Fearless: How an Underdog Becomes a Champion


Doug Pederson - 2018
    Doug Pederson is the very definition of an underdog. He was an undrafted rookie free agent who would go on to play fourteen years in the NFL as a backup quarterback. He was cut five times, yet kept getting back up and into the fray. He would win one Super Bowl, with the Green Bay Packers. When he retired, he decided to coach, but not at the pro level. Instead, he was head coach of Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana. After a successful four-year stint there, he returned to the NFL as an assistant coach under Andy Reid with the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was instrumental in the development of quarterback Alex Smith and his string of 3,000-plus-yard seasons of passing. When he was offered the job as head coach of the Eagles, he jumped at it, though few thought he would succeed. In the first season, a year of rebuilding, they finished 7-9. Some doubted his abilities, and before the 2017 season, one "expert" called Pederson the least qualified coach in thirty years. Plagued by the sidelining of seasoned players and devastated by quarterback Carson Wentz's season-ending knee injury, the Eagles managed a 13-3 record and home-field advantage in the playoffs. Yet they were still the underdogs in every single game, including the Super Bowl, against the New England Patriots, one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the NFL. It wasn't until they stunned the Patriots that people finally believed in Pederson and his team. In Fearless, Pederson reveals the principles that guided him through the ups and downs and tough times of his career, and what it took to become a champion. Through it all, Pederson sustained himself with his faith and the support of his family. He shares the defining stories of his life and career, growing up with his disciplinarian Air Force dad and his tender-hearted mom, developing friendships with Dan Marino and Brett Favre, and learning from mentors, such as Don Shula, Mike Holmgren, and Andy Reid, who helped mold him into the man and coach he is today. Fearless captures Pederson's coaching and leadership philosophies and reveals the brilliant mind and indomitable spirit of a man who has entered the pantheon of great coaches.

Road Swing: One Fan's Journey Into The Soul Of America's Sports


Steve Rushin - 1998
    So he jumped into his fully alarmed Japanese S.U.V. and drove to American sports shrines for a year, everywhere from Larry Bird's boyhood home in French Lick, Indiana, to the cornfield just outside of Dyersville, Iowa, where Field of Dreams was filmed. Now in paperback, Road Swing is the story of his journey.

Go Long!: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame


Jerry Rice - 2007
    In spite of Rice’s legendary gridiron skills, or even his ability to transform himself into an instant ballroom-dance prodigy on ABC’s hit TV series Dancing with the Stars, the surprising fact is, a guy like Jerry Rice is made and not just born. In Go Long! Rice shares the inspirational lessons and empowering practices that have helped him attain success, both on the football field and off. Through the ups and downs of Rice’s life and incomparable career, we discover how self-motivation, determination, and humility are the keys to achievement and true fulfillment. It’s been a long journey for Jerry Rice, from his childhood in Starkville, Mississippi, to a certain berth in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As a kid, he was always working toward something, even if he wasn’t sure what it was. Rice honed his hand-eye coordination by catching airborne bricks tossed by his siblings while on the job with their bricklayer father, and he ran–everywhere. From these humble beginnings, Rice blazed a path to greatness in college and the NFL–a trip that was fueled by tireless effort and belief in a few simple principles, among them that achievement is a voyage, not a destination; that modesty and perseverance, not talent, are what determine how far you will go; and that everyone should strive to be a role model. Rice even demonstrates these rules in action, breaking down the greatest games from his stellar career. Go Long! is an inspiring book by a living sports legend. More than that, however, it is the story of how Jerry Rice awakened the champion within, illustration how we can unlock the greatness within ourselves.From the Hardcover edition.

Mensch: Beyond the Cones


Jonathan Harding - 2019
     From the practical aspects on the training ground to the collective strength of the coaching community, some of the smartest minds in the game take you closer to understanding the human aspects required to nurture young professionals. Germany’s model is not perfect and constantly evolving so there’s also a look at what should be the next step for Germany’s coaching after a disastrous 2018 World Cup. As English players look to Germany to further their own careers, Mensch looks at what the wider football world can learn from a country and a coaching culture so clearly in love with the beautiful game.

