Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life. It's okay to lose, to die, but don't die without trying, without giving it your best." His legacy is towering. Walter Payton—the man they called Sweetness, for the way he ran—remains the most prolific running back in the history of the National Football League, the star of the Chicago Bears' only Super Bowl Championship, eleven times voted the most popular sports figure in Chicago's history. Off the field, he was a devoted father whose charitable foundation benefited tens of thousands of children each year, and who—faced with terminal liver disease—refused to use his celebrity to gain a preferential position for organ donation. Walter Payton was not just a football hero; he was America's hero.        Never Die Easy is Walter Payton's autobiography, told from the heart. Growing up poor in Mississippi, he took up football to get girls' attention, and went on to become a Black College All-American at tiny Jackson State (during which time he was also a finalist in a Soul Train dance contest). Drafted by the Bears in 1975, he predicted that he would last only five years but went on to play thirteen extraordinary seasons, a career earning him regular acknowledgment as one of the greatest players in the history of professional football. And when his playing days were over, he approached business and charity endeavors with the same determination and success he had brought to the football field, always putting first his devotion to friends and family. His ultimate battle with illness truly proved him the champion he always had been and prompted a staggering outpouring of love and support from hundreds of thousands of friends and admirers.        Written with veteran journalist and author Don Yaeger in the last weeks of Walter Payton's life, Never Die Easy presents Walter's singular voice—warm, plainspoken, funny, self-aware—along with the voices of the friends, family, teammates, and business associates who knew him best at all stages of his life, including his wife, Connie, and their children, Brittney and Jarrett; his teammate and friend Matt Suhey; former Bears head coach Mike Ditka; and many, many others.         Walter made Don Yaeger promise that his book would be "inspirational and leave people with some kind of lesson . . . and make sure you spell all the words right." Never Die Easy keeps all those promises.

    Reviewers' jaws dropped at "the searing honesty ... and the breathless style" (The Saturday Times); The Observer Sport Monthly gasped "It's Angela's Ashes with half-time oranges ... a footballer's autobiography like no other. The most astonishing sports book of the year." "Autobiography" of course means ghost-written: though told in the first person it was put together by award-winning Irish journalist Paul Kimmage, whose Rough Ride won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 1990. Making the book compulsively readable Kimmage structured it brilliantly, guarding the series of secrets that Cascarino reveals so that the reader is tantalised by cryptic glimpses then made to wait until each revelation in turn is suddenly unveiled. What are these secrets? Suffice to say that some are personal, some professional, some minor and quirky, one major enough to generate heated debate in the press. At times the book reads like the confession of a man who's lived with too much guilt for too long. Throughout, the book maintains a very high standard. It veers towards the blandness for which footballers' autobiographies are famous only when the author is discussing his friends, to whom he is commendably loyal. As for his managers, there are several memorable portraits. In the case of Jack Charlton it's open hero-worship, even when he felt hard done by. Relations with Glenn Hoddle were a very different story. "He was probably the unfunniest man I have ever known. He was also completely besotted with himself ... When you stepped offside with Glenn, there was nothing to do but accept your fate and hope that you returned in the next life as talented and as perfect as him." The Guardian said, "Compared with the standard-issue footballer's autobiography, this is Tolstoy." Perhaps not quite, but it's brilliant storytelling, and gives a shockingly honest portrait of one footballer and his world. --David Pickering

    From the birth of Total Football in the sixties, through two decades of World Cup near misses to the exiles who remade clubs like AC Milan, Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea in their own image, the Dutch have often been dazzlingly original and influential. The elements of their style (exquisite skills, adventurous attacking tactics, a unique blend of individual creativity and teamwork, weird patterns of self-destruction) reflect and embody the country's culture and history.

    A fourth and equally important factor in soccer success is mental toughness. Being a champion requires concentration, discipline, motivation, and a positive attitude.Now players can learn to meet and overcome the mental challenges of intense competition with Focused for Soccer. This book alone delivers such in-depth, easy-to-follow guidelines for maximizing individual performance on the soccer field.Focused for Soccer will help you sharpen mental skills and unleash your full potential. Better than general sport psychology text, Focused for Soccer is filled with practical tips and step-by-step techniques that transfer directly to the game. Part of Human Kinetics' popular Focused for Sports series, this book makes the case that physical skills and conditioning must be combined with psychological skills to be a champion.European coach and sport psychologist Bill Beswick is the world's leading authority on the mental aspects of soccer performance. Beswick's insights and anecdotes enrich the expert instruction throughout the book. He explains how he has applied the training techniques successfully in his many years as a coach and consultant.Beswick begins by helping you create an honest player assessment and a plan of action. He then guides you through every key factor of the mental game that will improve performance, including positive outlook, intensity of actions, imagination, winning attitudes, healthy competitiveness, and true teamwork. In many sections, the author shows techniques used by professional athletes and sport psychologists to boost performance to a higher level.Encouraging athletes to play "first with the head, then with the heart," Focused for Soccer is a players' and coaches' guide to all of the psychological tools necessary to become a soccer champion. It is an invaluable tool for improving the foundation of your game and an outstanding guidebook for any physical athletic training program.

