

More Than Just The Catch: A true story of courage, hope, and achieving the impossible

David Tyree with Kimberly Daniels

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "SHE SHOUTED TO THE SPIRIT IN DAVID, "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" "DAVID ANSWERED: "I AM SATAN!" 4 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

On February 3, 2008, in Super Bowl XLII, David Tyree, special teams player and wide receiver for the NFL New York Giants made the greatest most ** MIRACULOUS ** catch in Super Bowl history. Leaping into the air with one of the greatest safety's in modern NFL history, Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriot's all over him, David pinned the ball to his helmet with the fingertips of his right hand... and crashed to the ground without dropping the pass! This was the pivotal play that led to a subsequent touchdown, which led the underdog Giant's to upset the heavily favored, and previously undefeated Patriot's and win the World Championship-Super Bowl!

Immediately upon the completion of this historic victory... and at every chance since... David steadfastly chants the following unwavering mantra:

"I GIVE THE CREDIT TO G-D! NOT ONLY DID HE ALLOW ME TO BE ON A SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, BUT HE ALSO INTERVENED AND GAVE ME A MIRACLE BEFORE THE EYES OF THE WORLD."

This is David's life story, which he shares with the reader unflinchingly, in the retelling of all his missteps that eventually led him to being "reborn"... and dedicating his life to Christ. The reader will learn of his drug use... his blackout drunk alcoholism... his drug arrest... his wanton dishonoring of the mother of his children (Leilah) with repetitive womanizing... and even passing a venereal disease on to his future wife. On the night of his child's birth, David came home drunk... purposely tried to trip Leilah... and then passed out on the floor.

Finally one night, when David came to pick up his son; Leilah's cousin Angie, who had recently rededicated her life to the Lord, "looked into David's eyes, and he seemed to "not be there". She said that she saw the devil in David's eyes." She said he was acting like two different people with two different personalities. She called her Mother on the phone and said: "MA, I THINK YOU NEED TO COME OVER AND PRAY FOR DAVID. SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH HIM." Her Mother came over and "she got fed up with the spirit that was using David and looked into David's eyes and demanded, "STOP IT AND SIT DOWN, IN THE NAME OF JESUS!" "David stood stiff as a board with a blank look on his face and then obeyed her words, sitting down and looking straight ahead. When she began to lead us in prayer. David slid off of the sofa and started moving across the floor like a snake. Nobody was ready for what they witnessed that day. David seemed to be in some kind of trance and something had taken over his body."

"She shouted to the spirit in David, "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"In a grossly deep voice that was not David's, out of his mouth came words everyone in the room heard: "I AM SATAN!"

David winds up in the psychiatric ward at East Orange General Hospital, and the frightening heartbreak... future conversion... rebirth... family... complete dedication to the glory of the Lord... and yes... the "MIRACULOUS" catch in the Super Bowl... all lay ahead for David and the reader.

The entire book is dedicated to David's Mother who unfortunately passed away before David's Super Bowl glory, but he knows she watched it from Heaven. Part of his dedication reads as follows: "I WILL CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE UNTIL I MEET YOU ONE DAY IN GLORY. YOU BLESSED ME WITH LIFE... AND NOW I DEDICATE THE STORY OF MY LIFE TO YOU!

I LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF MY HEART. - DAVID

About the last one-third of the book is devoted to spiritual subjects including: Other NFL players who have openly given G-d the glory in their lives... Cycle of Success with the Lord... The Ingredients of Greatness... Physical workouts tied to prayer... Dietary recommendations.... Dreams and Destiny... From My Heart To You... and A Prayer For Your Destiny.

It should also be noted that included in this book are sixteen pages of the most beautifully reproduced glossy color photographs of David and his family, of which the quality... I have never seen an equal of... in a book of this type.

Editorial Review:

When you watch the play again through the multiple angles of our NFL Films cameras, you still won't understand it--how Eli Manning suddenly became Frank Tarkenton and how David Tyree learned to fly--but that only adds to the wonder of it all. The greatest play in Super Bowl history? Judge for yourself. I believe it is.
--Steve Sabol, President, NFL Films

David Tyree's catch will forever be engraved in the minds of football fans. It was truly a miracle. But there is so much more to what we saw playing out on the field! This book will go beyond a true sports story. It is a story of undeniable courage for the ages.

Sports Illustrated: Brett Favre: The Tribute (Sports Illustrated)

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Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

No other contemporary athlete has been as admired among peers and beloved among fans as Brett Favre. From his arrival in Green Bay in 1992 to his retirement in 2008, the Packers' strong-armed, free-spirited quarterback thrilled NFL fans with his exemplary talent and passionate style, and inspired them with his courage in confronting personal challenges. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's tribute to Favre is the definitive account of a remarkable career, collecting the best stories and photographs from the pages of SI to chronicle Favre's rise from humble coach's son in tiny Kiln, Miss., to premier passer of his generation and th personification of the American sports ideal.