The Boss: The Many Sides of Alex Ferguson


Michael Crick - 2002
    Charismatic and charming, volcanic and ruthless, seemingly ambitious and astonishingly successful: Sir Alex Ferguson is all of these things and more, a complex character who has produced - first at Aberdeen and now at Manchester United - two of the most prolific trophy-grabbing machines in the modern game.But what drives him? What has fuelled the desire to transform himself from a poor Glasgow childhood into one of the titans of the modern game? The Boss will be essential reading not just for Manchester United fans and all football followers, but anyone interested in the skills of successful management in general.

Riding in the Zone Rouge: The Tour of the Battlefields 1919 – Cycling's Toughest-Ever Stage Race


Tom Isitt - 2019
    It covered 2,000 kilometres and was raced in appalling conditions across the battlefields of the Western Front, otherwise known as the Zone Rouge. The race was so tough that only 21 riders finished, and it was never staged again.With one of the most demanding routes ever to feature in a bicycle race, and plagued by appalling weather conditions, the Circuit des Champs de Bataille was beyond gruelling, but today its extraordinary story is largely forgotten. Many of the riders came to the event straight from the army and had to ride 18-hour stages through sleet and snow across the battlefields on which they had fought, and lost friends and family, only a few months before. But in addition to the hellish conditions there were moments of high comedy, even farce.The rediscovered story of the Circuit des Champs de Bataille is an epic tale of human endurance, suffering and triumph over extreme adversity.

Hooking Up


Allison Starwood - 2016
    So when she meets Ethan Hudson at a post game kickback, she's determined not to let him in. She knows all too well how players play. But when Ethan makes her an offer she can't refuse, Kylie agrees to come off the bench, but just this once.Ethan Hudson might be a professional football player, but he's no player. When he first sets eyes on the fiery strawberry-blond bombshell, he knows he has to have her. Their connection is immediate, and he'll do anything to prove that he's the man for her. But sneaking around with the coach's daughter is no easy feat, and he'll have to do more than just score a touchdown to make it last. He'll have to show Kylie he'd risk everything to keep her.

Play Strategic Golf: Course Navigation: How To Position Yourself To Score Like The Pros


Eric Jones - 2015
    Course Navigation will give you what's been missing from your golf game: a better way to play golf by using Tour-tested course management strategies and scoring techniques. This book is different because it will show you how to lower your score by understanding how to read a golf hole, how to identify opportunities, how to size up risks, and how to play the percentages to get the most out of your game. This is the antidote to the tips that don’t help your golf game and to our excessive focus on fixing swing mechanics. Whether you are a 30-handicapper or a 3, the easy-to-learn and easy-to-use principles in Course Navigation can literally transform your game and put you in better positions to score, without having to make a single swing change. Filled with practical examples, illustrations and anecdotes Course Navigation will give you the solid strategic foundation every player needs for a consistent golf game. You’ll see the course in a new way. You’ll look at green complexes with new understanding. You’ll recognize how features like bunkers, trees, water, mounds, swales, slopes, and rough are used to defend the hole against your attack, and you’ll know how to handle them. You’ll approach your shots and your strategy with more confidence. You'll learn: • Why the strategy for your current shot should be to make the next shot easier, and how it makes your entire round more fun; • How playing the hole backwards helps you identify the best angles, landing areas, and club selection to maximize your scoring opportunities; • Which pins to attack, and when the middle of the green is the best option; • How to identify the natural path of a hole, including the defenses and soft spots, so that you can always play from a position of strength; • Why picking specific targets will help you select the right club more often and allow you to swing away with confidence; • Strategy from a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher to deal with the toughest holes on the course. The benefits of good course management are undisputed. This book will give you the tools and techniques you need to get started playing better, smarter golf. Course Navigation is exactly what you need to take advantage of the greatest weapon you bring to the course - your mind.

101 Mistakes All Golfers Make (and how to fix them)


Jon Sherman - 2016
    Sometimes the best answers are the simple ones. Written in an easy-to-understand format, 101 Mistakes All Golfers Make will serve as your guide to golf for years to come. Players of all levels will learn how to improve their mental game, course strategy, practice methods, technique, and much more. By seeing the most common mistakes made by all golfers, you will get something that is often lacking in the golf world, which is coaching. Many times golfers just need to be pointed in the right direction in order to enjoy the game more, and fulfill their potential. Whether or not you are a complete beginner, or a more experienced golfer, this book will give you tons of ideas on how to approach the game in a new way! "The information that Jon shares here is passionately researched and will no doubt prove to be a valuable resource as you plot your course towards a better golf game.” Andrew Rice "101 Mistakes is an awesome and easily digestible read. Pick it up, put it down, repeat, and get better at golf with this book that's chock-full of great little tips." Adam Young - Golf Coach, Author of The Practice Manual "As a PGA Golf Instructor and developer of golf training products, I know first hand the complication that golf can create in our minds. Jon provides brief solutions to these problems, which lead to realistic goals accomplished through practical steps." Jim Hackenberg, PGA - Owner & Developer of Orange Whip Products

