Book picks similar to
Forward Pass by Thomas J. Dygard
sports
football
got-it
grade-six
Taking Le Tiss
Matt Le Tissier - 2009
This book contains the fascinating, insightful and at times hilarious memoirs of one of the most gifted and enigmatic British footballers of the last 25 years, Matt Le Tissier.
The Messiah Method
Michael A. Zigarelli - 2011
Few programs were even close. Seventeen Final Fours between them during this time. Eleven national titles. Unbeaten streaks measured not only in games, but in seasons. How do they do it? What's their secret of success? They use what might be called "the Messiah method," seven disciplines that propelled these teams from decent to dynasty. They're seven disciplines that can supercharge your team, too. Whether you're leading a sports program or a business or a school or a church or any other organization, there's a proven method to achieve breakthrough performance-and to sustain it year after year. It's The Messiah Method. It's how excellence happens. Michael Zigarelli is a Professor of Leadership and Strategy at Messiah College and the author of several books. He's also a high school soccer coach and an avid student of the game. You can reach him at mzigarelli@messiah.edu
STRIPPED (The Slate Brothers, Book Three)
Harper James - 2017
Each One A Football Star. Each One Sexy, Rough And Completely Untamed. A standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA I can’t believe I want to f**k a football star. I’m so not that girl. I’ve always been a nerdy loner, my head in a book. And that’s how I prefer it… But Tyson Slate is different, and for some reason he keeps teasing me, toying with me, touching me and making me melt. I try to resist him but he’s so undeniably sexy, with muscles that I want to run my fingers over and gray-blue eyes. I try to pretend to be calm when Tyson is near, not wanting him to see how he’s flustered me with his words and his looks and that hard stare. I can’t understand why he seems to want me, out of all the hot girls lining up to be with him. But maybe it’s because I’m different, because I don’t come from his world. Maybe that’s why he can be himself around me, let his walls down for just a little while, and then…touch me. God, the way he touches me. The way he looks at me. I’m falling for him and he’s only going to trample my heart. But Tyson Slate always gets exactly what he wants. And he wants me. Hard. Deep. Stripped of my defenses. And he won’t stop until he gets it…
The Deal: Inside the World of a Super-Agent
Jon Smith - 2016
. . an in-depth excavation of the murky and mysterious world of football business. Smith's candid and often shocking book reveals the true workings of football business that take into account things few of us even could even imagine . . . The Deal answers some of those questions and leaves you wanting more. It is an educational tool that most fans could do with researching' Joe Short, ExpressFootball analysis has grown at the same exponential rate as the sport's popularity and yet one of its most intrinsic elements remains tantalisingly opaque: the role of 'agent'. The Deal is a unique and fascinating perspective into the business of sports management through the eyes of 'Mr Football', 'super-agent', Jon Smith. 800,000 watch their professional football team play each week and TV pulls in audiences of around 600 million. Despite these phenomenal figures, the complex money-making scene behind sport is one of its biggest mysteries. The Deal will be an unprecedented insight into this world, showing what goes on as players and big money change hands. The Deal is also the story of one of the shrewdest and most successful businessmen of our time. Documented through Jon's personal rollercoaster of high-flying success to near bankruptcy, the book's over-arching narrative will offer an inspiring personal journey as well as insider knowledge of brokering deals at a high level and under extreme pressure. The Deal will appeal strongly to buyers of business books as well as a significant number of sports fans interested to know what goes on in the back room of their favourite sport.
Game
Phil Truman - 2007
In the small backwater town of Tsalagee, first-year coach Donny Doyle knows the only way he can fulfill his promise to unseat the Hert City juggernaut, is to beat them at their own GAME. But in his own recruit, the mammoth and powerful, yet troubled and ominous Leotis McKinley, Doyle finds more than he bargained for. Truman’s character-rich novel GAME spins an energetic tale around the intensity of small-town high school football in America. And yet, amid the fast-paced drive of the story, lies an account of the human spirit struggling through adversity and finding victory. Readers of any age or gender will feel the triumph, honor, and glory that comes from the…GAME.“I couldn't put it down. [GAME] is really well written and the action kept me going until the end.” - Fred W. Hoster, Executive Director, Dallas Fellowship of Christian Athletes“A masterly written tale of rural football. Each character is richly portrayed...you feel like you are on the sidelines with these kids. GAME goes way beyond the game of high school football.” - Brock Sawyer, Editor, Vype Magazine“I thoroughly enjoyed [GAME]. I will tell other coaches about this book.” - Gary Sanchez, President, New Mexico High School Coaches Association
Pointless
Jeff Connor - 2005
The Shire are lucky if all eleven players make it to a game, they have an average home attendance at their dilapidated Firs Park ground of 200 and they ended the 2004/05 season bottom of the Scottish Third Division - for the third consecutive year. Granted access to all areas, Jeff Connor gets into the dressing room, the board room and the dug-out. But, above all, he gets into the spirit of the club. He began the season a scoffing cynic and finished it lost in admiration for one of the dottiest sporting institutions in Britain as the Shire attempted to reach the promised land - SECOND bottom of the Scottish Third Division. At times funny, sad, heart-warming and embarrassing, as events on and off the pitch unfold, Pointless is an unmissable insight into a unique football team
Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming: Texas Vs. Arkansas in Dixie's Last Stand
Terry Frei - 2002
In the centennial season of college football, both teams were undefeated; both featured devastating and innovative offenses; both boasted cerebral, stingy defenses; and both were coached by superior tacticians and stirring motivators, Texas's Darrell Royal and Arkansas's Frank Broyles. On that day in Fayetteville, the poll-leading Horns and second-ranked Hogs battled for the Southwest Conference title -- and President Nixon was coming to present his own national championship plaque to the winners. Even if it had been just a game, it would still have been memorable today. The bitter rivals played a game for the ages before a frenzied, hog-callin' crowd that included not only an enthralled President Nixon -- a noted football fan -- but also Texas congressman George Bush. And the game turned, improbably, on an outrageously daring fourth-down pass.But it "wasn't" just a game, because nothing was so simple in December 1969. In "Horns, Hogs, & Nixon Coming," Terry Frei deftly weaves the social, political, and athletic trends together for an unforgettable look at one of the landmark college sporting events of all time.The week leading up to the showdown saw black student groups at Arkansas, still marginalized and targets of virulent abuse, protesting and seeking to end the use of the song "Dixie" to celebrate Razorback touchdowns; students were determined to rush the field during the game if the band struck up the tune. As the United States remained mired in the Vietnam War, sign-wielding demonstrators (including war veterans) took up their positions outsidethe stadium -- in full view of the president. That same week, Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton penned a letter to the head of the ROTC program at the University of Arkansas, thanking the colonel for shielding him from induction into the military earlier in the year.Finally, this game was the last major sporting event that featured two exclusively white teams. Slowly, inevitably, integration would come to the end zones and hash marks of the South, and though no one knew it at the time, the Texas vs. Arkansas clash truly was Dixie's Last Stand.Drawing from comprehensive research and interviews with coaches, players, protesters, professors, and politicians, Frei stitches together an intimate, electric narrative about two great teams -- including one player who, it would become clear only later, was displaying monumental courage just to make it onto the field -- facing off in the waning days of the era they defined. Gripping, nimble, and clear-eyed, "Horns, Hogs, & Nixon Coming" is the final word on the last of how it was.