Football

At the age of thirty, Bob Cowser, Jr., is leading a happy life as a husband, father, and English professor in upstate New York. But he misses the exhilaration he felt as a young man when he took the field for high school football games. In what is every Monday morning quarterback's fantasy, Bob Cowser, Jr., revisits his days as a football star by joining the Watertown Red and Black, the country's oldest semi-professional football team. With the hesitant blessing of his wife, Cowser drives the lonely sixty miles to try out for the team in Watertown, New York, a former mill town of soldiers, corrections officers, and blue-collar workers that is a far cry from his leafy campus. Over the next five months he will make this journey many more times as the Red and Black weathers everything from team feuds to agonizing losses to the deployment of some of its players to war. From the first kickoff, "Professor" realizes that he will have to work hard to earn the respect of his hard-edged teammates. The fulfillment of his boyhood dream will teach him some unexpected lessons about real life as an adult.

Knute Rockne: A Portrait of a Notre Dame Legend presents the fruits of Steele's interest in and research about the life and times of Knute Rockne. Based on research and writing conducted over the last twenty years, the book includes: game by game accounts of Rockne's playing and coaching careers, interviews with former players, family and professional photographs--including new material found in Norway, photos of artifacts and memorabilia, team and season records, player personnel, and a full consideration of the relationship of Rockne with George Gipp--one of the most fascinating stories in the annals of American sports. For readers who love sports, college football, and Notre Dame, this book will provide keen insights into the man and the myth, and detail a pictorial history unsurpasses by any other book.

None of the books in this genre is remotely comparable to de Laet's remarkable effort. --The Sporting News

With candor and detail, Emmitt Smith takes us onto the field and into his life. From Escambia High School to Texas Stadium, from the rough and tumble on the field to the down and dirty at the contract table, The Emmitt Zone recounts the accomplishments and frustrations that follow this NFL celebrity.

The first truly comprehensive biography on George Halas, the father of professional football

The founder of the National Football League and father of the Chicago Bears, George Halas single-handedly changed the way Americans spend their Sundays. Papa Bear tells the incredible story of how one man grabbed an outlaw game by the throat, shook it up, and made it into the richest and most popular spectator sport on the planet.

Nearly 20 years after his death, Halas remains one of the towering figures of professional sports--rivaling the legendary Vince Lombardi--yet there has never been an authoritative biography published about this great American success story. At last, Papa Bear fills that gap. Written with unprecedented access to Halas's family, his closest friends, and associates, this thoroughly researched account includes exclusive interviews and a treasure trove of never-published archival materials on the Hall of Famer and his enduring legacy.

When Seattle Seahawks Running Back Shaun Alexander’s Touchdown Alexander was released last year in hardcover, it shot up the bestseller lists. And now, the release of the trade paperback features an all–new final chapter covering the 2006 football season.

In his page–turning story, written with award–winning author Cecil Murphey, Shaun recounts the years that led up to his success on and off the football field, and how God first gave him the dream for the achievements that have made him a household name among football fans everywhere.

And yet, Shaun’s life is about more than football. His nonprofit organization, the Shaun Alexander Foundation, focuses on empowering and improving the lives of fatherless young men through education, athletics, character programs, and leadership training, inspiring them to reach their potential as mentors and role models for future generations.

I decided to tell my story for several reasons:

• I want to show people—especially young people—that success is closer than they may think.
• God is the key to success.
• We need to set goals—the higher the better. If we think big and believe big, we’ll act big and move in big ways.
• Life is to enjoy—to have fun and laugh a lot. If we’re not enjoying our life, something isn’t right..

                    Shaun Alexander

Touched is the story of Jerry SanduskyÂ’s life in his own words. From his childhood to his professional career, this book goes behind the scenes to explore the successes and challenges that Jerry Sandusky has faced in life, both on and off the football field. After graduating from Penn State in 1966, Sandusky went on to coach collegiate football for 34 years. Thirty-two of those years were with Penn State, as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Joe Paterno, until his retirement in 1999. The book also explores SanduskyÂ’s involvement in childrenÂ’s charities, including the founding of his charity, "Second Mile."

In a sport full of players who are larger than life, Terrell Owens towers above the crowd.

It isn't just that he holds the NFL record for catches in a single game (twenty) or that he's the most feared wide receiver in the game. It's also his penchant for unique self-expression -- spiking the ball on the midfield Texas lone star in front of a hostile Dallas Cowboy crowd, pulling a Sharpie from his sock to sign a game ball after a touchdown, and dancing with a cheerleader's pom-poms after another TD. Never politically correct and always controversial and colorful on and off the field, Terrell Owens has transformed himself into "TO," the outrageous gridiron personality who has rocked the entire NFL and the sports landscape. But Owens is more than touchdowns, dancing, and celebrations. In this wickedly insightful book, he's full of sharp-eyed observations on the contentious, demanding, insane phenomenon that is pro football.

In Catch This! Owens takes readers back to his hardscrabble childhood in rural Alabama, where he was raised by a stern grandmother and loving mother. By the time he won an athletic scholarship for football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the once small, bullied boy had transformed himself into a very large man with a super body and an iron will to succeed. He takes us behind his apprenticeship to -- and eventual eclipsing of -- the legendary 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice. He pulls no punches when it comes to his extremely public fight with San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci -- a relationship so sour that they didn't speak at all during the crucial final weeks of the 2001 season. And, finally, he lets loose on the free agent scandal that shook the NFL in 2004 -- and reveals the truth behind the NFL's attempt to deny him free agency, his fraudulent trade to the Baltimore Ravens, and his ultimate happy landing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

For those who think they know both Terrell Owens and TO, catch this story.