Mr Unbelievable


Chris Kamara - 2010
    As a player, Kammy trawled football's outposts with the likes of Bradford City, Stoke City and Portsmouth where he suffered the slings, arrows and hurled bananas of racial abuse. Later, during the autumn of his career, he played in Howard Wilkinson's swashbuckling Leeds team where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Eric Cantona and Lee Chapman.On hanging up his boots, he moved into the dugouts at Bradford and Sunderland as manager before joining the Sky football revolution as roving reporter on Soccer Saturday and Goal On Sunday's eagle-eyed analyst, amassing a raft of catchphrases along the way.Mr Unbelievable is a hugely entertaining, moving, shocking and laugh out loud funny story of a genuine cult hero.

When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone


James Montague - 2008
    James Montague travelled there for three years, observing the region's cultures and politics through the prism of football and interviewing all the major teams along the way. He soon realised that to understand the game there is to understand its people. For as much as football forms an unlikely common thread between different countries, the sport also reflects what is unique in the national characters of those who play, support and organise it.When Friday Comes is an insightful and humorous account of Montague's journey, during which he gets stoned with the Yemeni FA, harangues Iran's Deputy President at the World Cup, has a gun pulled on him by genocidal Lebanese football fans, encounters a rioting group of fanatical young Jews singing 'I'm West Ham 'til I Die' in mockney English and was made to strip and then dance for the Iraqi national team.This is a compelling travel memoir that will enlighten, surprise and entertain football fans everywhere.

Success Is the Only Option: The Art of Coaching Extreme Talent


John Calipari - 2016
    It is a promise he makes to them: "Fully invest in the present—and each other—and I guarantee it will serve your future."Here, for the first time, he distills his team-building methods in ways that apply to CEOs, business owners, coaches, teachers and leaders of all kinds—lessons for anyone seeking to inspire talented individuals to reach for their best selves and contribute to a greater good.A basketball team is an intimate workplace, in which blend is everything and character matters. As such, it is a window into the nature of successful leadership. Calipari views each new team like a startup business—one composed of new players, new relationships, and new challenges. Each season is a series of discoveries as he learns how to unleash the extreme talent in each of his players and mold them into championship material as college basketball comes to a crescendo every spring. While he can’t control everything, he is responsible for everything—just like a CEO.An enlightening look at leadership, management, and team building, Success Is the Only Option offers the keys to winning, on and off the court.

Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama's Coach Bryant


Paul W. Bryant - 1975
    Bear's personal off the field and his accomplishments on the field have contributed equally to his ever-growing status as an American icon.

The Secret Apartment: Vet Stadium, a surreal memoir


Tom Garvey - 2020
    It began as a way to amuse friends as a diversion in the early days of stress, isolation, and fear in the spring of 2020 and the Pandemic caused by the deadly Covid-19 Virus. We had no way of knowing how bad things were going to be or how long isolation and social distancing might last. It was a frightening time and my only intention was to provide friends with a momentary diversion and some entertainment in hard times. Favorable encouragement pushed me into half-forgotten memories and these stories came tumbling out. My "diversion" came to life as something I have to share with others. I began working on The Secret Apartment as a memoir to be presented as a collection of short stories Though fanciful, these are true stories based on actual events. This is not the product of my imagination. I didn't have to make anything up. I didn't have to and everything presented is both true and correct.I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I enjoyed living them.

Out of Their League


Dave Meggyesy - 1971
    Louis Cardinals for seven years when he quit at the height of his career to tell about the dehumanizing side of the game—about the fraud and the payoffs, the racism, drug abuse, and incredible violence. The original publication of Out of Their League shocked readers and provoked the outraged response that rocked the sports world in the 1970s. But his memoir is also a moving description of a man who struggled for social justice and personal liberation. Meggyesy has continued this journey and remains an active champion for players’ rights through his work with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). He provides a preface for this Bison Books edition.