Overview

Men's Journal's ""Ultimate Football Reading List"" ""First-rate"" sports writing on American football from an all-star line-up that includes Red Smith, Jimmy Breslin, Michael Lewis, and more (Wall Street Journal) Since football's meteoric rise in the mid-twentieth century, the standout writers on the sport have gone behind and beyond the spectacle to reveal the complexity, the contradictions, and the deeper humanity at the heart of the game. In a landmark collection, The Library of America brings together the very best of their work- gems of deadline reportage, incisive longform profiles of football's storied figures, and autobiographical accounts by players and others close to the game. Celebrating the sport without shying away from its sometimes devastating personal and social costs, the forty-four pieces gathered here testify to football's boundless capacity to generate outsized characters and memorable tales.

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9781598534177

Table of Contents

Reviews

I'd take the over on this being the finest football volume of all time. . . . Nearly everything will knock you off the readerly line of scrimmage. -- Colin Fleming, San Francisco Chronicle This fall's load of football books is better than most: livelier, lighter on the lap. Most centrally there is Football: Great Writing About the National Sport, edited by John Schulian. It's a necessary anthology, filling a gap as authoritatively as Red Grange did. -- Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Ultimate Football Reading List. -- Men's Journal Editor John Schulian and the Library of America have produced an exceptional collection. It has long been the accepted wisdom that boxing and baseball are the two sports most likely to be associated with great writing. This book demonstrates that like a lot of accepted wisdom, that contention bears reconsideration. -- Bill Littlefield, NPR's Only a Game A tribute to the sublime beauty and ugliness of our national obsession. -- Christine Smallwood, Harper's Magazine Mr. Schulian has collected 44 pieces of first-rate writing, from Jimmy Breslin on Y. A. Tittle to Michael Lewis on Adam Vinatieri. Football fans and fans of great writing will love it. -- Wall Street Journal Schulian includes press box legends like Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon, and Dan Jenkins in the book, along with some less predictable choices like Fred Exley and Richard Price. All told, it's a memorable mosaic, right down to the final piece by Roy Blount Jr., who finds on a visit to the current Pittsburgh Steelers that you can't go home again. -- Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal Editor John Schulian does not turn away from the dark side of football, but neither does he forget the joy, inspiration, and even the humor to be found in the game. -- The Christian Science Monitor It's a powerful package. But what distinguishes it from the usual rah-rah collections that greet every new season in almost every sport, are its surprises. -- Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

"""I'd take the over on this being the finest football volume of all time. . . . Nearly everything will knock you off the readerly line of scrimmage."" — Colin Fleming, San Francisco Chronicle ""This fall's load of football books is better than most: livelier, lighter on the lap. Most centrally there is Football: Great Writing About the National Sport, edited by John Schulian. It's a necessary anthology, filling a gap as authoritatively as Red Grange did."" — Dwight Garner, The New York Times ""The Ultimate Football Reading List."" — Men's Journal “Editor John Schulian and the Library of America have produced an exceptional collection. It has long been the accepted wisdom that boxing and baseball are the two sports most likely to be associated with great writing. This book demonstrates that like a lot of accepted wisdom, that contention bears reconsideration.” — Bill Littlefield, NPR's Only a Game “A tribute to the sublime beauty and ugliness of our national obsession.” — Christine Smallwood, Harper's Magazine ""Mr. Schulian has collected 44 pieces of first-rate writing, from Jimmy Breslin on Y. A. Tittle to Michael Lewis on Adam Vinatieri. Football fans and fans of great writing will love it."" — Wall Street Journal ""Schulian includes press box legends like Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon, and Dan Jenkins in the book, along with some less predictable choices like Fred Exley and Richard Price. All told, it's a memorable mosaic, right down to the final piece by Roy Blount Jr., who finds on a visit to the current Pittsburgh Steelers that you can't go home again."" — Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal ""Editor John Schulian does not turn away from the dark side of football, but neither does he forget the joy, inspiration, and even the humor to be found in the game."" — The Christian Science Monitor ""It's a powerful package. But what distinguishes it from the usual rah-rah collections that greet every new season in almost every sport, are its surprises."" — Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune"

I'd take the over on this being the finest football volume of all time. . . . Nearly everything will knock you off the readerly line of scrimmage. -- Colin Fleming, San Francisco Chronicle This fall's load of football books is better than most: livelier, lighter on the lap. Most centrally there is Football: Great Writing About the National Sport, edited by John Schulian. It's a necessary anthology, filling a gap as authoritatively as Red Grange did. -- Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Ultimate Football Reading List. -- Men's Journal Editor John Schulian and the Library of America have produced an exceptional collection. It has long been the accepted wisdom that boxing and baseball are the two sports most likely to be associated with great writing. This book demonstrates that like a lot of accepted wisdom, that contention bears reconsideration. -- Bill Littlefield, NPR's Only a Game A tribute to the sublime beauty and ugliness of our national obsession. -- Christine Smallwood, Harper's Magazine Mr. Schulian has collected 44 pieces of first-rate writing, from Jimmy Breslin on Y. A. Tittle to Michael Lewis on Adam Vinatieri. Football fans and fans of great writing will love it. -- Wall Street Journal Schulian includes press box legends like Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon, and Dan Jenkins in the book, along with some less predictable choices like Fred Exley and Richard Price. All told, it's a memorable mosaic, right down to the final piece by Roy Blount Jr., who finds on a visit to the current Pittsburgh Steelers that you can't go home again. -- Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal Editor John Schulian does not turn away from the dark side of football, but neither does he forget the joy, inspiration, and even the humor to be found in the game. -- The Christian Science Monitor It's a powerful package. But what distinguishes it from the usual rah-rah collections that greet every new season in almost every sport, are its surprises. -- Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

It's a powerful package. But what distinguishes it from the usual rah-rah collections that greet every new season in almost every sport, are its surprises. --Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

Author Information

JOHN SCHULIAN was a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Daily News before moving to Hollywood, where he was, among other things, the co-creator of Xena- Warrior Princess. With George Kimball, he co-edited the Library of America anthology At the Fights. He is the author most recently of Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand- Portraits of Champions Who Walked Among Us.

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