The product of SI's unparalleled NFL access and insight, Brett Favre: The Tribute include 16 of SI's finest Favre stories, by such renowned writers as Peter King, Michael Silver, Leigh Montville, Jeff MacGregor and Alan Shipnuck, plus brilliant pictures from the recognized leader in sports photography--stunning action shots, intimate portraits and candid off-the-field moments--that illuminate this incomparable athlete. Brett Favre: The Tribute stands as an enduring testimonial to an American icon, a man who, more than any other of our time, played his game the way it should be played.

Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching the Game!: A Woman's Guide to Loving Pro Football

Holly Robinson Peete, Daniel Paisner

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Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Year after year, Sunday afternoons and Monday nights during the NFL season have belonged to men. While they cheer and argue play calls, the women in their lives are relegated to beer and chip detail. It's time for these women to join the action, and Holly Robinson Peete, star of 21 Jump Street, For Your Love, and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and wife of NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, has written this hip, smart, cheerful guide to help them do so.Peete shares her infectious enthusiasm for pro football and takes the complexity out of the game by breaking it down to its component parts. She explains the role of each position player, provides a rundown of all on-field penalties and referees' hand signals, and offers an illustrated guide to some of the most common plays in the NFL. She gives her take on the most memorable plays in NFL history and dishes some inside dirt-in a breezy, girl-talkin' narrative that promises to turn the novice spectator into a well-informed football fanatic.

The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player (Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants)

John C. Maxwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Mostly fluff 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've read most of Maxwell's stuff and I'm not a huge fan. This book is another in his series of "17" books, and I find that once again he could have combined most of them and made it the five or six essential qualities of a team player.

The book is laid out systematically: name of the quality, feel-good story, 3-5 points of explanation, 3-5 points of application, next quality. It's chocked full of stories and quotations, so if you're looking for anecdotes, this is the book for you. It's a very easy read.

It's not a bad book and there are a few points that I found useful, but for the most part it's just a run-of-mill Maxwell book. He's more of a storyteller. If you're looking for a good book on improving teamwork, I would recommend Patrick Lencioni's "Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators".

An inspirational manual on becoming a valuable team member. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This brief, inspirational book uses a now-classic formula for texts on selling and leadership, although its focus on cooperation and following the leader is unusual. Each chapter starts with a short anecdote about a historic figure's accomplishments, and his or her triumph over adversity. The vignettes demonstrate the lessons that author John C. Maxwell then briefly discusses in the rest of the chapter. The "laws" the author promulgates benefit from the stories' afterglow and are less important than the stories themselves. Memorable quotations and sidebars that support the author's main points round off each lesson. Maxwell is an expert at wielding this formula, perhaps because he helped make it a classic, and a star in the inspirational self-help genre. We recommend his book as a pick-me-up for team members and aspiring leaders.

Hero of the Underground: A Memoir

Jason Peter, Tony O'Neill

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

I wasn’t afraid of death.

How could I be? I lived under death’s shadow every day. When you swallow eighty Vicodin, twenty sleeping pills, drink a bottle of vodka, and still survive, a certain sense of invulnerability stays with you. When you continually use drugs with the kind of reckless determination that I did, the limit to how much heroin or crack you can ingest is not defined in dollar amounts, but in the amounts your body can withstand without experiencing a seizure or respiratory failure. Yet at the end of every binge, every night of lining up six, seven, eight crack pipes and hitting them one after the other bam! bam! bam! every night of smoking and snorting bag after bag of heroin . . . after all of that, when you still wake up to see the same dirty sky over you as the night before, you start to think that instead of dying, maybe your punishment is to live---to be stuck in this purgatory of self-abuse and misery for an eternity. Sometimes you start to think that death would come as a blessed relief.

Toward the end, I found myself contemplating death again. Only this time I wasn’t going to leave it to chance. I was going to buy a gun, load the thing, place the barrel in my mouth, and blow my fucking brains out.

I sat on my parents’ sofa as I pondered this. All I needed was a gun.

And then all--
of my problems--
would be solved.

Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership

Bo Schembechler, John U. Bacon

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Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Lasting lessons, indeed 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is the best book by/about Bo. Many of the stories are familiar, but most of the ones that have appeared before have a somewhat different slant on them here. If you have been in a leadership position, you will recognize much of what Bo says as simple truth. You will also recognize examples where you didn't follow his principles, and regretted it later. People like him who see life as simply are rare, and are an inspiration. I'm not sure how much of the effect of the book would be lost on someone who did not have a familiarity with college football, but if you have even a cursory exposure to it, you should find the stories enjoyable and educational.

