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Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today's game of football. Now, sports commentator and best-selling author Michael Holley follows three NFL teams - the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons - from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick's influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players.
NFL Brawler is a raucous first-person account of an NFL under siege by the game's first player turned agent, Ralph Cindrich, the original "Blind Side" agent. This entertaining pro football memoir takes listeners behind the scenes of the game's most important and outrageous drafts, deals, and trades; takes on NFL scandals by telling it like it is; and takes listeners closer to the real action of the sport - from locker rooms to boardrooms and into the worlds of agents and players - than any book to date.
A current pro player takes fans on a pseudonymous trip through one of the most infamous years of football - the very long, sometimes funny, often controversial 2013-2014 season - sharing raucous, behind-the-scenes, on-the-field, and in-the-locker-room truth about life in the National Football League.
Featuring interviews from Patriots players and coaches, Holley presents a fascinating portrait of the partnership between Tom Brady, the Patriots' star quarterback, and Bill Belichick, the team's prolific coach. Chock-full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and information exploring how they have strategized and weathered controversies, all culminating in four Super Bowl rings, this is required listening for any Patriots fan and students of the game of football.
Meet Michael Blutrich, mild-mannered New York lawyer and founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York City history, funded by the proceeds of an insurance embezzlement scheme. All Blutrich wanted was to lay low, make the club a success, and put his criminal acts behind him. But the Mafia got involved, and soon the FBI came knocking. Scores became wildly popular, in part thanks to Blutrich's ability to successfully bend the rules of adult entertainment. Unfortunately for Blutrich, it would all soon implode.
As one of the NHL's most polarizing players, Sean Avery turned the rules of professional hockey on its head. For 13 seasons Avery played for some of the toughest, most storied franchises in the league, including the Detroit Red Wings, the Los Angeles Kings, and the New York Rangers, making his mark in each city as a player that was sometimes loved, often despised, but always controversial.
Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today's game of football. Now, sports commentator and best-selling author Michael Holley follows three NFL teams - the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons - from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick's influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players.
NFL Brawler is a raucous first-person account of an NFL under siege by the game's first player turned agent, Ralph Cindrich, the original "Blind Side" agent. This entertaining pro football memoir takes listeners behind the scenes of the game's most important and outrageous drafts, deals, and trades; takes on NFL scandals by telling it like it is; and takes listeners closer to the real action of the sport - from locker rooms to boardrooms and into the worlds of agents and players - than any book to date.
A current pro player takes fans on a pseudonymous trip through one of the most infamous years of football - the very long, sometimes funny, often controversial 2013-2014 season - sharing raucous, behind-the-scenes, on-the-field, and in-the-locker-room truth about life in the National Football League.
Featuring interviews from Patriots players and coaches, Holley presents a fascinating portrait of the partnership between Tom Brady, the Patriots' star quarterback, and Bill Belichick, the team's prolific coach. Chock-full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and information exploring how they have strategized and weathered controversies, all culminating in four Super Bowl rings, this is required listening for any Patriots fan and students of the game of football.
Meet Michael Blutrich, mild-mannered New York lawyer and founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York City history, funded by the proceeds of an insurance embezzlement scheme. All Blutrich wanted was to lay low, make the club a success, and put his criminal acts behind him. But the Mafia got involved, and soon the FBI came knocking. Scores became wildly popular, in part thanks to Blutrich's ability to successfully bend the rules of adult entertainment. Unfortunately for Blutrich, it would all soon implode.
As one of the NHL's most polarizing players, Sean Avery turned the rules of professional hockey on its head. For 13 seasons Avery played for some of the toughest, most storied franchises in the league, including the Detroit Red Wings, the Los Angeles Kings, and the New York Rangers, making his mark in each city as a player that was sometimes loved, often despised, but always controversial.
Gunslinger tells Brett Favre's full, definitive story for the first time, drawing on more than 500 interviews, including many from the people closest to Favre. Jeff Pearlman charts Favre's journey, from his rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last roster spot at Southern Mississippi to a late-night car accident that nearly took his life. Favre clawed back, getting drafted into the NFL, first to Atlanta, then to Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game.
