The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible. --Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner

In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller's, inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, a state-run school with only 168 high school students, was having an undefeated season. After years of covering war, wildfires, pandemic, and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story of this group of high school boys. It was uplifting. During the gloom of the pandemic, it was a happy story. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. The team, and Adams, tackled the many stereotypes and seemed to be succeeding. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus.

The Boys of Riverside looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history. It follows the personal journeys of their dynamic deaf head coach, and a student who spent the majority of the season sleeping in his father's car in the Target parking lot. It tells the story of a fiercely committed player who literally played through a broken leg in order not to miss a crucial game, as well as myriad other heart-wrenching and uplifting narratives of players who found common purpose. Through their eyes, Fuller reveals a portrait of high school athletics, inspiring camaraderie, and deafness in America.

A moving celebration of the history of American football from the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball

After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America. Why We Love Football is Posnanski's newest must-have deep dive into the archives and legends of the sport, and the result is a rousing tale of the 100 greatest moments in football lore.

This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating, these stories of the sport offer a panoramic look across its history. From hidden gems and classic tales to famous moments told from previously unheard perspectives, this book is the football book for even its most ardent fans.

From Patrick Mahomes's magic to the Ice Bowl, from Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to a plethora of football miracles, Why We Love Football is an unforgettable, conversational masterpiece you won't ever want to end, and a can't-miss take on football from one of the greatest sportswriters of our time.

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.

With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires -- and sometimes shatters -- the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.

The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

On Nov. 22, 1963, William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, made a successful bid to buy the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for the unheard-of sum of $6 million. As Ford and his entourage settled down to a celebratory luncheon, their waitress delivered the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas.

Born under a bad sign is how Bill Ford's ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America's most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility. Readers meet the hell-raising quarterback Bobby Layne, who is said to have put a curse on the team after he was traded to Pittsburgh; the rock-solid linebacker and future coach Joe Schmidt; the stars Charlie Sanders, Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and, most spectacularly, Barry Sanders, the greatest running back in the history of the game, who grew so disgusted with losing and mismanagement that he walked away when he was on the threshold of shattering the NFL's all-time rushing record.

But the tide is finally turning. The Lions Finally Roar culminates with the team's recent turnaround and playoff run under the stewardship of Bill Ford's daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. Hamp hired savvy general manager Brad Holmes and charismatic coach Dan Campbell--and has stood behind them as they methodically returned the team to the ranks of the league's elite and, at long last, have made the Lions roar.

Deeply researched and briskly written, The Lions Finally Roar is about much more than football. It explores the American class system, the linked histories of Detroit and its auto and music industries, the city's changing racial dynamics, the rising power of television, and how all of it played into the NFL's transformation from a fall sport into the multi-billion dollar, year-round entertainment behemoth that is a cornerstone of American popular culture.

The history of the Ivy League dates back to 1869 when Princeton played the first college football game against Rutgers. The Ancient Eight explores Ivy League football today. To play in the NFL, one must maintain the highest academic standards and be a great football player. The rivalries are as intense, as are the strict rules-but there is also a genuine purity n the Ivy League.

Through intimate interviews with players, coaches, and key figures, Feinstein uncovers the unique culture that defines football on the Ivy League gridiron, offering unparalleled access to the remarkable coaching staffs and student-athletes who balance their academic ambitions with their passion for the game.

On the field, inside the locker room, and around campus, The Ancient Eight reveals the phenomenal stories of the young men who play in today's Ivy League and those who coach them.

Are you a math maniac or sports superfan--or both? Check out these other books in the It's a Numbers Game! series:
-It's a Numbers Game! Basketball
-It's a Numbers Game! Soccer
-It's a Numbers Game! Baseball

When Kyle Shanahan became the NFL's youngest offensive coordinator in 2008, he had one prevailing rule: Tell me the why. If a colleague couldn't justify his position by providing the unassailable reasoning behind it, he was told to get the hell out of Shanahan's office. Shanahan and the members of his coaching tree--including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur--came up in a sport where innovation was the exception, not the rule. There had been brilliant football minds before, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh to Bill Belichick. But for the most part, coaches learned a particular system and stuck to it no matter what--no matter the players on their team, no matter what the opponent might do.

