Football season is here. The season of tailgating, with brats and beer, ignoring the cold to cheer on the home team, and memories of my grandmother, cussing out "Da Bears" on Thanksgiving as she cooked the turkey. Get ready for game time with these football-related selections.
NONFICTION
"How three football legends -- Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Parcells -- won eight Super Bowls during the 1980s and changed football forever" -- Provided by publisher.
"No person was more responsible for converting English rugby into American football than Walter Camp (1859-1925). As a player at Yale, then a coach at Yale and Stanford, a sportswriter for Harper's Weekly and other major magazines, and an influential member of rules committees, he patiently and gradually transformed the sport into the football we recognize today. In this freshly researched biography, Roger Tamte follows Camp from infancy to the meeting of the rules committee in 1903. That meeting established the modern game, including scoring, play ending after a tackle, resuming on opposite sides of a line of scrimmage, plays beginning with a snap to the quarterback, and a system of downs and yardage goals for retaining or losing possession. The incremental changes that Camp introduced and championed did not come easily. In addition to the usual resistance to change, he had to confront academic, press, and governmental complaints about the brutality of the game. As the popularity of college football drew more spectators, games needed larger stadiums. Camp had to address questions of eligibility, officiating, and scheduling. And he had a personal life and a professional business career to maintain. His was a busy life, and one worth telling"-- Provided by publisher.
Here is your chance to go inside the huddle, head into the locker room, or grab a seat on the sidelines. This is your exclusive pass to get on the team plane or have breakfast at the team hotel. Go behind the scenes and peek into the private world of the players, coaches, and decision-makers and eavesdrop on their conversations. You'll have a front-row seat for the times when the memories were made and hear some of the greatest stories in the history of sports. Don't be left out of the loop--get the first-hand accounts from true team insiders. No more rumors or second hand he said, she said. Relive the highlights. Be there for the celebrations. Find out just how it really happened.
Featuring exclusive interviews with the greatest players in team history, Richard Whittingham's "We Are the Bears" is the definitive story of this classic NFL franchise, told by the men who built it. This oral history of the team, which features numerous legends--including Mike Singletary, Mike Ditka, Gayle Sayers, Dan Hampton, and many others--will delight fans of all ages.
This book tells the story of professional football in the 1950s and 60s through the words of the players themselves. The chapters are full of anecdotes and reflections on the best and toughest players of the era, while two additional chapters include humorous quotes and the players' thoughts on how the game has changed since their heyday.
FICTION
In pro football, history forgets who finishes second.
Humphrey Lyles, owner of the dismal Birmingham Ruffians, would pay millions for an athlete who would take his team to the Super Bowl-- a competitor like all-American tackle Clay Blackwell. But for that kind of money, he owns a player's hide, so he'd better get with the Program.
Head coach Vance White's brutal regimen encourages a viciousness on the field that shocks even the most hardened NFL veterans. But when the mysterious ingredient fueling the Ruffians' aggressive fury leads to tragedy on his own team, Clay rebels. Now trapped between his conscience and his desire to join his teammates on their steamroller ride to the top, he faces the most agonizing choice of his life.
Dewayne Jobe had it all-- football career, a beautiful family, and a white picket fence to boot. But catastrophe looms. Will Dewayne's faith and character stand the test of tragedy?
The bestselling author of "Big Girl Panties" is back with a funny, sweet, and sizzling novel about the game of love, in which a hot quarterback must figure out how to score big with a beautiful and talented media analyst after a heartbreaking fumble. Star quarterback and heartthrob Tyson Palmer has made a name for himself with his spectacular moves - except Dani, whose negative comments about his performance draw high ratings and spectacular notices of her own. Dani can't forgive Tyson's transgressions or forget the sizzling history the two of them shared in college. Even more infuriating, he doesn't realize that the bombshell with huge ratings is the cute girl whose heart he once broke. Can a woman trying to claw her way to the top and a quarterback who knows all about rock bottom make it to the Super Bowl without destroying each other?
New York Times bestselling author and former NFL player Tim Green tells a heartfelt and moving story about a deaf boy's journey to change how others see him-both on and off the football field. Perfect for fans of Mike Lupica.
Landon Dorch wants to be like everyone else. But his deafness and the way he talks have always felt like insurmountable obstacles. But now he finally sees his chance to fit in. Bigger and taller than any other seventh grader in his new school, Landon plans to use his size to his advantage and join the school's football team. But the same speech problems and the cochlear implants that help him hear continue to haunt him.
Just when it looks like Landon will be left out of football for good, an unlikely friend comes along. But in the end only Landon can fight his way off the bench and through a crowded field of bullies bent on seeing him forever left out.
Grisham's #1 "New York Times" bestseller, now available in a tall Premium Edition, is the story of a former high school quarterback who returns to his hometown 15 years later with other former teammates to bury the coach who molded them into an unbeatable football dynasty. Reissue.
MOVIES
A school and football team combats racism in the 1970s in this religious-based period drama. After racial tensions begin to boil over at a high school, the school's football coach (Nic Bishop) allows a local man preaching a message of positivity, faith and love (Sean Astin) to speak to his players. Their play begins to improve, and the town begins to heal socially and spiritually in response. Jon Voight co-stars as college football coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant. ~ Tom Ciampoli, Rovi
Taken in by a well-to-do family and offered a second chance at life, a homeless teen grows to become the star athlete projected to be the first pick at the NFL draft in this sports-themed comedy-drama inspired by author Michael Lewis' best-seller The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. Michael Oher was living on the streets when he was welcomed into the home of a conservative suburban family, but over time he matured into a talented athlete. As the NFL draft approaches, fans and sports radio personalities alike speculate that Oher will be the hottest pick of the year. Sandra Bullock stars in a film written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Takes place in Odessa, a socially and racially divided and economically troubled oil town in the western part of Texas, where high school football is the thing that brings all the people together. Follows Coach Gary Gaines and the Permian High School Panthers through the 1988 season as they work hard to extend Permian's winning record. Shows the players struggling with typical adolescent issues and the lack of future opportunities in their town as well at the overwhelming pressure of the town's expectations.
A high school football coach finds himself fighting for stakes much higher than the State Championship in this drama based on actual events. In 1971, a court order forces three high schools in Alexandria, Virginia (two white, one African-American), to integrate their student bodies and faculties for the first time. As a result, Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), longtime head coach of the T.C. Williams High School football team, is asked to step down, and Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is appointed to replace him as the school's first black faculty member. The new coach is hardly welcomed with open arms, either by the school's staff or the students, and the newly integrated team is full of players (both black and white) who have little trust or respect for one another. But Boone is determined to put a winning team on the field -- it's how he approaches the game, and his future depends on it. Against long odds, Boone helps his team overcome distrust and misunderstanding of their coach (and each other) as they become a gridiron force to be reckoned with. Remember the Titans also features Nicole Ari Parker, Kate Bosworth, and Jerry Brandt, and was produced by action-film kingpin Jerry Bruckheimer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
"I've decided to take up coaching as my life work," Knute Rockne says. Coach he does, revolutionizing football with his strategies, winning close to 90 percent of his games, and helping establish the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish as a gridiron powerhouse. But victories alone do not mean success to Rockne. He wants to shape his players into responsible and honorable men.
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