The Debate is Over: Tom Brady is the Greatest Quarterback in NFL History

Sean Glennon has written a well-organized, cogent argument why Tom Brady is the best quarterback in NFL History. He does this by comparing the statistics, both regular season and post-season, as well as the long term success of other candidates’ respective teams versus Tom Brady. He also uses more subjective measures such as talent around the quarterback and championship wins. He uses all of this data and more to show that Tom Brady stacks up as the best ever.

The chapters a broken down comparing Tom Brady to other great quarterbacks, interspersed with breakdowns of each of Brady’s seasons and his team’s accomplishments.

What this book doesn’t do is trash the achievements of other quarterbacks. All the quarterbacks presented in this book are rightfully considered the greatest that ever played the game. You don’t hear the author trashing the achievements of Peyton Manning, for example. In fact, the author lauds the achievements of the other great quarterbacks to which he compares Brady.

Glennon does such a great job of making his arguments I won’t rehash them here, but I will make a few points on a couple of items in the book.

Peyton Manning

Tom Brady vs. Payton Manning is the first chapter of the book that directly compares Brady to another great quarterback and Tom Brady vs. Joe Montana is the last one. That was brilliant placement of those two chapters as Manning would be the current day quarterback to most likely get some strong arguments in his favor, and Joe Montana, of course, many incorrectly consider the best ever.

The Peyton Manning chapter is very similar to some of the arguments I have made to why Tom Brady really is a better quarterback than Manning and I’ll just throw in a few comments here to say that I agree. First, championships do and should matter in this evaluation. It’s not the only thing, but it is one thing that should be looked at. At least the player’s and his team’s accomplishments in post-season play should be strongly considered. And despite all the great talent the Colts have had, for whatever reason, they really slump in the playoffs and Manning doesn’t always perform that well when he gets there.

Second, Manning's entire career has been spent with superior offensive talent. Manning has had the luxury of a strong running game (Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James) most of his career, and a Hall of Fame bound receiver in Marvin Harrison and an elite receiver in Reggie Wayne.

Brady, on the other hand, has taken average receivers and offensive talent and led them to three Super Bowls. But for a dropped pass that would have undoubtedly been a game winning touchdown by the woebegone Reche Caldwell, Brady would have lead a group of below average receivers to a Super Bowl.

And what happens when Brady gets an elite receiving corps? 19-0, 50 touchdown passes and a bevy of other offensive records. Granted the Patriots lost in the Super Bowl that year, but the achievement is one that is still phenomenal. This was followed by another Super Bowl appearance after the 2011 season.

Glennon does a nice job of making these points, and more.

Joe Montana

I think the chapter on Joe Montana is the one that really brings to light how Brady is better than Joe Montana. Yes, the one thing Montana has over Brady is four Super Bowl wins, and 4-0 at that, while Brady is 3-2. But I have never heard anyone argue that Terry Bradshaw is the equal of Joe Montana and he is 4-0 in Super Bowls too.

But when one looks over the long-term success of Montana’s teams and many of the statistics, Montana clearly doesn’t stack up to Brady. And Montana had what some consider the best receiver ever to play the game in Jerry Rice most of his career, a strong running game, and a stout defense that usually ranked at the top of the league. Being one of the most talent laden teams of that era the 49’ers probably should have made it to more than four Super Bowls, but they didn’t.

Now in the current salary cap era, no offense to a lot of Brady’s former teammates, the Patriots have never assembled great offensive talent around Brady for much of his tenure at quarterback. When they have the results speak for themselves (now they just need to fix the defense).

Ben Roethlisberger

Big Ben is not given his own chapter but he is mentioned with other current elite quarterbacks. I hear a lot of people try to make the claim that Roethlisberger is a Hall of Fame quarterback. He probably is based just on his team having won two Super Bowls but they have also failed to make the playoffs frequently as well. And Roethlisberger played poorly in two of the three Super Bowl appearances (a win against the Seahawks and a loss against Green Bay).