Editorial Review:

There are very few coaches held higher esteem than Bo Schembechler. As coach of the University of Michigan football team, he won 13 Big Ten titles and finished as the winningest coach in their storied history. But beyond the wins and losses, Bo is best remembered for the remarkable impact he had on his players and fans alike.

In BO'S LASTING LESSONS, the coach draws on his years of experience, using first-person anecdotes to deliver timeless lessons on leadership, motivation and responsibility. His distinctive gruff voice leaps from the page.

With pithy language, Bo explains that true leadership requires the compassion to actively listen to your people, and then to have the courage to do what is right every time.

A big believer in peer pressure and in always making his players accountable for their actions, Schembechler has coached athletes who went on to become professional football players, doctors, lawyers and CEOs.

When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi

David Maraniss

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Total reviews: 143 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

David Maraniss was born to write 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is the best sports biography that I've ever read, and is the gold standard by which I rate every other sports bio. I originally read the book when it was published in 1999 and decided to read it again. I didn't realize that I had forgotten so many details. Many of the games discussed I remember like it was yesterday. If you were a Packer's or NFL fan from the 60s this is a must read book.

I'm very skeptical of Amazon's public reviews as I find 80% +++ of the reviewers are too easily impressed (especially business/investment books). Most grossly overrate books. With such skepticism, I did scan through a page or two of the now 138 reviews to see why anybody would give this book < 5. Two compliants said it had too much minutia and wrote too much about Vince's early life. I find that most if not all biographies talk too much about the person's early life and the person's lineage. I usually scan the early chapters of a biography until I get into the person's adult years. On my second reading of this book I picked it up around Vince's time at West Point.

One last point about the author. I've also read First in His Class & his book about Roberto Clemente. Both were excellent books. However, Maraniss did co-author a book with a younger woman, who's title I forget. It was obvious from the reading that the woman had written most of the book and Maraniss wrote little of the book. His name may have been listed as a co-author to sell books.

Editorial Review:

More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants before his big break came at age forty-six with the chance to coach a struggling team in snowbound Wisconsin. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world championships in nine seasons is the most storied period in NFL history. Lombardi became a living legend, a symbol to many of leadership, discipline, perseverance, and teamwork, and to others of an obsession with winning. In When Pride Still Mattered, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss captures the myth and the man, football, God, and country in a thrilling biography destined to become an American classic.

Browns Scrapbook: A Fond Look Back at Five Decades of Football, from a Legendary Cleveland Sportswriter

Chuck Heaton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Quick and easy... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Was shipped on time and arrived before xmas as needed. I would buy again.

We won't see times (or writing) like this again 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Chuck Heaton is a legend in the world of sports writing. That's not an exaggeration. Chuck is one of the very few writers who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

He was even chosen to present Browns running back Leroy Kelly at his induction into the Hall of Fame.

This collection of short stories serves as evidence of the worthiness of Chuck Heaton's Hall of Fame induction.

It must have been difficult to choose stories from Chuck's 50 years of writing, but the included works are outstanding. They give a feel for the game, the players and the time that we just don't read about anymore.

The book is broken down into several sections. The Places section tells tales of the travels of the players, coaches and sportswriters. Young readers will not believe the conditions. Superstars flying coach on a commercial plane? Unheard of. As Chuck wrote, "...such incidents will never be experienced by the present media covering the Browns. It was different back then."

Yes it was. For example, Chuck tells how "Black players were not allowed in the hotel the Browns used in Dallas and so the squad split up. The black players went to practice and then went to live with black families in the area." That was 1954, not that long ago.

Another section is On and Off the Field which includes reportings of the death of Paul Brown, trading Bobby Mitchell and the waiting by Leroy Kelly and Gene Hickerson for the Hall of Fame. Heaton claims Otto Graham as the best QB and rightly predicted that Red Right 88 would be Brian Sipe's legacy.

Brown's fans should ignore the favorable comments about the traitorous Art Modell. Chuck's stories were written long before the dastardly deed of moving the team.

The Rivals section is lots of fun. We read about Chuck Noll, Bum Phillips, Jack Lambert and others from the hated Steelers, Bengals and Oilers. Older readers will remember the rivalry with the Detroit Lions and way back to the pre-NFL days for the 49ers rivalry.

There are also some great old photos in the book - Chuck with the players and coaches and lots of classic Browns photos.

The Big Moments section should be savored. It includes reporting on the Browns 1964 championship over the Colts, the 1950 victory over the Eagles that shocked the NFL, the firing of Paul brown and the (gulp) Drive.

The Game section covers the NFL Draft and Chuck tells why 1964 was the year "the sport lost its innocence." (Chuck blames Joe Namath.)

