American Football

From the Super Bowl to the Thanksgiving game, millions of families gather throughout the week to watch their favorite teams duke it out. Kids and grandparents alike share the thrill of watching their team get that perfect tackle or last-minute save. Now you have the opportunity to share the history of the sport with your kids with one engaging guide. 210.2 million people follow the NBA league across its various social media platforms, making it the most popular sports league in the world. So why is it that no one really understands its history?

How Football Explains America is a fascinating, first-of-its-kind journey through the making of America's most complex, intriguing, and popular game. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio explores just how crucial football is to understanding the American psyche. Paolantonio tackles varying American themes from Manifest Destiny to “fourth and one” as he goes deep in order to answer the age-old question: Why does America love football so much?

College sports have never been bigger. Once a roughneck intercollegiate pastime, football now commands millions of fans and generates massive revenues. New York Times investigative reporter Mike McIntire chronicles the rise in the popularity and power of college athletics, revealing deeply troubling relationships between college sports programs, the universities that host them, booster organizations, local police departments, and the courts.

Against the backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women’s Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, their star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, and would-be drill sergeants. Most of all, they were athletes who had been denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play.

This book will transform the way you think about fantasy football. Instead of giving you short-term "tips and tricks" that are bound to fail, Noah Lieberman provides you with a deeper understanding of fantasy sports that will answer all the tough questions. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or you've never played before, If You Think You Know Fantasy Football…Think Again will give you a fascinating perspective on one of the world’s fastest growing games. By the end, you’ll be ready to take on the world of fantasy sports.

The most popular college football team in the early 20th century belonged to an institution called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Its story begins with Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, a fierce abolitionist who believed that Native Americans deserved a place in American society. In 1879, Pratt made a treacherous journey to the Dakota Territory to recruit Carlisle's first students. Years later, three students approached Pratt with the notion of forming a football team.

While the household was buffeted by the coach's tumultuous firings and hirings, which periodically propelled the family to a new city, Jennifer dreamed of being the first female quarterback in the NFL. But as she grew, she yearned mostly to be someone that her father would notice. In a world where only football mattered, what could she strive for, who could she become?

Tiaina Baul "Junior" Seau is widely considered one of the best linebackers ever to play the game. A 10-time All-Pro and 12-time Pro Bowl selection, Seau was picked for the NFL's All-Decade Team in the 1990s. His incredible career spanned two decades, during which time he played for the Chargers, Dolphins, and Patriots. In 2012, at the age of 43, Seau committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the chest. News of his death sent shockwaves through the NFL.

He is one of the most talented footballers of the modern era and a dual international in rugby league and rugby union. But for a long time, Mat Rogers lived in both the shadow and the thrall of his famous father, and their complex relationship shaped him in ways he couldn’t fathom. Craving paternal acceptance while determined to carve out his own identity and, later, to avoid repeating the sins of the father, he veered between periods of jubilation and depression. Now, in his majestic, evocative autobiography, Rogers tells the story of a life framed by triumph and tragedy.

Lack of science in this area has created a lag in the ability to coach cognition. Language research reveals a secret that can accelerate the cognitive process. Capology is the football language of the R4 system. Specifically, it is the language and lens of leverage in football. Capology will take you on a journey on how to build, apply and implement a coding language to read the reality in the game. This book is for a coach, scout, or player that longs to attain an expert lens into the passing game of football.

Describing how NFL great Willie Davis helped define the hard-nosed, in-your-face defense of the original football dynasty, the 1960s Green Bay Packers, this revealing autobiography also illustrates his persona off the field - humble yet ambitious, with an infectious smile and a reputation of strict discipline that matched his leadership mentality.

How does an undrafted free agent and two-sport college walk-on end up in a Chicago White Sox uniform? With a college football career derailed by mononucleosis and a college baseball career shattered by rotator cuff surgery, Brian Kent's narrative will motivate any athlete. Follow the journey from high school to college(s); from the dojo to the independent leagues; and from personal training to a White Sox contract.

Eddie Pond is in junior high and plays little league football. He is an excellent pass catcher and hopes to someday play for the local high school team. However, his football career as a receiver is thrown into question when the high school varsity coach in the area visits Eddie and tells him that he wants Eddie to start preparing to be a quarterback in high school. Eddie is not sure that he wants to be quarterback, or if he has the skills to do it.

In 1967, a Cleveland businessman had a brilliant idea: Why not start a women's football team? It was conceived as a gimmick and a publicity stunt in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters. He recruited women to compete as a traveling football troupe; much to his surprise, he learned that women really wanted to play — and play hard. Hail Mary is the story of the unlikely rise of the National Women's Football League and the players who loved a game that society told them they shouldn't be playing.

Thursday Night Lights tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of African American high school football in Texas. Drawing on interviews, newspaper stories, and memorabilia, Michael Hurd introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where African Americans built powerhouse football programs under the PVIL leadership. He covers 50 years (1920-1970) of high school football history.

The loamy black "muck" that surrounds Belle Glade, Florida once built an empire for Big Sugar and provided much of the nation's vegetables, often on the backs of roving, destitute migrants. Many of these were children who honed their skills along the field rows and started one of the most legendary football programs in America. Belle Glade's high school team, the Glades Central Raiders, has sent an extraordinary number of players to the National Football League - 27 since 1985, with five of those drafted in the first round.

Quarterback Brian kann es nicht fassen, als sich die neue Teamchefin Teddy MacLachlan vorstellt. Das muss ein Scherz sein! Diese Hippiebraut in Flipflops hat keine Ahnung von Football, da ist sich Brian sicher! Doch Teddy lässt sich nicht einschüchtern und verdonnert die harten Kerle erst einmal zu Yogastunden. Zwischen ihr und Brian fliegen bald die Funken, auch wenn der Quarterback widerwillig zugeben muss, dass Teddy nicht nur ziemlich cool ist, sondern auch einiges von Football versteht.

For more than a century, no number one and number two high school football team had ever met—until October 6, 2001. This is the story of two teams—Concord De La Salle, a private Catholic school in an upscale Northern California suburb, and Long Beach Poly, a proud public institution from a blue-collar SoCal seaport—striving to achieve the same goal: the all-American dream.

Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football, major league baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track and field. But his life wasn't an easy one. Born on the Sac and Fox Reservation in 1887, he encountered much family tragedy, and was sent as a young boy to various Indian boarding schools: strict, cold institutions that didn't allow their students to hold on to their Native American languages and traditions.

Football has been around for more than 100 years. It has had its fair share of controversies. Concussions are just the most recent of those. We wanted to show that the league of today is safer than it has ever been, and it is continuing to improve. We also wanted to show that the we didn't get to where we are overnight, and we won't fix the problems overnight either. We give a history of the sport, the evolution onto television, explain the concussion threat, and even show some ways it can be solved.