American Football

Todd Gerelds, author of the best-selling book and hit movie Woodlawn, believes the most meaningful life lessons he has learned have been on the playing field. The voice of his coach rings in his head when life gets tough or when his day becomes off-kilter. It just happens that his coach's voice is also his father's. His dad was Tandy "The Coach" Gerelds, the subject of Woodlawn and the man who led his team to victory in the racially charged atmosphere of 1970s Alabama. Here, Todd reflects on 52 of his dad's most formative "coachisms."

Do not let the title Kelly Tough fool you. This is not a "be all you can be, no pain - no gain" story. Toughness is overrated. And being Kelly Tough, well, you are about to find out what that really means and why it just might matter to you. Kelly Tough is a story of love and hope: a love between a father and a daughter - former Buffalo Bills quarterback, Jim Kelly, and his oldest daughter Erin. Erin shares a deeply personal account of the love a family can have for each other during the darkest times.

Two days before Super Bowl XLI in 2007, the game's two opposing head coaches posed with the trophy one of them would hoist after the contest. It was a fairly unremarkable event, except that both coaches were African American - a fact that was as much of a story as the game itself. As Jeremi Duru reveals in Advancing the Ball, this unique milestone resulted from the work of a determined group of people whose struggles to expand head coaching opportunities for African Americans ultimately changed the National Football League.

Football hero Jerry Rice grew up in Crawford, Mississippi, the son of a brick mason. He developed his hands by catching the bricks that his brothers threw at him. From these humble beginnings, Rice blazed a path to greatness, becoming the leading wide receiver in the NFL and winning three super bowl rings for the San Francisco 49ers.

One of the most talented and polarizing athletes of our generation, Michael Vick’s stunning story has captured news headlines across the nation. From his poverty-stricken youth, to his success on the field in high school and college, to his rise to NFL stardom and his fall from grace, Finally Free shows how a gifted athlete’s life spiraled out of control under the glare of money and fame, aided by his own poor choices. In his own words, Vick details his regrets, his search for forgiveness....

In this inspirational memoir, Derrick Coleman, Jr., the Seattle Seahawks fullback who won the 2014 Super Bowl with the Seahawks in his second year in the NFL, relates his inspirational story of hard work and determination in his own words. Showcasing his unlikely and challenging journey to become the first deaf athlete to play offense in the NFL, he talks about overcoming internal and external obstacles in the course of reaching your true potential.

University of Miami football is more than national championships, 30-game winning streaks, and being a pipeline to the NFL. It’s the Gator Flop, defeating Tulane on a fifth down, and playing three games in eight days. It’s converting third and 44 against Notre Dame, Michael Irvin talking smack with Florida State’s Deion Sanders, and Vinny Testaverde being sacked by hamburgers.

In this powerful memoir, Tony reveals how he summoned the courage to "run with purpose" during the times when racial tensions ran high as he grew from a boy trapped by the racial divide in Birmingham, Alabama, into a successful man and football hero. Inspirational and uplifting, Touchdown Tony is not only a behind-the-scenes look at a great football player's life and career; it is also a story of redemption and one man's hope to change the future.

Life hit Pat and Tammy McLeod hard when their son Zach collapsed on a high school football field; he had sustained a severe brain injury. Facing the devastating possibility that things would never be the same for their beloved son, they committed to staying strong as a family and finding a way to maintain their footing. But the journey would reshape their faith, their family, and their future in ways they never saw coming.

Overachiever Joe Theismann had reached the pinnacle of success as an elite NFL quarterback, with a Super Bowl victory and NFL MVP award. But the memory that sticks with many fans is the gruesome injury - his leg was shattered on Monday Night Football - that ended his career. The end of his days on the gridiron wasn't the end of life for Theismann, though. In How to Be a Champion Every Day, Theismann recounts stories from his impressive career, providing an inspirational guide for how to succeed on a team, in your career, and in your everyday life.

In Drew Brees: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Most Resilient Quarterbacks, you will learn the inspirational story of one of football's greatest quarterbacks, Drew Brees. After a storied career at Purdue as the record holder of virtually every Big Ten passing category, Drew Brees found himself in the NFL, selected by the San Diego Chargers. While he started his career with the Chargers, he cemented his legacy with the Saints after coming off of a severe dislocation of his shoulder joint and tear of his labrum and rotator cuff.

Bills to pay, decisions to make, bosses to please, commitments to fulfill, relationships to mend, fears to suppress - all circumstances that seem to drive the ball down the field of life poised to score again. We try to fight back but our opponent is relentless, tough, and intimidating. Are you tired of living life day to day, letting your circumstances win, while you fight just to get by? Follow the journey of Mike Shelby as he hits rock bottom and then stumbles upon an old notebook from his past that holds a proven secret to success.

In the fall of 2012, after working on a presidential campaign that suffered a devastating loss, Stuart Stevens, having turned 60, realized that he and his 95-year-old father had spent little time together for decades. His solution: a season of attending Ole Miss football games together, as they'd done when college football provided a way for his father to guide him through childhood - and to make sense of the troubled South of the time.

Had anyone told Ben Malcolmson that he'd someday be a wide receiver on the national champion USC football team - after not playing football since an unfortunate fifth-grade Pop Warner experience - he would have called them crazy. As a reporter for The Daily Trojan, in the spirit of George Plimpton, he participated in walk-on tryouts for the team and was dumbfounded to find himself listed on the roster. His position on the team never amounted to much in a game-time contribution, but Ben felt strongly that his faith was inextricably linked to his purpose.

One day in 2002 the 50-year old body of former Pittsburgh Steeler and hall of famer Mike Webster was laid on a cold table in front of pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Webster's body looked to Omalu like the body of a much older man, and the circumstances of his behavior prior to his death were clouded in mystery. But when Omalu cut into Webster's brain, it appeared to be normal. Something didn't add up.

That afternoon was the last time the high-school Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart. Hurricane Season is the story of a great football coach, his team, his family, and their school - and a remarkable fight back from shocking tragedy.

From Darkness to Dynasty tells the unlikely history of the New England Patriots as it has never been told before. From their humble beginnings as a team bought with rainy-day money by a man who had no idea what he was doing, to the fateful season that saw them win their first Super Bowl, Jerry Thornton shares the wild, humiliating, unbelievable, and wonderful stories that comprised the first 40 years of what would ultimately become the most dominant franchise in NFL history.

The stunning victory of the upstart New York Jets over the stalwart Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III transformed the NFL and established the Super Bowl as America s premier sporting event. While attending a banquet at the Miami Touchdown Club honoring his selection as the AFL s MVP, the brash Joe Nameth guaranteed a Jets victory in the forthcoming Super Bowl III and invoked a maelstrom of media attention.

Super Agent. Maverick. Reformer. Iconoclast. Dealmaker. Dentist? Jerry Argovitz has worn many hats in his remarkable life, both inside and outside of the world of sports. As a player agent representing and advising some of the biggest names in the game, Argovitz challenged the NFL both at the negotiating table and in the courtroom, earning a reputation as one of the most powerful men in professional sports.

New York Stars, the rookie quarterback figures the world is his oyster. Reality sets in after meeting his football "family" -- the all-too benevolent owner, Papa Goldman; his daughter, the Stars' Director of Communications, Dominique, who has a certain fondness for quarterbacks; a frustrated head coach; a team full of malcontents and racial tensions; and a very shady Director of Player Personnel.