Product Description
On the heels of the successful Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Book comes a spectacular celebration of professional football that will be treasured by fans of America+s Game. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that made the SI+s 50th Anniversary Book a best-seller,this lavish coffee-table volume brings to life the bone-rattling action of NFL football and the extraordinary athletes who have made it America+s true national pastime. In 256 oversized pages, The Football Book commemorates the dynasties and the dominating players, the crucial plays and classic games, the personalities and performances that propelled the NFL during SI+s first 50 years of publication, from a marginal, ragtag league to the biggest game in town. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Football Book
This is a great book for any football fan! Lots of info and awesome pictures! Highly Recommend

Good book - lots of photos!
My nephew is looking forward to reading this before bed each night.Thank you.

A great book for anybody...
This is a great book and will be handed down over the generations for others to read...

Ex-college football player loved it
Last night my family opened Christmas gifts. My niece's new husband played college football and now does substitute coaching at a small college where he is a zoology professor. He spend a good half hour looking through his new gift book and was delighted. Excellent gift!

The Man They Left Out
The most exciting runner of all time was Hugh McElhenny. They left him out. If you've never heard of him, check out some of those old grainy black-and-white films of the 1950s. He played for the 49ers. The first time he touched the ball in the NFL was a kickoff he ran back for a TD. In one season, he averaged over 8 yards per carry. That's not a typo. And that's in the NFL, not college. He did similarly amazing things in college at the U of Washington. He's a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, but they left him out. In the pantheon of most exciting football players of all time - that's most EXCITING, not necessarily the ranked best - it might look something like this:

1) McElhenny
2) Gale Sayers
3) Barry Sanders
4) Roger Staubach
5) John Elway
6) Jim Brown

Sure, Montana's not on here, but that's because he wasn't really that exciting. He was like a machine. Great, sure, but machines aren't exciting. Joe wasn't exciting.
McElhenny was. He was the King, but they left him out.
... Read more

Product Description

The sounds of autumn include the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot and the thump of the kickoff starting the first home football game. Sleeping Bear Press is proud to continue our best-selling sports series with “T is for Touchdown: A Football Alphabet.” Sports writer Brad Herzog’s easy-to-read-aloud rhymes engage even the youngest of readers, while hardcore fans can devour the detailed expository that covers the sport of the pigskin, from A-Z and end zone to end zone. Plays and players are just a few of the topics covered.

Customer Reviews (2)

Football Nonfiction Aphabet
These series of books I think do such a good job of encompassing many ages.It has the simple alphabet for the younger reader,however; it also has factual information for the much older child in which he learns the actual history of the sport as well as information about the sport.The pictures are always well done in this series.This can be enjoyed by many ages from 1st graders to 5th graders.

Student Favorite
A great addition to my other alphabet books, especially those by this author.My students love the detailed illustrations.They feel like they're reading the book with great confidence. ... Read more

Product Description
2003 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

I'm finally enjoying football!
I'm a mom with a highschool son and a middleschool son who both play football--and a husband without a lot of patience to explain the game in the middle of the excitement! This is a great book for those of us who've never taken the time to learn the game.I can finally speak intelligently about what I'm seeing!I wish I'd read it sooner!

finaly
Awesome book I now know SOMETHING about football and not a moment too soon as my son has played foot ball for 4 years...now I need the next set of rules

Good football study guide for beginners
I purchased this book as a present for my brother who has started to become interested in football.He wanted a book that would explain all the rules and technicalities of the game.Overall, he liked the book and learned from it.

Great for newbies
This is a great book for someone who knows nothing about football.My boyfriend and I were going to go to a TX Longhorns VS OK Sooners game, a huge game for college football fans, and I knew nothing of the sport!So I bought this book, and by the time we made it to the game, I knew enough to understand what was going on, I had so much fun!

Easy read- glad I bought it
Very quick easy read, good descriptions & diagrams.My husband and son made fun of me- but now I can talk like I have a clue & they appreciate it.

I'd buy it again! ... Read more

Product Description
Hired by Bo Schembechler in 1974, Michigan equipment manager Jon Falk has forged a colorful legacy among the coaches, players, and the University of Michigan s faithful fans. Falk s encyclopedic knowledge of Wolverines football traditions and history make him a vital component of the staff that transforms talented college football players into true Michigan Men. And in his nearly four decades on the job, Falk has become one of the most beloved figures in team history.
In If These Walls Could Talk, Falk shares his stories, memories, and friendships established in the locker room, on the sideline, and on the road with one of college football s most storied institutions. From legendary tales of Bo Schembechler s epic gridiron chess matches with Ohio State s Woody Hayes to the memorable day Falk introduced freshman phenom Anthony Carter to two-time All-American Ron Kramer, Falk s recollections connect the past and present to underscore the importance of building the relationships that drive the Wolverines to success.
Win or lose, a game only lasts 3-1/2 hours, Falk said. Friends last a lifetime.

He s an extra arm to the coaching staff. He s a shoulder to lean on for the players.... All players eventually have to leave the University of Michigan. But no one ever leaves Big Jon.
Tom Brady, former Michigan quarterback, from his foreword

[Falk] can tell stories going all the way back to Bo. That s a good feeling for a former player. That s what Michigan is all about. When you play football for Michigan, you never really leave. It will always be part of your home.
Mike Hart, former Michigan running back

Nobody knows more about Michigan tradition than Jon.
Paul Jokisch, former Michigan wide receiver ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Jon is a master story teller
I worked for Big Jon Falk when I was a student at UM in the 80's.He was a great story teller then and he remains a great story teller.I was really happy to see this book come out, if nothing else so that my kids could learn a little something about this guy I always tell them about.Jon is truly one of the unsung heroes of Michigan football over the last 36 years.He knows where all the skeletons are buried at the Big House and then some.If you want a true insider's view of Michigan football, this book is not to be missed.

