Sports & Recreation : Football

The stories behind the success of one of the NFL’s most popular teams. Built on the firsthand accounts of the players and coaches who made the Redskins great–Joe Theismann, Larry Brown, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and numerous others–Thom Loverro takes fans on a tour of the team’s glorious past. more...

Price: $24.95

I DREAM IN BLUE is the uproarious and impassioned story of how one middle–aged fan ran away from his everyday life in order to join the ranks of his favorite team on earth: the New York Giants. Director spends the 2006–2007 season up close and personal with Big Blue, in the locker room and on the practice field, schmoozing with fan favorites like Tiki Barber, arguably the league's best running back, who announces mid–way through the season that this will be his last, and famed quarterback Eli Manning, who faces, among other challenges, the pressures imposed on him by his impressive pedigree. But while the players are propped up by battalions of trainers, doctors, physical therapists, mental health professionals, nutritionists, film technicians, locker room attendants, media advisers and the best of coaches, Director guts it out with Big Blue all on his own –– without even the benefit of getting his ankles taped. Refusing to let anything get in his way –– not his fumble–prone television career, not the very same degenerative hip disease that forced the great Bo Jackson off the gridiron, not even planning his daughter's bat–mitzvah from the road –– he is there with the team from the first snap of summer camp to the final gun of the season. And like the players he adores, he's got only one end in mind: the Super Bowl. Along the way, Director tells the story of how a family business, founded with only $500 by an Irish bookmaker in the gaudy Prohibition era of Red Grange, Jack Dempsey, Will Rogers, and Babe Ruth, has endured to become an essential component of New York City's heartbeat –– and also the heartbeat of Director, our tour–guide through this great athletic dynasty. Ultimately, I DREAM IN BLUE is the story of a desperate Hail Mary –– a die–hard fan's quest to have one last endzone celebration. more...

Price: $11.95

Just in time for the 2007 season: One of the finest defensive players ever to wear an NFL uniform delivers the first truly authentic, hard-hitting, revelatory portrait of America’s most popular sport—including the brutality, the vicious fights, and the high price of gridiron glory. Michael Strahan is one of the NFL’s most talented players, and he is also one of the game’s most vocal personalities. So it’s no surprise that his first book would be a no-holds-barred, hard-hitting account of life in the league, venturing into territory no previous football authors had the nerve to tread. Inside the Helmet is not a self-serving memoir or a collection of triumphant feel- good anecdotes. Yes, Strahan recounts exhilarating victories in vivid detail, but not without the hair-raising details of the ruthless grit required for every win. Sure to be controversial, Strahan’s account reveals never-before-seen details about the truth of life in the NFL, including the names of the dirtiest players, what it feels and sounds like to crush another player, which potent painkillers players take in order to return to the battlefield, the wild parties such as the Vikings’ infamous Love Boat romp, the pressure to live up to a multimillion- dollar salary, the intense and sometimes volatile relationship between player and coach, and the violent blowups that occur when that pressure gets too intense. For the 21.7 million fans who attend NFL football games, Inside the Helmet is an all-access pass into the huddle, the locker room, and even the minds of some of the most legendary players on the field today. more...

Price: $26.00

Nearing 40, standing five feet eight, weighing in at 160 pounds, Mark St. Amant was most definitely not a football player. He had never played a single down of real football in his life and even in the sports he did play, his greatest skill seemed to be choking when the game was on the line. So why on earth did he suddenly become, of all things, a semi-pro football kicker? Fantasy football writer and self-described poster child for suburban-raised white boy Mark St. Amant tells the unlikely story of how he ditched his television and laptop to join an inner-city football squad, the mostly African-American Boston Panthers, one of more than 600 semi-pro teams around the country. With warmth, insight, and his trademark offbeat, self-deprecating humor, Mark recounts the strides he made on and off the field and reveals the powerful bonds that developed among teammates young and not-so-young, struggling and successful, black, white, and Hispanic, all clinging tightly to their dreams and playing the game they love. From couch potato to field goal kicker, Mark lived out a real-life football fantasy, discovering true teamwork, staring his lifelong fear of athletic failure in the face, witnessing testosterone-fueled hilarity both on and off the field, and achieving gridiron glory in ways he’d never imagined. more...

Price: $17.99

''Tedy gives you something to believe in. Whether we're winning or losing, he holds his head high, and he knows himself and handles himself so well, others can't help but follow him. The way he practices and plays forces you to become a better teammate; the way he demands hustle and toughness forces you to become a better leader; and the way he carries himself inspires you to become a better person. This made his return to playing on October 30 against Buffalo all the more electrifying. The stadium was louder that night than the nights we had raised our Super Bowl banners. Our captain, our leader, our inspiration was back on the field doing what he loved to do. Tedy had spent months rehabbing, had countless doctor visits, and had undergone hundreds of tests trying to play again. Just eight months after our victory in Super Bowl XXXIX, here we were celebrating a much bigger victory on our home field. Sure it was great to win the game, but that night we were celebrating Tedy's return as he showed us teammates, fans, family, and friends what it takes to become victorious in life. ''You might be coming to this book as a fan of Tedy's football skills and, don't get me wrong, gaining the insights of one of the best defenders in Patriots history is worth the price of admission, but that's just part of the story. There are a lot of reasons to look up to him, and I promise you will finish this book with an admiration for him on a much deeper level.''. —Tom Brady (from the Foreword). more...

Price: $24.95