Star quarterback for the Boston Tomcats. Two-time Super Bowl MVP...a decade ago. Nickname: Decker the Panty Wrecker. I get tackled for a living by men who are built like rhinos. I could take the wings off a fly with a football from 30 yards away. (I wouldn’t, but I could.) Being a veteran quarterback means I’m a mentally alert, fine-tuned athletic machine who can make split-second decisions. It’s my job to anticipate what’s going to happen next and adapt. But I couldn’t have anticipated the death of our beloved team owner. His estranged daughter Hannah Strong is a finance nerd from New York. She knows less than nothing about football. Know what she didn’t anticipate? Inheriting the Boston Tomcats. She’s stubborn, uptight, infuriating, and wrong about absolutely everything—from pizza to how to run my team. And I don’t want to talk about how good she looks in a skirt. Or daydream about how good she’d look out of it.Really, I don’t. I’m not Decker the Panty Wrecker anymore—I’ve changed. I can’t stop arguing with her. Or thinking about her. I thought I had a winning play.But Hannah Strong changed everything.

    Yup, I'm back at it: got a brand new gym membership. An expensive one, in an exclusive establishment owned by a retired NFL superstar. I know nothing about football, so I couldn't tell you if the man was any good at it. All I know is they better help me get back in shape for the price I'm paying! But when I spot a hunk lifting weighs in all his sweaty, barely clothed glory? I think I might just keep coming for the pleasure of ogling the man's glistening muscles. Then he approaches me...ZachRetired at thirty-five. That's not how I envisioned my future, growing up dreaming of a professional athlete's career. I've had amazing years under the limelight, made a lot of money, tapped so much tail I couldn't keep count of it. And now, I'm back in my hometown. Close to my family, managing my national chain of gyms from here. The business gives me drive. My folks and friends bring me purpose. But there's something missing. Something I can't put my finger on. When I catch the gorgeous, curvy woman checking me out in the middle of my reps, I think I might just have found my next adventure...This is a short, steamy, diverse romance with no cheating, no cliffhanger, and a guaranteed HEA!

    She never saw the legendary powerhouse as anything but her dad. She didn’t yet grasp the impact he’d had on the sport—and on America. To understand his historic role in the integration of college football, witness his influence on generations that followed, and fully appreciate his legacy, Maya had a lot of catching up to do.Maya retraces her father’s journey from the segregated south to Michigan State during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement and his journey as an NFL pioneer after the 1967 draft. She reflects on how her father’s childhood—and the racism he faced—shaped her upbringing and influenced his expectations of her. She also discovers how unbreakable the emotional bond between teammates can be. But above all, Maya and her father get to know each other. As their own bond deepens, so does Maya’s connection to the sport that changed the trajectory of her father’s life…and hers.

    Yet an aura of negativity trailed him his entire career.His style was iconic, and vintage ‘80s: aviator goggles, Jheri curls, neck roll, boxy pads.Eric Dickerson is the greatest player in Los Angeles Rams history and the NFL’s single season record holder for most rushing yards. In 2019, Dickerson was named to the National Football League’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. With an elegant upright running style that produced some of football’s most-watched highlights, it was said he was so smooth you couldn’t hear his pads clack as he glided past you.But during his Hall of Fame career, his greatness was often overshadowed by his contentious disputes with Rams management about his contract. In the pre-free agency era, tensions over his exploitative contract often overshadowed his accomplishments. What’s his problem? went the familiar refrain from the media. Can’t he just shut up and run?It’s time to reexamine how Eric Dickerson was portrayed. For the first time, he’s telling his story. And he’s not holding anything back.

    Two years later, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association became the city’s third major professional sports franchise. In 1972 the National Hockey League granted the Flames expansion franchise to the city, making Atlanta the first southern city with teams in all four of the big leagues. The excitement surrounding the arrival of four professional franchises in Atlanta in a six-year period soon gave way to widespread frustration and, eventually, widespread apathy toward its home teams. All four of Atlanta’s franchises struggled in the standings and struggled to draw fans to their games. Atlantans’ indifference to their new teams took place amid the social and political fracturing that had resulted from a new Black majority in Atlanta and a predominately white suburban exodus. Sports could never quite bridge the divergence between the two.Loserville examines the pursuit, arrival, and response to professional sports in Atlanta during its first decade as a major league city (1966–75). It scrutinizes the origins of what remains the primary model for acquiring professional sports franchises: offers of municipal financing for new stadiums. Other Sunbelt cities like San Diego, Phoenix, and Tampa that aspired to big league stature adopted Atlanta’s approach. Like the teams in Atlanta, the franchises in these cities have had mixed results—both in terms of on-field success and financial stability.