Great Story Teller
Jon Falk knows how to tell a story that will make you laugh and for those Wolverine fans send chills up and down your spine.

He knows more about the inner workings of big time college football and many of the characters who make up the game.A fun read with humor and history.

If These Walls Could Talk
I don't even live in Michigan - and this is a MUST for all Wolverine and Spartan football people!What a history lesson for all the state- and nation!

NOW, about those Buckeye's- you gotta love Jon Falk and his praise for how the football bounces -BOTH ways.He knows.

Dolly Thomas

... Read more

Product Description
In 13-degree sub-zero weather, on New Year’s Eve, 1967, aclassic NFL championship game was played between the Dallas Cowboysand the Green Bay Packers. Sportswriter Ed Gruver weaves thefascinating details of this legendary game into a quick-paced,suspense-filled narrative that plunges readers into one of thefiercest football rivalries of all time.

The Ice Bowl details the history of two famous coaches—VinceLombardi and Tom Landry—and the coaching philosophies that madethem and their teams legends. Gruver successfully evokes manyindividual players’ stories of endurance, drive, and strategy. Amplebackground, personal interviews, action photos, and an undeniablepassion for the game all contribute to this compelling account of thelong-time rivalry that culminated on the "frozen tundra" of the IceBowl.

Includes diagrams, game and season statistics, and complete Ice Bowl play-by-play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

The Ice Bowl is a wonderful read down memory lane for those of us who were Green Bay Packer fans in the 1960s.
This book about the 1967 Ice Bowl is an excellent read worth at least 4 stars. to read about what the two coaches Landry and Lambardi were thinking before during and after thegame was pescious.

Good story but characters are deified
If I am not mistaken, the playoff game between the Bengals and the Chargers was played in even colder conditions than the Ice Bowl.But that game was a blowout and neither team ever won a Superbowl.

That said, the book seemed like a reasonably researched story of this game.The game coverage seems fairly good.

But the incessant praise for anybody who had anything to do with this ballgame, from writers, TV directors (the CBS director could not hold NBC's Harry Coyle's headset), players, coaches, all got irritating quite quickly.

Yes, the people are given the once-over, but their stories sound like they came right out of a press guide.Many interesting people were involved in that game, Gruver made them all sound alike.

If Gruver says that the game was such a landmark, he did little to say why.A good foreward and epilogue is needed desparately.Gruver makes no reference to this being the next-to-last-game of the Packer dynasty.The team collapsed the following year, the result of Lombardi's retirement from coaching and him not developing younger players.

Nor did the Cowboys return to the NFC championship until 3 years later.

The book could have been so much better.

Ice Bowl:I Was There
My uncle took me to the Dec 31,1967 NFL Championship game between the Cowboys and Packers, better known as the ice bowl.I was a high school senior.I have always remembered that it was -13 degrees with a 20 mph wind blowing into the open north end of the stadium.It wasn't until I read this book that I realized the wind chill by the end of the game was -56 degrees. Now I live in Texas where 100 degree summer days are the norm.On hot days I reread the book and watch the video.The Texas heat doesn't seem so bad.

The Real Deal
The year 1997 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the 1967 NFL Championship game between the Packers and the Cowboys.Two book were published around that time.One was by Mike Shropshire and the other was by Ed Gruver.Of the two books, Gruver's is superior.It looks briefly at the coaches, the organizations, the seasons, and then devotes the lion's share of the book to the actual game.Especially helpful were the diagrams of key plays that occurred during the game.The book devotes a chapter to each quarter.In addition to the players and coaches, the author looks at the game from sportscasters and referees.The author also covers issues that Shropshire ignored.For example: was Jerry Kramer offsides on the winning TD and did Donny Anderson score on the previous play.The author also does a good job on covering the discussion of possible plays that could be called on the final play.The Shropshire book was not bad, but this one wins hands down.

EXCELLENT RECAP
THIS BOOK IS TRULY A GREAT READ. THE INTERVIEWS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ANDRESEARCH IS REALLY EXCELLENT. THIS IS BOOK REALLY BRINGS BACK SOME MEMORIES. I WAS ACTUALLY COLD JUST THINKING ABOUT THE HARSH CONDITIONS OF THAT DAY OF SURVIVAL. WELL DESCRIBED AND A GREAT WAY TO LEARN ABOUT THIS LEGENDARY GAME. HATS OFF TO MR GRUVER, AND ALL ASSOCIATED WITH THIS MASTERPIECE. ... Read more

Product Description

Whether you’re a parent new to coaching or an experienced youth coach, Coaching Youth Football is your handbook for a successful season. Through the expertise of former NFL coach and current AYF president Joe Galat and American Youth Football, you’ll gain field-tested tips on running your team, communicating with and handling players, providing basic first aid, planning and conducting practices, drawing up plays, and keeping it all fun.