College football has never been more popular - or more chaotic. Millions fill 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday; tens of millions more watch on television every weekend. The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama had a viewership of 26.4 million people, second only to the Super Bowl. Billions of dollars from television deals now flow into the game; the average budget for a top-ten team is $80 million; top coaches make more than $3 million a year; the highest paid, more than $5 million.
Sports fans see Joe Buck everywhere: broadcasting one of the biggest games in the NFL every week, calling the World Series every year, announcing the Super Bowl every three years. They know his father, Jack Buck, is a broadcasting legend and that he was beloved in his adopted hometown of St. Louis. Yet they have no idea who Joe really is. Or how he got here. In Lucky Bastard, Joe takes the listener into the broadcast booth and into his childhood home. Hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking, this is a book that any sports fan will love.
What is an elite NFL QB, and what separates that player from the others? One answer is the coach they share. In the recent history of the biggest game on earth, one man is the common thread that connects several of the very best in the sport: Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, and the resurgent Carson Palmer. That coach is Bruce Arians.
With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country—and the world—has witnessed a stormy, outrageous, and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief.
The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the New York Times best seller Paddle Your Own Canoe returns with a second book that humorously highlights 21 figures from our nation's history, from her inception to present day - Nick's personal pantheon of "great Americans".
When Bill Belichick talks, smart people listen. This book contains Belichick's own words on topics like two point conversion strategy, preparing for Peyton Manning, and what he looks for when evaluating each player on the field. Belichick has spent a lifetime in the NFL, and as a result has a perspective on the game and its greatest competitors that few can match. Learn what he has to say about the history of the game and those who built the foundation of the modern NFL.
The army does not want you to listen to this book. It does not want to advertise its detention system that coddles enemy fighters while putting American soldiers at risk. It does not want to reveal the new lawyered-up Pentagon war ethic that prosecutes US soldiers and marines while setting free spies who kill Americans. This very system ambushed Captain Roger Hill and his men.
The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and three decades later their names echo in popular memory: "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, and John Stallworth.
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania is famous for two things: the Jones and Laughlin Steel mill, an industrial behemoth that helped win World War II; and football, with a high school team that has produced numerous NFL stars, including Mike Ditka and Darrelle Revis. But the mill, once the fourth largest producer in America, closed for good in 2000. What happens to a town when a dream dies? Does it just disappear?
He was a college All-American who became the youngest player in the NFL and later a Super Bowl veteran. He was a star tight end on the league-dominant New England Patriots, who extended his contract for a record $40 million. Aaron Hernandez's every move as a professional athlete played out in the headlines, yet he led a secret life-one that ended in a maximum security prison. What drove him to go so wrong, so fast?
The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history - pro football's raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana's gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today.
The definitive portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL, as told by the writer who was there.
We watch football every Sunday, but we don't really see it. By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff explored the game in such an intimate way that he can now put you right inside the NFL. Collision Low Crossers is a story that is part Paper Lion and part Moneyball, part Friday Night Lights and part The Office. In this absorbing, funny, and vividly written narrative, he describes the Combine, the draft, the practices, the strategy meetings, all while thinking deeply about such fundamental truths and the nature of success and disappointment in a massive and stressful collective endeavor.
Most of what happens in today's NFL takes place at team facilities, walled off from fans and, until now, from writers. The New York Jets issued Dawidoff a security code, a locker, and a desk in the scouting department: for an entire year he lived with the team, from early-morning quarterback meetings to edgy late-night conversations. Dawidoff makes an emblematic NFL season come alive for fans and nonfans alike.
Most of what happens in today's NFL takes place at team facilities, walled off from fans and, until now, from writers. The New York Jets issued Dawidoff a security code, a locker, and a desk in the scouting department: for an entire year he lived with the team, from early-morning quarterback meetings to edgy late-night conversations. Dawidoff makes an emblematic NFL season come alive for fans and nonfans alike.
Dawidoff has written the book of depth and feeling that football has long deserved, one that will forever change the way people watch and think about the sport.
