Download or read book NFL Century written by Joe Horrigan and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL’s 100th anniversary season. “I can think of no one better qualified—or more enthusiastic—to chronicle the National Football League’s century-long history than Joe Horrigan.”—Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the hundred years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges—the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights and competition from rival leagues—to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football. Advance praise for NFL Century “Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years—the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It’s a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old.”—Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius “There is no one—and I mean no one—who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its one hundredth season, it’s appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey.”—Gary Myers, New York Times bestselling author of Brady vs Manning

Download or read book The NFL s Greatest Day written by Brad Schultz and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tight, dramatic NFL playoff game is exciting on its own, but two of the most dramatic in the same afternoon might result in the most compelling day in football history. This book is the first to capture the excitement and tension of December 23, 1972, when Pittsburgh played Oakland and Dallas met San Francisco in a pair of first-round playoff games that captivated millions. One game saw Dallas rally from three scores down in the fourth quarter, while the other featured the most famous ending in league history--the Immaculate Reception. This book details both high-stakes games as well as the historic season that led each team to the 1972 playoffs. Also covered are the men behind the miracles--some captured the moment to become heroes and legends, while others let success slip through their grasp. Two games, one afternoon, countless memories.

Download or read book NFL Top 40 written by Shelby Strother and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of forty NFL football games considered to be the most memorable ever played.

Download or read book The Wages of Wins written by David Berri and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing about sports is as old as the games people play. Over the years sports debates have become muddled by many myths that do not match the numbers generated by those playing the games. In The Wages of Wins, the authors use layman's language and easy to follow examples based on their own academic research to debunk many of the most commonly held beliefs about sports. In this updated version of their book, these authors explain why Allen Iverson leaving Philadelphia made the 76ers a better team, why the Yankees find it so hard to repeat their success from the late 1990s, and why even great quarterbacks like Brett Favre are consistently inconsistent. The book names names, and makes it abundantly clear that much of the decision making of coaches and general managers does not hold up to an analysis of the numbers. Whether you are a fantasy league fanatic or a casual weekend fan, much of what you believe about sports will change after reading this book.

Download or read book Pioneer Coaches of the NFL written by John Maxymuk and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of professional football, coaches were little more than on-field captains who also ran practices—if there was time for practice. The emergence of post-graduate football and the coaching profession from 1920 to 1950 was crucial to the evolution of the game, and both developed and rose in stature over this critical period in the history of football. In Pioneer Coaches of the NFL: Shaping the Game in the Days of Leather Helmets and 60-Minute Men, John Maxymuk profiles some of the most innovative coaches from the early days of the NFL, including Guy Chamberlin, Curly Lambeau, George Halas, Potsy Clark, and Clark Shaughnessy. Along with biographical sketches and career details, the profiles examine the coaches’ strategic approaches, their impact on the history of the game, and the advancement of their roles both on and off the field. It was this group of coaches who initially devised the basic repertoire of plays and alignments, as well as passing routes, blocking schemes, shifts, and substitution patterns. These men morphed defensive alignments, introduced the four-man secondary, conceived zone and man-to-man coverage mixes, and concocted linebacker and safety blitzing. Pioneer Coaches of the NFL details how coaches from the first three decades of the NFL established many of the procedures, conventions, and strategies that modern football coaches still use today. These innovators presented those that followed them a rich palate with which to imagine and create an even greater game.