Product Description

Product Description
Jam-packed with cool trivia; history-making records; unforgettable moments; and wacky true tales of your favorite games, players and events. These tales from the gridiron will set fans abuzz. Fun, filled with intriguing lore from football history, and engagingly written, they're almost as exciting as the Super Bowl itself. Find out all about the culture of superstition and the crazy events that surround the game, about the hazing that's an integral part of the sport, and about how a team's captain gets his fellow players all fired up. Some of the fascinating stories include: the Eagles beating the Giants just before time ran out when New York's fumble led to Philadelphia's miracle at the Meadowlands; how Dallas Cowboys' coach Jimmy Johnson managed to catch a glimpse of the Buffalo Bills' new formation when a television station accidentally broadcast it; and how San Francisco Forty Niners' Ronnie Lott gave 110% and his pinky all for the love of the sport. Features thirty cartoons highlighting the humor of the situation, as well as a look back at all the things that make football so special. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

No Color Pix!
This book is ok but my 7 yr old was disappointed with the drawings.
He was expecting colored action shots! :(
... Read more

Product Description

You volunteered to coach the football team, but are you ready? How will you teach the fundamental skills, run effective practices, and harness the energy of your young team? Fear not: Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Football has the answers.

Customer Reviews (2)

Great resource for coaches!
This book is an excellent resource for both beginner and veteran coaches. It is accessible and applicable to many different situations and is a great resource for all youth football coaches.

Helpful (and realistic) advice for first time coaches!
As a longtime youth football coach, I invariably get a call from someone every July who has suddenly found themselves in the daunting position of coaching a team for the first time. Be it a willing parent or an enthused college kid, I've always done my best to give a little advice and to recommend a decent book. This year I've been pleased to find this new book by Dougherty and Castel on the market. It's a great resource for new coaches of young teams from pee wees to lightweights (ages 6-12).

These authors do a great job of relaying the nuts and bolts of what a new coach needs in a lighthearted tone without a lot of extra stuff that first-timers really don't need to manage that first season. This book will get readers through with realistic advice, plays and drills for young kids.

Rookie coaches seeking a more comprehensive book which addresses outside issues (like fundraising) and offers more breadth for older youth players (ages 8-14) will find a great resource in Coaching Youth Football - 5th Edition (Coaching Youth Sports) by Joe Galat, the President of American Youth Football. Both books are top notch depending on which age group you're coaching. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (18)

Truly a History of Football Tactics
I purchased this book to learn more about the development of tactics over the years, and that is exactly what I got. This book is truly a "history", as it discusses many people, places, and social contexts as it explains the changes in tactics. This is not a quick and easy read like some current books on soccer, but for the fan who truly loves not only watching the game, but thinking and learning about it, this is a good read. The main reason I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars is that I would have enjoyed more depth at some points regarding specific individuals. There is some of this, but I wanted a bit more. Still, I recommend this book to the passionate and thoughtful fan of the beautiful game.

Terrific, thorough, readable
Highly recommended to anyone who approaches sports with an intellectual point of view. Wilson creates a linear path from the game's founding to the tactics of today. Excellent book.

Accesible, Enjoyable, Illuminating read
This is an excellent, highly readable and enjoyable book on the evolution of football tactics.Whilst expanding any readers historical knowledge of the game it will also greatly increase the readers understanding and appreciation of the modern game.The book weaves in stories of players, personalities, managers and historical events with tactical/formation diagrams and descriptions of the way key historical games and teams played.

It is written in such a way that it is very accessible, it is not a essay or lecture, and it keeps its subject matter interesting at all times. You don't need any advanced understanding of the game of football to enjoy this book.In short - don't be put off if you think this book may be too technical or too dry a subject. The writing style and structure easily avoid any such pitfalls.

Although this book is not a coaching manual it can play a role in any coaches collection as it provides a wonderful insight into some of the methods of play and pros and cons of various systems. I have found this book to be an important reference both with coaching and increasing my enjoyment in watching professional games.

A masterpiece, but a seriously flawed masterpiece
This book is admirable for its erudition and its focus on the evolution of tactics from the playing fields of nineteenth century public schools to the present. One really must admire a British specialist who digs into the entire global picture of football and comes up with a relatively comprehensible narrative out of what must have been reams of club histories and match reports that probably contain very little of the information the author seeks. It is readable, informative and occasionally funny. Here comes the "but". Quality really declines toward the end, as if the author was rushing to meet a publishing deadline or simply outsourced the job to a football fan with a bizarre form of Tourrette's that forces him to spout senseless combinations of numbers such as "3-3-3-1, 4-5-1, 3-4-1-2". The next-to-last chapter is completely unreadable. Whereas other chapters developed the story of a single innovator or the situation in a single country, this one just rushed through a myriad of modern formations and discusses sweeping issues such as the disappearance of the playmaker. Another late chapter devotes incomprehensible amounts of space to an obscure polemic between a football statistician and a future England coach. The central narrative is lost completely, which is tied to another central weakness: the lack of occasional paragraphs to sum up the evolution of tactics as the long procession of teams, coaches and players parade through the foreground of the book and just as quickly disappear from view. The title "Inverting the Pyramid" is a brilliant example of this: it sums up an immense amount of information into a neat little compact literary phrase, but that kind of brilliance is somewhat absent from the rest of the book. In short, I enjoyed the book, I learned a lot from it and I will probably return to it frequently after matches, but it really could have used a little more tidying up from an editor (hopefully in a future edition).

Just in time for the World Cup
I ordered this book to help me become more knowledgeable about the sport, and that has worked.I better understand the tactics and the demands placed on individual players based on their position and the formation.Good history of theevolution of the game, as well as the great coaches and great players.
With exactly one month until the start of the World Cup, I feel I will have more insight to what I'll be watching. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Best sports book for toddlers!
Great pictures, easy to understand...brought it to the football game and our 2.5 year old loved it!