    With his 317 career victories, Paterno was six shy of tying Bryant's record of 323. But as successful as his Nittany Lions teams have been on the field, winning two national titles and posting seven undefeated regular seasons, Paterno has been most influential off the field as a mover, shaker, and outspoken advocate for what is right and ethical about collegiate sports.

    In this short history of football in Baltimore, he takes us on a tour of his remarkable collection—not only to highlight memorable games and players but also to explore the pop culture that surrounded and has survived them.Patterson introduces us to the teams and early stars of Johns Hopkins and Morgan State; Army-Navy games in old Municipal Stadium; high-school rivalries like City-Poly, Loyola-Calvert Hall, Gilman-McDonogh, and the great years of Patterson High; the original Colts (colors silver and green); and, at considerable length, the legendary Baltimore Colts of Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Alan "the Horse" Ameche, Artie Donovan, and Lydell Mitchell. He also includes the lastest chapters in this eventful story: the fight to bring pro football back to the city, the dawn of the Ravens' era, and the building of a new football stadium in downtown Baltimore.Football in Baltimore offers an engaging, wonderfully illustrated history of Baltimore's love affair with the game—a running essay on the large subject of football in Baltimore's past along with the varied and highly colorful material objects that the game generated for the sake of the fans and that fans generated for the fun of it. Here are game programs, autographed pictures, press guides, bubblegum cards, comic strips, advertising ephemera, and miscellaneous collectibles from championship banners to the special-issue sets of china that Carroll Rosenbloom once gave to the Colts and their wives as Christmas gifts.This altogether new take on the game and the storied Colts will appeal to every lover of the college and pro game—and may even inspire popular support for a Colts museum to match the Babe Ruth House and Museum. Patterson's engaging writing style keeps the pages turning. Dozens of color and black-and-white photographs from Patterson's collection will captivate Colts fans, football lovers, local history buffs, and sports memorabilia collectors.

    More than fifty years afterwards, the authors have produced this illustrated book which looks at the background to the crash, its after-effects and the success that Torino had enjoyed prior to the tragedy.

    Payne is uniquely positioned to recount the history of the CFL as it has evolved, expanded, and attempted to export itself to the United States. He calls them as he sees them, but never loses his sense of humour when faced with aggrieved coaches, aggressive fans, and authority-resistant players.

    They discuss organizational sports and why white youngsters aren’t out there playing the game like they used to; the college game as compared to the pros; coaches, good and bad; and why the quarterback position is the most difficult one in all of sports.This is the story of Peyton's dizzying rise to the elite of the NFL, and the story of his father, himself a #1 draft pick for the New Orleans Saints in 1971, who harkens back to a time when football and gallantry were one and the same. Archie helps guide Peyton through the money, the endorsements, and the everyday life in the NFL. Meanwhile, Archie’s youngest son, Eli, picks up the gauntlet as he begins playing quarterback for Archie's alma mater, Ole Miss.MANNING is a truly personal and inspiring story of a family, a tradition and a legacy, providing a stirring multigenerational — and at times controversial — look at football over the past 50 years.

    The book follows one of the oldest football franchises from its fledgling days through the championship dynasty of the 1950s and 1960s, when the team scored six NFL titles in only eight years—an accomplishment that would forever establish the Giants as having one of the largest and most devoted followings of fans in professional football. Contributors include Rosey Brown, Frank Gifford, Mel Hein, Tom Landry, Pat Summerall, Y. A. Tittle, and many others.

    Football 101 is illustrated by well-known cartoonist, Paul Fell. It provides insight and guidance for all kinds of football fans. University of Nebraska assistant football coach George Darlington lends his 30 years of coaching experience to fans ranging from novice to advanced. This book also provides diagrams to show how plays unfold. Other illustrations explain everything from penalties to stretching exercises. In Lincoln, Darlington teaches an introduction to football class. Through that experience, he knows what questions are most commonly asked. By gaining information step by step, anyone can become an armchair quarterback through Football 101. In addition, even "experts" can pick up new insights from this book.

    Super Guides give valuable advice on everything from what clothing should be worn to strategy development and equipment usage. Included is detailed information on rules, objectives, scoring, and much more.