Download or read book The NFL Year One written by Brad Schultz and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2022-08-05 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many football fans, the National Football League season of 1970 was a landmark year in the history of the game. The NFL and the American Football League finally began playing as a merged league--one that featured such legendary figures as George Blanda, Tom Dempsey, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, Sid Gillman, Lamar Hunt, and Al Davis. The NFL, Year One focuses on several key games throughout this thrilling initial season. One saw the Raiders and Browns play in Cleveland. This contest serves as the backdrop for the story of forty-three-year-old Oakland kicker Blanda, who went on that season to win or tie four consecutive games in the last seconds, becoming a hero to middle-aged American men. Among other notable games that Brad Schultz examines are the Browns-Jets game that marked the debut of Monday Night Football with commentators Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, and "Dandy" Don Meredith; the Chiefs-Vikings game that served as a rematch for the Super Bowl IV competitors; and the Colts-Jets game that ultimately set the scene for the 1970 players' strike. Schultz also demonstrates how the season continues to influence the NFL today. Meticulously researched and thoroughly entertaining, The NFL, Year One is a riveting account of one of the most important and compelling seasons in NFL history. Any fan will surely enjoy Schultz's revisiting of the game's amazing 1970 season.

Download or read book America s Game written by Michael MacCambridge and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2008-11-26 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.

Download or read book The Best Show in Football written by Andy Piascik and published by Taylor Trade Publications. This book was released on 2010-10-16 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For ten years the Cleveland Browns compiled a better record and won more championships than any team in pro football history. In their first game they set an all-time attendance record and consistently drew the largest crowds of the post-World War II era. They dominated an upstart league and then silenced their detractors by doing the same to the NFL. The Browns were led by Paul Brown, a football visionary who changed pro football. Most important among his innovations was the leading role the franchise played in the integration of pro sports. While much of their competition continued with the racial exclusion of the past, the Browns featured some of the greatest black players of all-time, men who were an integral part of the Cleveland dynasty. The Best Show in Football: The 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns, Pro Football's Greatest Dynasty tells the story of those players and that dynasty. Included in that story is the construction of the Browns as well as accounts of the team's many victories. Dozens of interviews bring to life the exploits of Otto Graham, Bill Willis, Marion Motley, Lou Groza, Mac Speedie, Len Ford, Dante Lavelli, Frank Gatski, and so many others. In rich detail, The Best Show in Football demonstrates why Cleveland's dynasty was the greatest ever, greater even than several teams that are usually accorded that honor. The conclusions may be surprising but the evidence is all here. And along the way author Andy Piascik provides a wonderful trip back to football's golden age.

Download or read book The Birth of Football s Modern 4 3 Defense written by T. J. Troup and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-08-20 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1953 to 1959, professional football’s offensive and defensive tactics were in a transitional phase. As teams developed innovative strategies to attack the 5-2-4 defense, passing efficiency improved. In an attempt to counter this newfound passing success, the 4-3-4 defense evolved. This crucial shift in strategies is often overlooked in histories of the NFL, yet its impact on the game is still seen today. The Birth of Football’s Modern 4-3 Defense: The Seven Seasons That Changed the NFL chronicles this key development in professional football. In this comprehensive review and analysis, T. J. Troup provides a year-by-year breakdown of these seven seasons. Each team has a separate entry for every season that includes: The coaching staff Player personnel An analysis of the stats Summation of the team’s season Outlook for the following season As Troup compiled this detailed volume, he had unprecedented access to coaches and players from this era, as well as extensive game footage. Drawing upon these resources, Troup scrutinized each team’s success or failure and re-created the key game of the season for each team—bringing the action, intensity, and importance of the game to life. Including an exclusive interview with Joe Schmidt of the Detroit Lions, this book will entertain and inform all fans and historians of professional football, especially those interested in the early development of the modern defense.

Download or read book NFL Top Forty Games written by Shelby Strother and published by . This book was released on 1992-09-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The 50 Greatest Players in Chicago Bears History written by Robert W. Cohen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The 50 Greatest Players in Chicago Bears History, sports historian Robert W. Cohen ranks the top 50 players ever to perform for one of the NFL's most historic franchises. This work includes quotes from the subjects themselves and former teammates, photos, recaps of memorable performances and greatest individual seasons, as well as a statistical summary of each player's career with the Bears. The Bears' best are profiled here in what is bound to be a much discussed book among the team's broad fan base. An added bonus are the "honorable mentions," the next 25 players who have contributed to the Bears' astounding run as one of America's great sports teams.