TOUCHDOWN -FOOTBALL BOOK
TOUCHDOWN
MY FOOTBALL BOOK
Wonderful book.Excellent for beginning reader or sports loving child.
My grandson rec'd. this for his fifth birthday.
LOVES THE BOOK.Takes it back and forth sometimes to read/share with others.
Excellent to stimulate love of reading.

Perfect Books for Little Sports Fan
I ordered this book, along with the baseball and basketball books by the same author, for my 3-and-a-half-year-old son for Christmas.He REALLY enjoys them, and wants to read them all the time, bring them on car rides, etc.He's even been setting up his own "games" in his bedroom since reading these books.It's really enhanced his "understanding" of the games, as well as his imaginative play.If your little guy or girl is showing an interest in sports (or if it's part of the family - my husband and I coach) I recommend these books without hesitation.(Do note, these aren't story books, more words-pictures-understanding books.)

football made easy
My 6 month old received this book as a gift and he loves it- still does at 18 months.He wants to read it over and over and over and every time we get to 'Rush' part he throws his hands in the air in preparation for the next page 'Touchdown!'

football book for toddler
Football for little ones.Hard pages are colorful with simple wording.Great intro to football for your little lineman. ... Read more

Product Description
At the age of 8, Chad Gibbs attended his first Southeastern Conference football game.Since then he has been in a constant battle to not let his love of all things pigskin consume him.As a Christian, Gibbs knows he cannot serve two masters, but at times his faith is overwhelmed by his fanaticism.He is not alone.In 2008 over six million people attended an SEC football game.They spend thousands on season tickets, donate millions to athletic departments, and for three months a year order their entire lives around the schedule of their favorite team. Gibbs and his six million friends do not live in a spiritually void land where such borderline idol worship would normally be accepted.They live in the American South, where according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 84 percent identify themselves as Christians.This apparent contradiction that Gibbs sees in his own life, and in millions of others, has led him to journey to each of the twelve schools to spend time with rabid, Christian fans of various ages and denominations.Through his journey he hopes to learn how others are able to balance their passion for their team with their devotion to God.And if Gibbs learns others are just as messed up as he is, at least he will know he is not alone. ... Read more

Product Description
The most comprehensive reference book ever assembled on the history of college football

From South Bend, Indiana, to Lincoln, Nebraska, Palo Alto, California, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Tallahassee, Florida, college football attracts the most dedicated fans in all of sports. This book is their Bible -- a rich and exhaustive reference guide to the game’s history, tradition, and lore. Based on three years of research by the nation’s foremost college football experts, the book features:

-Capsule histories for each of the Division 1-A programs, the Ivy League schools, and the historically black colleges-Year-by-year schedules and scores for each school-Statistical leaders from each school-Fight-song lyrics-Box scores for every bowl game ever played-Weekly AP and UPI polls dating back to 1936-A four-color insert illustrating the evolution of each school’s helmet design-Essays by the game’s top wordsmiths, including Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, Chris Fowler, and more.-And a lively round-table discussion on the state of the game with ESPN’s popular GameDay team (Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit).

Packed with tables and charts and designed in an easy-to-read style, the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is sure to dazzle even the most knowledgeable fan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

Must have!
If you like college football and don't have this book you are doing yourself a disservice.I purchased this four years ago but still read from it routinely.Yes you can look up facts online but it's nice to have everything in one place.This is my prize position as far as my book collection goes.Add in Phil Steele's annual college football preview each year and you will never be stumped on a college football question again.I also enjoyed the numerous articles included in the book.

A Few Detailed Facts Are Wrong!
The book is a good reference but not as accurate as the Internet or Google today. For example, the book has the wrong information on what College actually put numbers on Football Jerseys. According to the History of American Football and Sports Illustrated in 1908, Karl Davis, at the time publicity man for the University of Pittsburgh, first put numbers on college football jerseys.

Davis used that good old sales pitch, "One cannot tell the players without a program!" He quickly added to this service the refinement of switching the numbers each week due to Davis having the program concession. Davis thus became a double pioneer in player numbering and in "dynamic obsolescence". Both inventions have come a long way since.

When I see such errors, I wonder how many other facts the author got it wrong or just did sloppy research. Anyway, the Internet Age has made such books obsolete and mistakes unimportant since they can be corrected easily today with easy research.

Comprehensive
I keep this book chair side throughout the college football season and refer to it other times as well.There is great info on each Div 1 team, and it's great to learn how certain names, traditions, etc. were started.A season by season schedule with scores is great as well.If you love college football, get it today.

Missing something...
Filled with good information but could be improved with annual updates which include prior season records, returnees, recruit class and brief overview of coming season prospects.

My son loved this book
I bought this as a gift for my son, who know everything about football, and he really loved it. ... Read more

Product Description

It’s fun to watch a high-flying slam dunk, a perfect spiral thrown for a touchdown, or a batter fooled by a hard-breaking curveball. But how are athletes able to perform these moves? From the laws of physics on a skateboard to the effects of weather on a ball, the Science of Sports books explore all the science behind these amazing plays.

... Read more

Product Description
From the award winning author of Fantasy Football Guidebook (and three other fantasy football books) comes the ultimate step by step guide to success; including methods of drafting, ranking players, creating cheat sheets and drafting like an expert. Finally, an easy to use and understand book, with tips on how to win your fantasy football league every year, is available at a great price. With over 200 winning ways, from how to pick a fantasy league to roster management tools, Fantasy Football Tips provides the key techniques to make you a consistent fantasy football owner. Written for all fantasy football players (whether a beginner or expert), Fantasy Football Tips is your ticket to this years League Championship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Fantasy football
The Fantasy Football Tips: 201 Ways to Win Through Player Rankings, Cheat Sheets and Better Drafting book is an excellent book to use in setting up your fantasy football team. It has helpful ideas for picking players and playing the game.