The next section is on Hall of Famers and covers Jim Brown, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, Bobby Mitchell, Paul Warfield, Mike McCormack, Frank Gatski and Leroy Kelly.

The final section is a lot of fun as Chuck chose his all-time greatest Browns team. Some selections are no-brainers such as Jim Brown at running back. Others will be a source of debate for football fans. And younger fans will argue that Josh Cribbs, for example, should be the kick returner and not Leroy Kelly. That's part of the fun.

The photo on the cover of the book summarizes the contents. Chuck is being lifted into the air by 4 Browns linemen. This kind of camaraderie was prevalent then (at least for respected writers like Chuck) and unlikely to be seen again.

Just as the quality writing and stories of Chuck Heaton are unlikely to be seen again.

Note. Sadly, Chuck Heaton passed away February 14, 2008 at the age of 90.

Editorial Review:

Veteran sportswriter Chuck Heaton looks back at his 47 years covering the Cleveland Browns--the "Old Browns" teams that fans still miss. Heaton covered the Browns for the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1946 to 1993. In these columns, written shortly before his retirement in 1993, Heaton reminisces about Hall of Fame players like Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Bobby Mitchell; original head coach Paul Brown; characters like fabled trainer Murray Kono; even notorious Browns rivals like Oilers' coach Jerry Glanville and Steelers' linebacker Jack Lambert. Browns fans age 40 and older will fondly recall the old days. Younger Browns fans will find out why everyone still longs for them.

It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium: Football and the Game of Life

John Ed Bradley

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The best sports book of the year."
- Sports Illustrated

"John Ed Bradley says that all he ever wanted to do was to leave behind a pretty piece of writing. Here it is-a wonderful blend of honest introspection, passionate reporting, and superb storytelling. One of the best books I have read in years."
- Jeffrey Marx, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Season of Life

Inspired by a classic essay about a visit to a dying coach, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium explores in gorgeous detail the inescapable pull of college football-the cocky smiles behind the face masks, the two-a-day drills, the emotionally charged bus rides to the stadium, the curfew checks, the film-study sessions, the locker room antics, and the yawning void left in one’s soul the moment the final whistle sounds. To understand why it’s so painful to give up the game, you must first understand the intimacy of the huddle. "It ends for everybody," writes John Ed Bradley, "and then it starts all over again, in ways you never anticipated. Marty Dufresne sits in his wheelchair listening to the Tiger fight song...Ramsey Darder endures prison by playing the games over in his head...Big Ed Stanton never took up the game of golf, and yet he rides the streets of Bayou Vista in a cart nearly identical to Coach Mac’s, recalling the one time the old man invited him for a ride." Far more than a memoir, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium is a brutally honest, profoundly moving look at what it means to surrender something you love.




An Amazon Editors’ Best Book of 2007

"John Ed Bradley is a rare gem, a gifted writer trapped in the body of a football player. It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium will send chills down the back of anyone who loves the game and will echo in the minds of former players long after they’ve put it down."
- Tim Green, best-selling author and member of the College Football Hall of Fame

"A mesmerizing read...achingly sentimental in some parts, brutally truthful in others..."
- Chicago Tribune

"The best memoir I have ever read on how a particular game, win or lose, can linger with us."
- Josh Levin, Slate

"An unsparing and often beautiful chronicle of [Bradley’s] attempt to join polite society."
- Play Magazine

"A lyrical memoir...about his teammates, his coaches, his parents and the magnetic power of football in Louisiana." - National Public Radio

"Heart-wrenching, honest, insightful and hard to put down." - The Franklin Sun



From the Trade Paperback edition.

Minnesota Vikings: The Complete Illustrated History

Patrick Reusse

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Editorial Review:

They started play as an expansion team in 1961, and within a decade, the Minnesota Vikings were among the NFL’s elite---and most popular---franchises. From the formative years under Norm Van Brocklin to the Super Bowl squads of Bud Grant, to the ups and downs under Jerry Burns and Dennis Green, Minnesota’s football team has had its share of dramatic triumphs and heart-wrenching defeats. Through it all, the fans have come out in droves to cheer on the Vikes, whether in the cold winter air at Metropolitan Stadium or the hyper-loud surroundings of the Metrodome.

 

Lavishly illustrated and featuring all the key moments, stats, and people behind the stories, Minnesota Vikings: The Complete Illustrated History is the ultimate celebration of an iconic football franchise. It honors the great squads and all the legends and colorful characters who have donned the purple and gold, including Fran Tarkenton, the “Purple People Eaters,” Chuck Foreman, Ahmad Rashad, Randall McDaniel, John Randle, Cris Carter, Anthony Carter, Robert Smith, Randy Moss, and more. Written by one the state’s most revered sports columnists, this is a book that no Vikings fan should be without.