Download or read book NFL Head Coaches written by John Maxymuk and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 466 men who have held the increasingly demanding and prestigious position of Head Coach in the National Football League and the two leagues that merged into it (the All America Football Conference of the 1940s and the American Football League of the 1960s) form an exclusive club. This book essentially answers three questions about every professional head coach since 1920: Who was he? What were his coaching approach and style, in terms of both leadership and gridiron tactics? How successful was he? Every entry begins with standard background information, followed by each coach's yearly regular season and postseason coaching record, and then his statistical tendencies toward scoring, defense and play calling. The entry then addresses the three questions noted above.

Download or read book Legends The Best Players Games and Teams in Football written by Howard Bryant and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Lombardi's Packers through Brady and the Patriots, here is the ultimate look at the greatest sporting event in America -- the Super Bowl -- through its greatest quarterbacks, coaches, and highlight-reel plays. In the second book of the LEGENDS series, ESPN's Howard Bryant delivers THE gridiron guide to the most exciting event in sports: the Super Bowl! In this day and age, the gridiron reigns supreme. Football is America's most popular sport and the NFL's star players are instant celebrities with die-hard fans who live and die with each win or loss. And our collective obsession with the game begins when we're just kids and culminates each year on what has become the equivalent of a national holiday—Super Bowl Sunday. Recounting momentous stories of football's past and present, and accompanied by iconic photos, Top Ten Lists to chew on and debate, and a Top 40-style Timeline of Key Moments, this comprehensive collection details twenty of the greatest Super Bowls in NFL history—and expands on their relevance within the larger scope of dynasties, giants of the coaching world, and marquee players making history. From the upsets to the blowouts to the nail-biting finishes, this is the perfect book for young fans eager to kick off their football schooling. “With the LEGENDS series, Howard Bryant brings to life the best that sports has to offer—the heroes, the bitter rivalries, the moments that every sports-loving kid should know.”—Mike Lupica, #1 bestselling author of Travel Team, Heat, and Fantasy League

Download or read book Official Vince Lombardi Playbook written by Phil Barber and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vince Lombardi was notorious for his inability to throw anything away. What that means to fans of one of football’s greatest figures finally comes together in The Vince Lombardi Playbook—an unprecedented collection of intimate photos; colorful reflections from players who honed their skills under Lombardi; personal mementos; and an array of his handwritten speeches, personal letters, scouting reports, and photos of players. Above all, The Vince Lombardi Playbook highlights the plays that made the Packers great: the feared power sweep, the halfback option pass, the textbook traps, the risky third-and-short passes, and many others. Featured in diagrams in Lombardi’s original hand, with accompanying terminology and notations, these archival gems form an all-access pass onto the field and into the mind of a legend. Americans yearn for a more simple era, when athletes made news for their sporting accomplishments, not their arrests or congressional testimony. Most sports fans are equally nostalgic for the on-field simplicity of those days. Paying homage to a legend, The Vince Lombardi Playbook will be treasured by fans as an irresistible piece of history.

Download or read book The Economics of the National Football League written by Kevin G. Quinn and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book lays down a marker as to the state of economists’ understanding of the National Football League (NFL) by assembling sophisticated, critical surveys of by leading sports economists on major topics associated with the league. The book is divided into four parts. The first three chapters in Part I provide an overview of the business of the NFL from an economist’s perspective. Part II is a collection of surveys of the economics of the NFL’s most important revenue streams, including media, attendance, and merchandising. The NFL’s labor economics is the focus of Part III, with chapters on player and coach labor markets, the draft, and contract structure. Part IV includes essays on competitive balance, gambling, economic impacts of the Super Bowl, behavioral economic issues associated with the league, and antitrust issues. This book will appeal to sports economists, sports management professionals, and policy-makers, and would be useful as a supplementary text for sports economics and management courses as well as a reference text.