"Collision low crossers" is a phrase defensive coaches use for the act of making legal contact with any potential pass receiver within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Beyond five yards, "collisioning" someone becomes a penalty. The term also evokes the most fundamental elements of the game - speed, aggression, the interplay between space and time, and meticulously planned events that likely will not come to fruition.
What made the experience of listening to Collision Low Crossers the most enjoyable?
An inside look on how the NFL works, not just the Jets/Ryan. I hate the Jets/Ryan, but loved this book. I have more respect for Ryan after listening to this book (being a Pats fan, I still must loath him.)
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
What made the experience of listening to Collision Low Crossers the most enjoyable?
I played college football and I'm an NFL fan. I thought I knew the game. I had NO IDEA what goes into getting an NFL team ready to play. I learned a LOT and it has enhanced my enjoyment of pro football
Who was your favorite character and why?
Even if you don't like the Jets, you will respect Rex Ryan - and maybe even like him.
Any additional comments?
If you really enjoy the NFL, you will enjoy it even more after learning so much of what goes on behind the scenes
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
What a great book, inside of the Jets organization, nothing seemed withheld. I would love to read/listen to, a book about my team, the Redskins. Somebody should do this for every team in the league, I wonder how many would be open to the idea? How much honesty and access might be allowed? I can't wait to listen again.
Would you consider the audio edition of Collision Low Crossers to be better than the print version?
I wasn't quite sure how to rate this item. I think it was well written and well performed, but I wish I had purchased the print version rather than the Audible version. I like football, but I don't follow the Jets and I admit I had to keep repeating sections of the book to try and keep straight the individuals mentioned in the book and their roles in the organization.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. I am a huge Jets fan, and a huge fan of Rex Ryan, and that helped. But Nick Dawidoff is a masterful, insightful, brilliant writer who could make anyone into a Rex fan with the way this book is written. His humility and all-exposed human honesty in describing the shock, joy, respect, and sometimes embarrassment, and especially the inspiration and respect, he experienced during his year with the Jets was refreshing. Kudos, Nick, for bringing the fallible, human aspects of America's game to light in a way that reminds all of us of why we work, dream, hurt, love, heal, remember -- why we pursue greatness in life. You most certainly do not need to be, or have ever been, an athlete to love this book (but it certainly helps). I recommend this to everyone.
This book exceeded my expectations. The writing is stellar and if you want to know what it is like behind the scenes in the NFL this is the book that does it.
Hmmmm good enough for me to listen again right now!
Before this book I wasn't a big Rex Ryan fan. I have to admit I like him quite a bit more now. It was nice being able to see the inner workings of an NFL team from the brotherhood to the cold, cruel business side.
It's still an amazing opportunity for guys that are beyond "great" athletes. It does touch on the side of "is it worth it" which I felt is a major part of the NFL these days.
Playing college football and going through all the competition, injuries, and mental toughness required made me realize how special these athletes truly are. I'm not say they're better than you or me overall, but what it takes to play and succeed in the NFL is mind boggling to me. In an athletic only point of view, these guys are gifted. They are very well compensated to play a game but the risks are nothing to sneeze at either.
Overall a great tale about what goes on with a typical NFL Team over a given year. Highly recommended!
excellent insight into the way the NFL really operates from the inside. The terminology is telling and raw the way you would expect it to be
Any additional comments?
This was a really good book. My wife and I both listened to it. The narrator is top notch and the story is great as well. As a lifelong football fan, I already knew the outcome of the Jets' season, but I still found myself on the edge of my seat during the dramatic moments of the games. My favorite part was when the author got to call the defense during a preseason game and they got a pick six! Though I am a die hard member of Who Dat Nation ever since birth, I do like Rex Ryan and it was cool to get a peak at how he works. (Especially since we now have his twin brother as our Defense Coordinator in New Orleans!) I recommend this to any football fan. I don't know if it would really interest a non-fan, but certainly for the casual or full enthusiast, this book is a must!
Great concept; great subject matter; average execution. Pales in comparison to Feinstein's Season on the Brink
0 of 3 people found this review helpful