NFL Preview: Don't pass on these reads
Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster John Madden is leading an effort to raise awareness about concussions and other player safety issues. Credit: AP, 2006
If you can't get enough of the NFL and have some spare time on your hands, there are plenty of football books hitting the shelves for the start of the season. A few from which to choose:
"Lombardi and Landry''
Former Giants beat reporter Ernie Palladino takes you into the early years of the careers of legendary coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, who started as coordinators with the Giants. Palladino offers an in-depth look at how they developed the schemes that would help turn the Giants into champions, and later the Packers and Cowboys. The departure of both coaches gave rise to two of the greatest franchises in NFL history, but also led to a steep and enduring brain drain for the Giants, who didn't come out of the tailspin until the 1980's.
"Super Bowl Monday''
Author Adam Lazarus goes back to one of the most remarkable Super Bowl upsets: the Giants' 20-19 win over the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Lazarus weaves in the historical backdrop of Operation Desert Storm with the Giants' remarkable season that was capped by Jeff Hostetler's unlikely run through the playoffs.
"America's Quarterback, Bart Starr and the Rise of the National Football League''
Author Keith Dunnavant provides plenty of tidbits about the evolution of the NFL during the 1950s and the warring years with the AFL. This biography shows how a compassionate and overly shy player from Alabama spent a lifetime generally "overlooked and underrated,'' but remains the only quarterback to win five NFL championships in an era when quarterbacks called their own plays.
"Controlled Violence: On the Field and in the Booth''
Former Giants and Redskins linebacker Sam Huff shares his NFL memories and writes about a league that was just coming into its own when he played. Huff is a great storyteller who is never without an opinion, and he has a book's worth of space to offer his take on his football career and later his broadcasting career in Washington.
"Madden''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell takes a comprehensive look at the life and times of one of the NFL's greatest coaches and one of the greatest television broadcasters. From his early days in Daly City, Calif. to his triumphant years with the Raiders, and then on to the broadcast booth and a legendary run as a video game tycoon, Burwell looks at one of pro football's most colorful and influential characters.
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