The most memorable moments since the birth of pro football in America

"If you are a sports fan, you have to be a Neil Leifer admirer, for you have been seeing his pictures and they've been shaping your impressions and memories for five decades." —Bob Costas

In 1958, journalist Neil Leifer took the picture that remains one of his most famous to this day. The day he got the shot – Alan Ameche’s game-winning "Sudden Death" touchdown – was Leifer’s 16th birthday. This game, called "The Greatest Ever Played," signaled football’s emergence as America’s new national pastime; formerly half-empty stadiums welcomed sold-out crowds seemingly overnight, while football surpassed baseball in national television ratings. Starting then, on any given Sunday Leifer was most likely shooting a football game somewhere in America. . . .

While best known for his iconic photograph of Muhammad Ali towering over a fallen Sonny Liston, it is his football pictures Leifer considers his best. This collection represents the best of his best, culled from over 10,000 rolls of film on the sport. With an introduction assembled from the best football columns of the era by famed sports columnist Jim Murray, and incisive captions detailing the legendary players, coaches, and games, this volume carries the guts and glory of the game into the end zone.

After our limited and art editions, this book is now finally available as trade edition.

Don't feel left out in the roar of the crowd.

Football is the most popular sport in America today. It's also the most complicated, especially to those who watch their loved ones hibernate in football heaven from September to February. Here's the book that levels the playing field for novices, giving them a simple, clear, and comprehensive guide worthy of a Lombardi Trophy. Finally, get in the game with:

•Basic rules and objectives

•Player position, strategies, formations, and plays

•The business of football

•Differences between high school, college, and pro football

•Fantasy football

SWING YOUR SWORD is the first ever book by one of the most fascinating and successful coaches in sports today. A maverick who took an unlikely path to coaching through law school, Mike Leach talks about his unorthodox approach to coaching and the choices that have brought him success throughout his career. A lover of the game who started creating formations and drawing his own plays as a kid, Leach took his Texas Tech Red Raiders to numerous bowl games, achieving the #2 slot in national rankings and being voted 2008 Coach of the Year before being unceremoniously fired at the end of the 2009 season. The scandalous nature of his dismissal created a media frenzy and began a personal battle between Leach and his accusers that remains unresolved.

Want to know what everyone is cheering about? Learn to enjoy and understand the game with the football fanatic in your life. This book is the ultimate football guide for the novice fan. You will get answers to such complex questions as:. What is that yellow line on the field and why does it keep moving?. What down is it and why do I care?. What is a "T formation"?Laced with hilarious and insightful anecdotes from Mark Oristano's thirty-year career as a pro football sportscaster, [i]A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football[/i] will turn you into a football-watching pro, or at least, let you fake it.[i]Time Out:I was in the locker room before a game, and I saw an Oilers linebacker furiously drawing on his shoes with a permanent marker. This player, like many, had his ankle tape applied over the outside of his shoes instead of inside, which obviously covered the shoe logo. And he was drawing the logo of his shoe contract on the tape."Wouldn't it be easier," I asked him, "to get taped inside and not have to do the artwork?"Yeah, it would," he replied, "but then I'd actually have to wear their damn shoes, and I hate 'em. So I wear the brand I like and do it this way instead." [/i]

The plays used by high school, college, and pro football teams have come a long way from the days of the "T" formation. Today, the typical NFL playbook is complex enough to give a calculus textbook a run for its money-and long enough to be given to players on laptop computers. Plays like the end-around, the Hail Mary, and the counter-trey bear the insignia of some of the game's great innovators and the players that inspired them, while the newest schemes and plays used in the pros and college are quickly studied and copied throughout the country. These days, even middle-school teams in Pop Warner leagues are running complex plays, memorized by playing them out in John Madden Football. In Blood, Sweat and Chalk, Tim Layden will take readers back to the origins of the offenses and defenses that have changed the course of football and the men behind them. Readers will be delivered to the meeting rooms (and, in some cases, living rooms) where signifi cant schemes were hatched, including the popular one-back spread offense that was fi rst created by John Elway's high school coach to take advantage of his star quarterback's scrambling ability; the origins of the blitz; and the long reign of the triple option as a staple offense for high school and college. The book will also give readers a behind-the-scenes look at how a modern NFL team formulates its game plan for the upcoming season, and will provide a tutorial for fans to better understand the powerful head games that go hand-in-hand with the big hits.

