How Wideouts Became the NFL's StandoutsFrom the time Cris Carter started his career as a supplemental draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1987 to his retirement in 2002, the position of wide receiver exploded in the NFL. Receivers went from being quiet and classy to being known for their electric play, off-the-field antics, and -- in some cases -- over-the-top personalities.In Going Deep, Carter and ESPN journalist Jeffri Chadiha chronicle the...

In The First Star, acclaimed sports writer Lars Anderson recounts the thrilling story of Harold "Red" Grange, the Galloping Ghost of the gridiron, and the wild barnstorming tour that earned professional football a place in the American sporting firmament.Red Grange's on-field exploits at the University of Illinois, so vividly depicted in print by the likes of Grantland Rice and Damon Runyan, had already earned him a stature equal to that of Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey,...

It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television ...

How many great catches have there been in the history of the NFL? Hundreds? Thousands? Mention "The Catch,"though, and fans will think of only one: Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, the NFC Championship game, the Dallas Cowboys vs. the San Francisco 49ers, January 10, 1982. It changed the game and The Game. This is the story of the pieces that fell into place to allow it to happen and what it meant to the players, to the fans, and to the future of professional football.Drama like this c...

“The definitive book of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers” (Scott Brown, ESPN), Their Life’s Work is a triumphant yet intimate literary sports book that—through exquisite reportage, love, and honesty—tells the full story of the best team to ever play the game.The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, ...

Close your eyes and picture theHeisman Trophy. The form is easyto conjure, a graceful, fluid posethat is football past and football presentin one dignified figure ...The story of the Heisman Trophyis an american epic.-- from the PrefaceNo sport in America can match the pageantry, raw emotion, and thrilling tradition of college football. It is a world in which a twenty-year-old kid can become a national sensation overnight, in which c...

Test your knowledge with these gridiron questions about the Georgia Bulldogs—the coaches, titles, All-Americans and walk-ons, the greatest moments in school history are right here … 51 questions to challenge the diehard Bulldogs fan.

On August 15th 1992, the Premier League kicked off for the very first time to the sound of money. That same season, a new kind of branded commercialism descended across the continent as the European Cup was re-launched as the Champions League. In 1994, the game's oldest trophy, the FA Cup, would become the last of English football's major competitions to fall to commercial sponsors. The early 1990s mark the moment at which the beautiful game, the sport of the common man, wound up on a mark...

Friday Night Lights meets The Bad News Bears in “a brisk, warmhearted reminder of how professional sports can occasionally reach stunning unprofessional depths” (Publishers Weekly): the first two seasons with the worst team in NFL history, the hapless, hilarious, and hopelessly winless 1976–1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Long before their first Super Bowl victory in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did something no NFL team had ever done before ...

Test your knowledge with these gridiron questions about the Ole Miss Rebels—the coaches, titles, All-Americans and walk-ons, the greatest moments in school history are right here … 51 questions to challenge the diehard Rebel fan.

Think you know Gators football? Think you have mad-trivia skills when it comes to Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, or Brandon Spikes? Think you've got the Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, or Emmitt Smith questions in the bag?Think again.It's time to find out how smart you really are about the Gators. Are you a walk-on? A red-shirt freshman? Or are you a battle-tested senior, ready to make a run at a National Title? We'll let you know.The first Florida Football book to hit the...

A hard-hitting look at the Chicago Bears' legendary player and coach, composed of carefully curated archival Chicago Tribune columns and features.Mike Ditka was drafted by the Bears as a tight end in 1961 and went on to earn Rookie of the Year honors, multiple Pro Bowl selections, and a 1963 championship ring with Chicago during his playing career.Ditka retired in 1972 after stints with Philadelphia and Dallas (where he won Super Bowl VI), but he ret...