Download or read book Shula The Coach of the NFL s Greatest Generation written by Mark Ribowsky and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning seven decades, the notorious loss of Super Bowl III, and an historic undefeated season with the Dolphins, Shula is the definitive biography of a coaching legend. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997, Don Shula remains the winningest coach of all time with 347 career victories and the only undefeated season in NFL history. But before he became the architect of the Dolphins dynasty, Shula was a hardworking kid selling fish on the banks of Lake Erie, the eldest of six children born during the Depression to Hungarian immigrant parents. As acclaimed sports biographer Mark Ribowsky shows, Shula met serious resistance at home when he asked to play high school football, but when his parents finally relented, they discovered that their son, though perhaps short on the physical gifts of the truly blessed, had an unmatched mind for the game’s strategy and a stomach for its brutality. With rugged determination, the jut-jawed Shula started as a defensive back in the 1950s, later beginning his thirty-two-year coaching career as the then-youngest coach ever with the Baltimore Colts. The Colts had several successful years, but Shula never quite recovered from the historic loss to the upstart New York Jets in Super Bowl III, and when a lucrative job opened in Miami, he took his talents to South Beach, where he led the Dolphins to the first perfect season in NFL history. Tracing Shula’s singular rise from his blue-collar origins to his glory days in the Miami heat, Ribowsky reveals a man of grit and charisma who never lost sight of a simple creed: “All I’ve ever done is roll up my sleeves, figure out what to do, and start doing it.”

Download or read book Chuck Noll written by Michael MacCambridge and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls and presided over one of the greatest football dynasties in history, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the '70s. Later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his achievements as a competitor and a coach are the stuff of legend. But Noll always remained an intensely private and introspective man, never revealing much of himself as a person or as a coach, not even to the players and fans who revered him. Chuck Noll did not need a dramatic public profile to be the catalyst for one of the greatest transformations in sports history. In the nearly four decades before he was hired, the Pittsburgh Steelers were the least successful team in professional football, never winning so much as a division title. After Noll's arrival, his quiet but steely leadership quickly remolded the team into the most accomplished in the history of professional football. And what he built endured well beyond his time with the Steelers—who have remained one of America's great NFL teams, accumulating a total of six Super Bowls, eight AFC championships, and dozens of division titles and playoff berths. In this penetrating biography, based on deep research and hundreds of interviews, Michael MacCambridge takes the measure of the man, painting an intimate portrait of one of the most important figures in American football history. He traces Noll's journey from a Depression-era childhood in Cleveland, where he first played the game in a fully integrated neighborhood league led by an African-American coach and then seriously pursued the sport through high school and college. Eventually, Noll played both defensive and offensive positions professionally for the Browns, before discovering that his true calling was coaching. MacCambridge reveals that Noll secretly struggled with and overcame epilepsy to build the career that earned him his place as "the Emperor" of Pittsburgh during the Steelers' dynastic run in the 1970s, while in his final years, he battled Alzheimer's in the shelter of his caring and protective family. Noll's impact went well beyond one football team. When he arrived, the city of steel was facing a deep crisis, as the dramatic decline of Pittsburgh's lifeblood industry traumatized an entire generation. "Losing," Noll said on his first day on the job, "has nothing to do with geography." Through his calm, confident leadership of the Steelers and the success they achieved, the people of Pittsburgh came to believe that winning was possible, and their recovery of confidence owed a lot to the Steeler's new coach. The famous urban renaissance that followed can only be understood by grasping what Noll and his team meant to the people of the city. The man Pittsburghers could never fully know helped them see themselves better. Chuck Noll: His Life's Work tells the story of a private man in a very public job. It explores the family ties that built his character, the challenges that defined his course, and the love story that shaped his life. By understanding the man himself, we can at last clearly see Noll's profound influence on the city, players, coaches, and game he loved. They are all, in a real sense, heirs to the football team Chuck Noll built.