The Football Coaching Bible features many of the game's most successful coaches. Each shares the special insight, advice, and strategies they've used to field championship-winning teams season after season.

The 27 chapter contributing coaches span six decades of the sport and reach into every corner of the United States. The impressive list of contributors:

-Joe Paterno

-Hayden Fry

-Phil Fulmer

-Dick Foster

-Grant Teaff

-Gene Stallings

-Jim Tressel

-R.C. Slocum

-LaVell Edwards

-Bobby Bowden

-Jim Young

-Frosty Westering

-Mack Brown

-Larry Kehres

-Bill Snyder

-Lou Holtz

-Ken Sparks

-Tom Osborne

-Sonny Lubick

-Mike Bellotti

-Barry Alvarez

-Fisher DeBerry

-George Curry

-Bo Schembechler

-Joe Tiller

-Frank Beamer
They cover every aspect of the game: coaching principles, program building, player motivation, practice sessions, individual skills, team tactics, offensive and defensive play-calling, and performance evaluation.

Developed by the American Football Coaches Association, this coaching guide establishes a new standard of excellence in the sport.

When football engulfs your whole life — conversations, weekend planning — even prayer — you know you are a FOOTBALL FANATIC. This is the hysterical – funny book for that die-hard football fan. Page after page of original, ridiculously funny quotes – jokes and cartoons on football fanatics.
Sample Quotes: You Know you are a Football Fanatic When…

•You think “Hail Mary” was originally an NFL term and the church stole it.

• You got married at a tailgate.

• Every four years you have that half-drunk debate with your sister-in-law on why football should be an Olympic sport.

"Considered the bible of scouting techniques" according to the Los Angeles Times, Football Scouting Methods explains the basic scouting strategies and insights of author Steve Belichick. He was widely viewed as the ablest football scout of his time and coached at the U.S. Naval Academy for 33 years; his son is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a three-time Super Bowl winner. When Steve Belichick died in November 2005, the New York Times headline described him as "Coach Who Wrote the Book on Scouting," and cited Houston Texans General Manager Charley Casserly calling Football Scouting Methods "the best book on scouting he had ever read." In recent years this title has been one of the top ten most sought out-of-print books; used copies have been quite scarce. This reissue edition makes the original 1962 text available once again in exact facsimile. The book explains how to scout opponents, recognize defenses, analyze offenses, discover "tip-offs," compose a useful report, self-scout, and conduct postgame analysis.

The fun and easy way to tackle football basics and enjoy America's most popular sport

Since the last edition of Football For Dummies, new stadiums have been built, new stars have ascended, and records have been broken. This new edition has been revised to reflect today's game, giving football fans up-to-the-minute information on all the rules and regulations, positions, plays, and penalties.

Featuring coverage of the newest stadium technologies, revised greatest players and legends, and pro-football must-do experiences, it also includes expert advice on training and gearing up for those who play the game. The complete fan's updated guide to footballRevised material on new players, stadiums, and strategiesWritten by football legend Howie Long and revered analyst John Czarnecki

From peewees to the pros, this hands-on, friendly guide covers the nuts and bolts of football for fans of all ages and experience levels.

The NFL has never been hotter–witness the $21.4 billion it will rake in on the TV-rights deals now in place (not to mention its own network), the proliferation of football news and information and the game's booming popularity among sports fans, including the 23 millioin who read SPORTS ILLUSTRATED every week. These 320 pages capture, in breathtaking words and pictures, the essence of America's game: the players and performances, the crucial moments and classic matchups, the enduring dynastics and unique characters that have made pro football the new national pastime.