Another Winner from Hendricks
For the most part there are two kinds of Fantasy Football books out there.The first is the basic, introductory "draft RBs before kickers" kind of book.The second is the goofball theory book -- books that, while far from comprensive overall, describe in great detail the brilliant, wonderful theory that made the author the best fantasy football player in his league two years out of the last ten.The optimist in me thinks the authors of the latter group are people who got lucky, and haven't really subjected their theories to much scrutiny, whether by peer review, computer simulations, or just looking at data.The cynic in me thinks these authors are deliberately peddling crappy ideas, using their (cough) name to cash in without revealing any "real" secrets of the trade.The realist in me suspects that probably there's a some of both going on in most of those books.

In my view Sam Hendricks is the only author out there who is both writing at a high level, and writing honestly about his approach to winning at fantasy football.This book is a gold mine of information, containing valuable tips that you aren't going to see anywhere else.In addition, he isn't shy about calling out some of the nonsense that passes for accepted wisdom in fantasy football canon, and when he does, he backs it up with a solid logical argument.Tip #64, for example, blows away one of the central theses of Randy Giminez's "Dominate Fantasy Football" in less than 400 words, and after reading both, I'm basically ready to use Giminez for kindling.He's wrong, Hendricks is right, it's that simple.

I think a handful of his tips are questionable, but so many of them are so on the money that it makes this book worth far, far more than what he's charging for it.Sure, he could use some help in the editing department -- I grate my teeth every time I read "Jay Cutler or P. Manning", or "ARZ WR Larry Fitzgerald" in a paragraph of prose.Spell 'em out, bro, it doesn't cost you anything and, as you say often enough, consistency is a good thing.

Why this guy doesn't get more credit is beyond me, but a BIG part of me is glad that nobody's reading his stuff.The last thing I need is for my opponents to get better.

Now if he could just clean up his yearly Almanac....

A choice pick for those who love fantasy football
Fantasy football is a game of understanding the potential of players. "Fantasy Football Tips: 201 Ways to Win Through Player Rankings, Cheat Sheets, and Better Drafting" is a guide for those who want to improve their planning and choices when dealing with the game of fantasy football. With advice on better understanding football, seeing who is going to have the better season, and more, Sam Hendricks will give readers a leg up on their competition. "Fantasy Football Tips" is a choice pick for those who love fantasy football.

Outstanding!
Very insightful! There are hundreds of tips to improve your fantasy team at the draft, and techniques to ensure the strength of your team throughout the fantasy season. Sam has considered draft techniques that nobody else has thought of. And, his personal style makes it fun to read. Great book.

First the Fantasy Football Guidebook, now this little gem!
Sam Hendricks hits the bull's eye yet again with another great book not only on how to win at Fantasy Football, but how to better enjoy it as well.

Sam has competed in several high stakes leagues over the years including the World Championship of Fantasy Football and the Fantasy Football Players Championship.He shares the methods he himself has used to win since he began playing.Fantasy Football Tips is a quick and easy read, but it's comprehensive and detailed enough to guide you through the entire season.Sam's winning experience can be yours as he offers tips on drafting for your specific type of league and scoring system, techniques to help you pick the rookies destined to shine and how to spot the most likely breakout players.Sam even mentions weather and field conditions and how it will affect your team, something I rarely if ever thought about.There's also advice on trading and even an appendix with tools to help you stick with your plan on draft day.No FF player, veteran or novice should be without this book.Get it, read it, WIN!

... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

ESPN NFL Encyclopedia
The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia, Second Edition
It's everything I wanted as a history of the NFL, its players, and teams.If you can think of it, it's in there.

Impressive collection of information!
After my wife finished her bachelors degree she announced that she now wanted to study football. Realizing I probably have the best wife in the history of the world, (at least since football was invented), I set out to help her accomplish her goal. She's been pretty into football for a number of years, but wanted to learn all of the terminology (such as Post Route, Slant, etc...), the detailed rules, and general history of the game including important players throughout the history of the game. She and I got on Amazon and bought about a half dozen football books, including this one.

At a whopping 1520+ pages, it contains more information that virtually any human could take in. More of a reference than a book you would sit down and read, it will allow you to get all those call in radio show questions right, as well as prove who knows what they're talking about when debating player stats, game scores, etc... My wife likes the book, but obviously isn't going to read it cover-to-cover.

As a reference, the book is fantastic. Bear in mind that this version is now a couple years out of date (it was published in 2007) so if you want the most recent stats, get a newer edition.

Gold For the Football History Nerd
This massive book has everything that you would expect to find in a baseball or football encyclopedia. The leaders section is very thorough, but I'd prefer that the rankings be on a per-game basis rather than being ranked by "projected totals" (to place performances from 12-game and 14-game seasons on equal playing fields with today's 16-game seasons). Other than that, all football history nerds need to own this book.

Football
I gave this to my wife. She is comparing it to the Baseball Encyclopedia, also by ESPN. She is disappointed in the readability of the Football Encyclopedia. It is harder to follow and understand in comparison.

for football fans
any season. any game.any team.any player. any you want to read if you love football. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

not very good
I bought this book for my husband for Christmas, he did not like the book itself.The drawings are very poor.They look like they had been photo copied out of a childrens coloring book.I wish I had not wasted my money on this book.It might be better for someone who knowes nothing about football.I was hopeing it would give more writen explanations along with the picture.When I bought the book it did not have the option to look inside, so I did not really know what I was buying.