This group of young coaches would change all that. The Why Is Everything is the story of old dogmas falling before astonishingly creative new strategies and game plans. Drawing on unmatched access across the league, longtime NFL reporter Mike Silver takes us into the key moments in this still-unfolding revolution, from the education of Mike Shanahan, Kyle's father and a two-time Super Bowl champion, in the 1980s; to the Washington Redskins' football laboratory in the early 2010s, where the coaches first worked together, shocking the league with their cutting-edge scheme for rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III; to McVay's Super Bowl victory in 2022 and Kyle Shanahan's Super Bowl agony in 2019 and 2024.

Less than a decade after their emergence, these men are the stars of their profession and have helped propel the NFL to new heights of viewership and drama. With The Why Is Everything, Silver reveals how it all happened, and in the process gives us a timeless account of friendship, rivalry, and the never-ending pursuit of perfection.

An explosive tell-all book.--Sports Illustrated

This is a must-read masterpiece.--Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst and New York Times bestselling author

Two of the nation's most respected sports journalists team up for a vital, hard-hitting investigation into the tumultuous state of big-time college football.

We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money and self-interest rule.

The Price is a sweeping, in-depth, thought-provoking look at an inflection point in big-time college football. Six time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter John Talty conducted more than two hundred wide-ranging interviews with head coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, administrators, politicians, power brokers, agents and media executives from one corner of the sport to the other. They reveal never-before-reported details on major players such as Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, and Lane Kiffin. Keteyian and Talty's reporting also lays bare the machinations that destroyed the historic conference that was the Pac-12, purely in the name of greed.

As the sport's premier coaches race for the exits, Keteyian and Talty reveal deep, dark truths about a beloved game under siege--and the financial, physical, emotional and psychological toll taken on everyone whose dreams and fortunes often depend on the final score on a Saturday afternoon.

The pride of the Lions is here!

Few NFL teams have a longer, more historic tradition that is full of ups and downs than Detroit does. Starting with the early days in Portsmouth, Ohio, to the decades of excitement in Detroit, the Lions have been home to dozens of heroes and characters throughout the years. All of those legendary players are detailed, along with a whole lot more, in the new ultimate Detroit Lions trivia book.

Inside this fantastic look through the franchise, you'll find fascinating anecdotes, locker room stories, record breaking stats, and a whole lot more, including:

What happened that caused a Lion to become the only NFL player to ever die on the field?

How did a Lions star get to sing backup vocals on one of the biggest musical hits ever?

Which Lions star was there live and in-person when the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II?

How did a bounty program end the career of a talented Lions running back?

Why did one lucky Lion receive a year's supply of free pizza?

All of the memorable, behind-the-scenes moments are here for every Detroit fan to enjoy. Impress your friends with hundreds of unique factoids, challenging multiple-choice questions, and tough true-false questions that celebrate the good, bad, and just plain weird moments in Lions history.

A dozen carefully chosen chapters make this book a must-read for football fans young and old. If you've ever wanted to show off your knowledge and set the record straight about all of those Lions arguments that pop up when you're watching the game, The Ultimate Detroit Lions Trivia Book is the only way to go!

Ara: The Life and Legacy of a Notre Dame Legend captures the personality, courage, and character of a great man who faced adversity on and off the field.

Through his unprecedented access to Ara Parseghian's personal files, author Mark O. Hubbard explores the coach's innovative philosophy, organization, strategy, tactics, and motivational techniques with details to satisfy even the most knowledgeable football aficionado.

