The epic tale of the five owners who shepherded the NFL through its tumultuous early decades and built the most popular sport in AmericaThe National Football League is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $14 billion in annual revenue. But it was not always a success. In The League, John Eisenberg focuses on the pioneering sportsmen who kept the league alive in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, when its challenges were many and its survival was ...

The story of a team, a town, and a leader: Vince Lombardi's first year as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and how he turned them into a powerhouse.The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughingstock by the late 1950s. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade, and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior—and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York Cit...

The remarkable story of Native Dancer, one of the most celebrated thoroughbred racehorses of all time, will captivate the same readers who made Seabiscuit a #1 New York Times bestseller.In the early 1950s, a rising star flickered across millions of black-and-white TV sets. Nicknamed “The Grey Ghost,” Native Dancer was a blueblood thoroughbred with a taste for drama, courtesy of his come-from-behind running style, and impressive credits: He finished first i...

"A line-drive hit of a book" about the Iron Horse and the Iron Man—two legends from two eras of baseball—and the nature of human endurance ( The Wall Street Journal).When Cal Ripken Jr. began his career with the Baltimore Orioles at age twenty-one, he had no idea he would someday beat the historic record of playing 2,130 games in a row, a record set forty-two years before by the fabled "Iron Horse" of the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig. Ripken went on to sur...

A new superstar appeared on the American sports landscape in the spring of 2006. Barbaro, a three-year-old racehorse, won the Kentucky Derby by the largest margin of victory in sixty years, stirring talk of a possible Triple Crown. But in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, the magnificent animal suffered a catastrophic leg injury that ended his un-defeated career and left him fighting for his life.One of the world's top jockeys, Edgar Prado rode Barbaro to g...

An acclaimed sportswriter offers an inside look at the Black quarterbacks whose skill and grit transformed the NFLIn Rocket Men, John Eisenberg offers the definitive history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL—men who shaped not only the history of football but the cause of civil rights in America. From early pioneers like Fritz Pollard to groundbreaking modern standouts like Marlin Briscoe and James “Shack” Harris, Black quarterbacks had to be twice as good ...

"It's every bit as fascinating to read about the battles between the Cowboys and the Texans as it is to follow today's never-ending NFL dramas." —Mike Florio, ProFootballTalkIn the 1960s, on the heels of the "Greatest Game Ever Played," professional football began to flourish across the country—except in Texas, where college football was still the only game in town. But in an unlikely series of events, two young oil tycoons started their own professional football fr...

"A heart-stopping account of a race that surely must rank as one of the most thrilling on record" from the acclaimed author of The League ( The New York Times).The Great Match Race is a captivating account of America's first sports spectacle, a horse race that pitted North against South in three grueling heats. On a bright afternoon in May 1823, an unprecedented sixty thousand people showed up to watch two horses run the equivalent of nine...

On the first Saturday in May every year in Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after 5:30 PM, a new horse attains racing immortality. The Kentucky Derby is like no other race, and its winners are the finest horses in the world. Covered in rich red roses, surrounded by flashing cameras and admiring crowds, these instant celebrities bear names like Citation, Secretariat, Spectacular Bid, and Seattle Slew. They're worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in 1992, a funny thing happened on the wa...

An acclaimed sportswriter offers an inside look at the Black quarterbacks whose skill and grit transformed the NFLIn Rocket Men, John Eisenberg offers the definitive history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL—men who shaped not only the history of football but the cause of civil rights in America. From early pioneers like Fritz Pollard to groundbreaking modern standouts like Marlin Briscoe and James “Shack” Harris, Black quarterbacks had to be twice as good ...

The “deeply researched, surprise-on-every-page, and altogether marvelous” (Weekly Standard) tale of the five owners who shepherded the NFL through its tumultuous early decades and built the most popular sport in AmericaThe National Football League is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $14 billion in annual revenue. But it was not always a success. In The League, John Eisenberg focuses on the pioneering sportsmen who kept the leag...

From the ingenious comic performer, founding member of Monty Python, and creator of Spamalot, comes an absurdly funny memoir of unparalleled wit and heartfelt candorWe know him best for his unforgettable roles on Monty Python--from the Flying Circus to The Meaning of Life. Now, Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this entertaining memoir that takes us on an unforgettable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding s...