Uninspired
Don't be fooled by the color cover of this book. All the images/diagrams in the book are in black and white and pretty boring overall. The book also isn't close to complete and misses some pretty important stuff like the many various ways a safety can be accomplished. If you're looking for a detailed and concise football rules book, this one is merely adequate. There are better options out there.

Quit explaining and start enjoying
This book together with Football for Dummies gave my wife an appreciation of the sport.

This book is not even close to being complete....
This book does not contain all rules and in many cases only contains pictures that allude to rules.

If you'd like a book that is complete, I would suggest that you look elsewhere.

Black and white and a bit boring
Very basic and not very exciting. I only wanted the basics (as a new comer to the US) and this only just made it. Pay the postage, but not much more. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Very Much More Than a Sports Book
"Carry the Rock" has a quiet power and is very different from typical sports books. First, the structure of the book is really smart -- it juxtaposes Little Rock history, politics, and educational issues with the struggles of the team during this historic year, fifty years after the Little Rock 9 became famous.The writing is clean, honest, and genuine.While the author never sticks his face in the way of the story, you can feel his compassion and sense how profoundly the year must have affected him, as well as the Central High Tigers.

The fact that Jennings can make school board politics and districts interesting attests to his skills as a writer. Most compelling, though, is his portrait of the coach, Bernie Cox.The coach is strict yet loving, and seemingly the perfect leader for Central High. Like the author, Cox possesses a modest dignity and understated wisdom. Cox doesn't so much "jump off the page" as seep through -- as does the team's heartbreaking season.

This book is the "Friday Night Lights" for a smarter reader: not as sensational, and there won't be a TV show, but Jenning's book is just as powerful. Anyone interested in sports, race, or the education of our kids will love this book.

An unvarnished look at a forgotten American city and a football legend in decline
In the spirit of the awesome, unforgettable "Friday Night Lights," Jay Jennings has written "Carry the Rock," an examination of Little Rock, Arkansas and the juggernaut football program of Central High School.

This may not sound like a story of national interest, but Little Rock is a city that deserves attention for a lot more than Bill Clinton and the HBO gangland expose, "Bangin' in Little Rock."Little Rock is a touchstone city for the history of the American civil rights movement, for both good and ill.Jennings retells one of the most shocking tales of lynching in American history, an event that leaves lasting scars on the city and the South.But Jennings balances it with the proud history of Little Rock, both in terms of American political life (Bill Clinton is not the only famous Arkansan in American politics) and its cultural impact.It would shock many proud Northeastern elites to learn that Central High in Little Rock was for years considered to be among the top public high schools in the entire country.And this city was also the site of the infamous Little Rock Nine - nine African American teenagers who dared to break the color barrier and gain admission to the prestigious, segregated school in 1957.

Fifty years later, the legendary Central High football team is also trying to defend its state championship title.Unfortunately, despite the presence of a legendary coach on the sidelines and some really terrific kids, they just don't have the horses to justify their preseason ranking as #1 in the state.Jennings writes with compassion and clarity as he follows the Tigers through their season of triumphs and failures.This book serves as a reminder that where the national interest may fall for a brief moment, the locals are still all too human in their cares and tribulations.

While not rising to the heights of "FNL," it is probably an unfair comparison.This is a smaller book in many ways, and while Jennings labors mightily, the connections between the football team and the city's civil rights history are not always strong.The kids, naturally, don't really care about what happened fifty years ago.Think of the book as telling two different yet powerful stories set in the same place and it works much better.

I really admire this book.

Good topic, plodding writing
I was interested in this topic, but just could not get engaged by the author.There are story tellers and there are word writers who can get the story written down without telling the story in an engaging way.Unfortunately, that's how I found this book.I kept reading and waiting for the story to be interesting or engaging.Finally I gave up.I'm not sure why I gave it 3 stars.Maybe I felt like I should have liked it better.Anyway, if you have a special tie to Little Rock or Arkansas, you may find it interesting enough to get through.If you're just a football fan or someone interested in race relations and history, you can probably find better alternatives to read.

Interesting premise.
This book has a very interesting premise, the juxtaposition of the football team of modern-day( Little Rock, Arkansas) Central High School with the past (racist) history of the school. Central High is famous, and will always remain famous for a very bleak moment in history- its refusal to integrate under Federal law. Then governor Orville Faubus attained a rather dubious element of fame by refusing to allow Central High's integration. Eventually The President had to send in troops to allow only 9 African-American children to matriculate. This low point in racial tolerance made Little Rock and Arkansas infamous in the annals of history, all around the world.

The author attempts a rather risky maneuver by comparing,chapter by chapter, the current state of affairs, as represented by the Central High football team with the past. The idea was a fine one, but the author does not quite pull it off. The action is choppy and disjointed, there is too much detail about the inner-workings of the team members and the coach. Not enough emphasis has been placed upon building a strong foundation that can support the 2 story lines. For those wishing to discover more details about the racial problems in Little Rock, then and now - there is not enough information. For sports fans wishing to read of the growth of a strong High School football team, the coverage is spotty at best.