Hubbard chronicles Ara's childhood and Catholic upbringing, his success as a football player, and the development of his coaching credentials at Miami of Ohio and Northwestern before delving into his sensational career at the University of Notre Dame.

From the moment Ara arrived on campus, the student body and the players were electrified, and Ara's first season concluded with a dramatic reversal of the Fighting Irish's fortunes as they competed for the national title. The Hall of Famer remains one of the most successful football coaches in Notre Dame history, amassing a career record of 95-17-4 and leading the Fighting Irish to undisputed national championships in 1966 and 1973.

After retiring from coaching, Ara became a successful businessman and television commentator, but his finest hours were spent in humanitarian causes, raising millions of dollars for medical research after members of his family were stricken with multiple sclerosis and Niemann-Pick Type C.

Peppered with historical context and humor, this lively biography of a Notre Dame legend will delight all sports fans, providing a chance to revisit college football's golden age.

A thrilling sports story, Men in White is the tale of the young athletes who defied the doomsayers and rescued Penn State's football program from the horrors of the Jerry Sandusky scandal--told by the players themselves.

On November 5, 2011, the news that Jerry Sandusky had been charged with forty counts of child molestation rocked Penn State's leafy campus, unseating the university president, the athletic director, and head coach Joe Paterno--devastating the football program he had erected and diligently maintained over half a century.

Men in White recounts the saga of the student athletes who elected to stay and rebuild the program in the face of crippling NCAA sanctions, blistering heat from the outraged media, and radio silence from the adults in the school's administration.

With the once-proud program in free fall and their personal fortunes in peril, these young men refused to back down, toiling for five long seasons to rehabilitate the program and its ideals, culminating in the stirring come-from-behind defeat of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. Their story echoes that of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a cast of young men--colossal underdogs--who boldly accepted the challenge of a lifetime, achieving success while shouldering the weight of a bruising political drama.

In Super Bowl LIX, the Philadelphia Eagles crowned their championship season by triumphing over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, seizing the second Super Bowl win in franchise history.

What a Run! traces the remarkable journey that was the 2024-2025 campaign, from Saquon Barkley's 2,000-yard breakout season in his first year in Philly, to Vic Fangio's formidable defense, to the exhilarating playoff wins against the Packers, Rams, and Commanders that paved the way for a Super Bowl revenge game against the Chiefs.

Featuring electrifying stories and photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, this commemorative book takes fans from Week 1 in São Paulo, all the way to hoisting the Lombardi trophy in New Orleans. This keepsake also features in-depth stories on fan favorites Barkley, Jalen Hurts, Zack Baun, and more.

The story of two pioneering Black NFL football players that changed the face of America's game for generations to come.

There is no position in pro sports more important than an NFL quarterback. But quarterbacking was the exclusive domain of white players for many years, and when Doug Williams and Vince Evans arrived in the league in the late 1970s, they got death threats, faced racist questions, and knew that a single mistake could end their careers. The Great Black Hope tells the twin stories of Vince Evans, an electrifying dual-threat quarterback ahead of his time, and of Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to become a champion. Moore shows how easily Williams' triumphant story could have gone wrong and how his success changed the game and the country.

A skillful blend of game-time drama and social commentary, this book captures unheralded heroes of the NFL and all that they meant, both on the field and off.

The Football Game That Changed America is the first book to chronicle the entire history of the Super Bowl and examine the social, cultural, economic, and political impact of this colossal event, bringing to life the colorful characters, bold rivals, and twists of fate that played a role in the creation and explosive growth of the Big Game.

Learn how to tell a first down from a touchdown and get up to speed on the latest trends in the sport

Football For Dummies is a comprehensive fan's guide to football and its many components. This updated edition includes coverage of new players, rules, and strategies. With deep explanations of every position, analysis of offense and defense, and detailed strategies for play, football legend Howie Long and established football analyst John Czarnecki present the basics of football for fans of all ages and experiences. Get the working knowledge that you need to follow the game of football and enjoy it with friends and family. The book covers everything you need to be the most knowledgeable spectator in the stadium!