I gave this book 4 stars, this rating applies only if one is already quite familiar with the subject and wishes to glean a few more morsels of information. If the reader has never heard of Central High and Orville Faubus, this is not the book for you. There are many, many fine books written about this subject, read those books, they will be far more relevant to the events themselves. This book comes across as being a failed attempt to blend "Friday Night Lights" with the history of the Civil Rights movement in Little Rock Arkansas. It is an impossible combination and the author could better have dedicated himself to one or the other.

Interesting examination of sport and race in high school
Non-fiction chronicles of a football team's journey through a season (whether at the high school, college or professional level) are a staple of American sports writing. The challenge for any writer trying to take on such a story is to provide a new way to illuminate what is essentially a sports writing genre.

Scheduled for release as America settles in for a new football season, Jay Jennings success in providing a unique perspective on a a basic story that's been told before. The team he chose for this book -the Tigers of Little Rock Central High School-- represent the legacy of the challenging history of racial integration in the United States.

Nominally the story of a season of high school football, Jennings weaves other threads throughout the book. Among these are the history of Little Rock itself, the challenges of integrating the schools there in the 1950s (and an unflinching look at the realities of this 50 years later), and modern issues that continued to shape the city (and the school)...especially how the paths of Interstate highways can mold the urban areas they pass through, for better or worse.

The football narrative is centered on the coaching staff, with the spotlight shining firmly on coach Bernie Cox as he steers the Tigers through 2007 season, his 35th with the team. The demands of time and myriad challenges facing the coaches (facilities, parents, academics, the foibles of teenagers, how to get 50 kids moving in the same direction for an away game...let alone getting them moving on the field in the same direction) are excellently laid out by Jennings.

Football fans looking for detailed descriptions of Xs and Os won't find them there. The focus is not on play selection (although sometimes it is on player selection) but on the intangibles that come with coaching. What are the non-negotiable requirements for players? Cox's requirements are simple, yet could serve anybody well: flush the toilet, pick up your trash, put away your dirty clothes and be a good representative of your organization. The calculus of scheduling sheds light on the difficult choices facing an urban coach with limited resources. Cox is in his 35th season with the Tigers during the book, and is acutely aware of generational differences that force him to alter his approach to discipline.

At the end of the book, I was well educated on Little Rock history, and indoctrinated into the Bernie Cox system. I don't feel like I knew the players that well; if this book has a shortcoming, it would be with few exceptions that the players are treated in a unitary way.

Whether you like football, or are simply interested in a unsentimental yet sensitive description of how one mentor applies his hand to modern young people...this book is a great choice to kick off your fall reading season.
... Read more

Product Description
Hundreds of illustrations and photographs combine with essays by the best sportswriters in a definitive source that breaks down the past seventy-five years of professional football into chapters that span a decade each. 125,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. TV tie-in. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A book to savor in small snippets
This book is the literary equivalent of the savored drink, better sipped and savored rather than guzzled. The best way to read it is in snippets, a little at a time and not necessarily in order. It is also the ideal book for the coffee table during football season, especially when you regularly have friends over to watch NFL games. It contains a complete description of the NFL from the early days when they were hardly pros to the latter days when it became a national obsession. If professional football is anything other than a passing fancy to you, then this is a book that you will enjoy.

On any given Sunday
This is an awesome book full of great reference material. It is a large coffee-table book that is useful to settle those discussions during the football season or to help illustrate conversation. The cover featuresan illustrated Red Grange, complete with leather helmet and minimal padding representing the 1920s or old era and Emmitt Smith representing the modern gridiron hero. The old photographs inside are priceless and capture the drama of football. The chapters are broken down by decade and includes a section on The All-Two-Way Team(way back when some players played offense and defense) that features such sixty-minute men as Sammy Baugh,The All-Time team broken down into defensive and offensive unitsincluding standouts like Deacon Jones(dubed and popularized the sack) and Jerry Rice( whose receiving records still stand and may be untouchable for years to come) and the final section, The NFL of the Future that includes many stars that recently retired (Jerome Bettis) or are about to (Junior Seau) and speculation on technical advances like the hologram etc. If you enjoy the storied lore of the NFL and all it's characters and teams that have made it what it is today than you wil love this book. Buy it for the football fan you love, they will love you for it.

Bone-crunching history lesson
75 seasons is a great trip through NFL history. The drawings may be a little strange, but the text is fantastic and the pictures are classic. The highlight of the book was the all-time team picks. It is undoubtedly a list that would stir up arguments, but you can't disagree with the picks that are there. From Grange to Baugh, Sayers to Smith, and everywhere in between, the background and rich tradition of the NFL is consumed all within this exceptional book.

A fine book for the football fanatic
"75 Seasons" is a coffee table book for the football fanatic. Chocked full of great pictures and stories, it also features the NFL's 75year all time greatest team, position by position.It is a great gift bookfor any football fan. ... Read more

Product Description
College football is a sport of rivalries—and no two teams were ever more perfectly matched than the Miami Hurricanes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In Perfect Rivals, award-winning sportswriter Jeff Carroll takes us inside the locker rooms and onto the gridiron, as two storied programs with very different cultures battle for national supremacy, school pride, and the soul of the game itself.

Beginning with the Hurricanes’ nationally televised 58–7 pasting of the Irish at the Orange Bowl in November 1985, the two teams faced each other five times over a six-year span. The last three of those games had national championship implications, as a resurgent Notre Dame sought to reclaim its historic preeminence against a faster, mouthier, more talented Miami squad notorious for trash-talking opponents, stalking out of pregame buffets, and wearing military fatigues on the team plane. The games were marked by heartbreaking finishes, disputed plays, and nasty onfield brawls. Adding fuel to the fire was a controversial slogan created by a Notre Dame student and picked up by the press—“Catholics vs. Convicts”—which served to heighten the cultural (and, some would say, racial) tension between the opposing schools.

Carroll’s fast-paced, up-close-and-personal narrative centers on a handful of colorful characters on both sides of the rivalry: the coaches, from dapper Jimmy Johnson to punctilious Lou Holtz, and the players, including Miami’s Steve Walsh, a quiet Midwesterner and one-time Holtz recruit who defied the freewheeling Miami stereotype, and devout Baptist Tony Rice, only the second black quarterback in Notre Dame history, who defined the rivalry and decided the contests.

Filled with you-are-there depictions of game action and insights drawn from Carroll’s unfettered access to many of the major figures involved, Perfect Rivals is a vivid re-creation of one of the most entertaining eras in the history of college football.
  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Bad, Not Great
A good visit back to this college football rivalry, but not a very strong effort overall. It was fun to relive the mood and tone of college football from the 1980s, but Carroll just does not give much depth to what he offers. Quite simply, he just fell short. Great idea for a book, good presentation of the basics, but he made little effort to expand on those basics. Much more detail and more views from those who were there easily could have added 100 great pages to this book.I'm glad I read it, but I'm not in a rush to recommend the book to anyone.

A Fumble
The rivalry between the University of Notre Dame and the University of Miami was college football's most intense, consequential, and controversial of the '80s, with the victor of the annual game going on to win the national championship each year from 1987 through 1989.With such high stakes riding on the outcome of each game, and with such bitter hatred engendered in each prideful camp for the other, the decade-long epic battle for college football supremacy waged by the Hurricanes and Irish provides an extremely compelling topic for a book.Unfortunately, Jeff Carroll fumbles the opportunity in what can only be described as a second-rate effort.

The first part of the book ("Collision Course") traces the genesis of the rivalry, Miami's rise from perennial punching bag to college football supremacy under the direction of Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson, and new Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz's monumental effort to rebuild the Irish into a national power in the wake of the disastrous Gerry Faust era and a humiliating 58-7 loss to the Hurricanes in 1985.It moves along at a breezy, never-dull pace as it alternates between each side's narrative.More attention is given to the Notre Dame narrative (for example, entire Miami seasons are glossed over and the fabled 1987 Miami-Florida State game is mentioned only in passing as a "one-point victory" for the Hurricanes, while sometimes even nondescript Notre Dame games are given detailed summaries), but this is not intentional and probably simply a function of Carroll's background as a writer for the South Bend Tribune and greater familiarity with the Notre Dame program.

The second section ("Catholics versus Convicts"), encompassing the period from 1988 through 1989, is where the book falls apart.One notable problem is that there's a paucity of context for the games themselves.Carroll briefly discusses the "Catholics vs. Convicts" t-shirts and the tunnel fight that occurred before the 1988 matchup at Notre Dame Stadium, but he completely neglects to describe the massive hype surrounding the game or convey the mood on campus.He doesn't say who was favored or by how much.He doesn't relate how hard tickets were to come by or how much they were selling for before the game.He doesn't describe the weather or the pregame festivities.He doesn't say how many press credentials were issued.He doesn't mention the Friday night pep rally, and he doesn't contextualize the immediate significance of the game nor its legacy.What was the campus scene after the game?What were the headlines in the following day's newspapers?What were the talking heads saying about it?Amazingly, Carroll doesn't even note that the '88 game was later voted by Notre Dame fans as the greatest victory in the program's history.None of this is addressed, yet it is precisely this kind of detail, which gives rise to a firsthand experience for the reader and brings an event into relief, that separates a good book from a middling one.

Bias also plagues the writing.The first section of the book is written in a very objective manner, but the second strikes a general tone of Notre Dame triumphalism.It's littered with comically over-the-top hyperbole ("Miami ignited a pack of blue and gold dynamite," Miami "stood no chance against Zorich," "It was payback time," "No such thing as the Notre Dame Spirit?Tell that Pat Eilers...Tell it to Tony Rice...Chris Zorich," etc.), Notre Dame apologias (Notre Dame's 27-10 loss to Miami in 1989, a game in which they didn't score after the second quarter and trailed by 14+ from the third quarter on, is described as "not being the blowout the score indicated" and blamed on Holtz warning his players beforehand not to get into a fight with the Miami players), and one-sided inclusion (in discussing the infamous Cleveland Gary fumble, no mention is made of the Notre Dame student newspaper conceding in its recap of the game that he was down before the ball came out; a Notre Dame official is quoted as saying the atmosphere at the '89 game was "evil," but absolutely nothing is included about the racist undertones of the "Catholics vs. Convicts"/anti-Miami imagery at Notre Dame Stadium in '88).Reading this section, it becomes painfully clear that Carroll is more concerned with Notre Dame aggrandizement and myth-making than producing a serious, factual exposition of this landmark rivalry.

Two further criticisms warrant mentioning.First, nearly all of the quotes from Hurricane players and personnel and a lot of other material pertaining to Miami is lifted from Bruce Feldman's excellent "Cane Mutiny."While Carroll is not guilty of intellectual dishonesty in doing so (he lists Feldman's book in his list of sources), it's disappointing that he didn't do much, if any, original research on the Miami side for this work.Secondly, the book lacks an index, which is obviously frustrating if you want to reference something or skip to a specific subject.

All in all, PERFECT RIVALS is a frivolous book that suffers fatally from substantial bias and lack of detail. ... Read more