• Learn the rules of football so you can follow what's happening in the game
• Increase your enjoyment of football by discovering the nuances you don't know
• Keep up with friends and family when you watch games together, in person, or on TV
• Get up to date on the latest players, rule changes, and top strategies

This fun Dummies guide is for everyone who is interested in football and wants to get familiar with the sport, including its history, so they can watch games in person and on television, follow all the action, and enjoy football games to the maximum. It's also a great reference for fans who need to settle bets about the official rules of play!

Are you a die-hard Vikings fan?

Now you surely will be with The Ultimate Minnesota Vikings Trivia Book. If you want to know all the ins and outs (Every great football team has a few!) of one of the most famous NFL teams ever, this book is for you.

The next time you walk into a bar, your friend's house, or your father-in-law's place for trivia night, you'll be a smash hit because you'll know all about the Vikings' legends. You'll find fun trivia here on star quarterbacks Fran Tarkenton and Joe Kapp; top pass catchers such as Cris Carter, Randy Moss, and Ahmad Rashād; rapid running backs like Adrian Peterson.

With this ultimate Vikings trivia book, you'll have a handle on what the Vikings team really means to the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and why U.S. Bank Stadium is a truly unique place to enjoy a National Football League game. You and your buddies will read intriguing stories and inspirational quotes from the likes of former head coach Bud Grant and Minnesota's muscle, Carl Eller.

Catch the answers to all these tricky trivia questions and tons more:

• How many championships and Super Bowl appearances have the Vikings piled up in their glorious history?
• Which contest did the Vikings win that was later called the Miracle in Minneapolis?
• Which NFL and NFC North division teams are Minnesota's biggest rivals, and why?
• Which Minnesota coach has a statue heralding his achievements in another country?
• Which player swap did the Minnesota Vikings make that was later referred to as the Great Train Robbery?

Dear Die-Hard Fan: Your ultimate Minnesota Vikings trivia book comes with 13 chapters chock-full of quiz questions, answer pages, and fun facts about your favorite team. Quiz night coming? Be ready! Have a blast with your trivia book all about the indomitable NFL franchise known as the Minnesota Vikings.

More and more football fans are watching the NFL each week, but many of them don't know exactly what they should be watching. What does the offense's formation tell you about the play that's about to be run? When a quarterback throws a pass toward the sideline and the wide receiver cuts inside, which player is to blame? Why does a defensive end look like a Hall of Famer one week and a candidate for the practice squad the next? These questions and more are addressed in Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0, a book that takes readers deep inside the perpetual chess match between offense and defense. This book provides clear and simple explanations to the intricacies and nuances that affect the outcomes of every NFL game. This updated edition contains recent innovations from the 2015 NFL season.

When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability, his blind side.

From his electrifying plays on the field to his charismatic personality off the gridiron, Travis Kelce has become a force to be reckoned with in the world of football. With over 7,000 career receiving yards and more than 60 touchdown receptions, Kelce has solidified his place among the NFL's elite tight ends. Explore the journey of this prolific player, from his college days at the University of Cincinnati to his record-breaking seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, and uncover fascinating insights into Kelce's work ethic, mindset, and passion for the game.

Whether you're a die-hard Chiefs fan or simply a lover of football, this captivating collection of quotes and facts offers a compelling glimpse into the life and career of one of the NFL's most dynamic players.

Nobody can make fun of me better than me. I'm not going to go out there and say that I'm better than X, I'm better than Y. I think I'm the best tight end in the game. Coach Reid is always going to dial the right plays up.

Travis has caught 19 touchdown passes in playoff games, a record for the tight end position.

In September 2022, Travis and NFL star (and brother) Jason Kelce launched their podcast New Heights. The title references the Cleveland Heights area where they grew up. The show has proven to be a huge success, reaching No. 2 overall on Apple podcasts by February.