The Steelers won Super Bowl XL despite Roethlisberger’s poor play. He has the distinction of being the quarterback on a winning Super Bowl team with the worst passer rating, an abysmal 22.6. He threw two interceptions, one on a terrible pass that set up the Seahawks for an easy touchdown. I suspect the poor play of Big Ben is the reason the Steelers finally went to a trick play and had former college quarterback Antwaan Randle-El throw a touchdown pass to Hines Ward.

I’m not pointing this out to denigrate the accomplishments of Big Ben, but he is no Tom Brady.

Conclusion

Now I will quote from the last words of the book. This is not a spoiler because you already know the book’s conclusion:

“And the reality is the greatest quarterback in NFL history is not Peyton Manning, not Bart Starr, not John Elway nor Dan Marino. It’s not Sammy Baugh or Otto Graham. And no, it’s not even Joe Montana.”

When you sit down and honestly and fairly review and compare the careers of the best who ever played, you can only reach one conclusion: The greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL is Tom Brady. Pure and simple.”

Bittersweet: The Life of Walter Payton

Jeff Pearlman has written a real biography of Walter Payton.  This is not some glam filled, highlight reel of the best of Walter Payton.  It’s a real biography that tells about the real bitter sweet life of Walter Payton.

Payton grew up poor in a racially segregated Colombia, Mississippi.  While Payton never experienced firsthand violence growing up, it was a segregated community with all the racial prejudice against blacks that implies.  African Americans were treated as inferior and lived in a specific section of town.  His father was a hard worker and decent man but an alcoholic who didn’t seem to have a great deal of influence in Payton’s life.  But his mother was a hard worker who was the family disciplinarian and real glue that held them together.  This segregated community and overt racism of his childhood is probably what gave Payton a chip on his shoulder for the rest of his life, out to prove that he was inferior to nobody.

As schools were integrated and Payton went on to play high school football, he of course became the darling of the town, as great athletes often are, and was one of the most sought after football prospects.  He ended up, through some shenanigans by the coach, heading to Jackson State in Mississippi near his hometown for his college football career.

There he had a career that landed him as the fourth overall pick in the 1975 National Football League draft by the Chicago Bears, where he had a Hall of Fame career, setting the then NFL record for rushing yards (16,726 yards).  He won a Super Bowl ring when the Chicago Bears won Super XX over the New England Patriots.

This isn’t a biography, however, only about Payton’s nearly unmatched professional football career.  It’s about the man who lived it.  And there we find the darker side of Walter Payton.

Walter lived a happy but sheltered childhood and his sheltered life at Jackson State probably did not prepare him to live in the real world, especially the one outside of football.  There he met his future wife Connie who eventually moved to Chicago with him.

What was Payton’s real personality like?  Fun loving; happy go lucky, and a prankster.  Kind hearted to strangers, children, and those who were in need.  He was quite a compassionate human being.  But he was also childish, jealous, petulant, and someone who always wanted to have things his way. 

What do we find out about Walter Payton in this biography?

First, while he was great teammate and superb player he was also a bit petulant when things didn’t go his way.  He wanted the ball and to be the superstar, but also had a quiet way of going about it.  In one of the more telling moments, he hid in a broom closet after the Bears won Super Bowl XX because he didn’t score a touchdown.  What should have been one of the happiest moments in his life turned out to be one of the most bittersweet as he cried in anger and refused to come out to talk to the press after the Super Bowl win, without some cajoling.  Coach Mike Ditka says it is one of his biggest regrets that he didn’t make sure Walter got the ball for a score in the blowout win.

Second, during his playing career Payton abused the painkiller Darvon, often popping them like candy.  He continued to abuse painkillers after his playing career, possibly as self-medication for depression.  Darvon is very hard on the liver and while Pearlman does not draw a direct line to his drug abuse and the live disease that ultimately killed him, he certainly implies it.

Third, Walter Payton struggled badly with loneliness and being out of the spotlight once his playing days were over.  He reportedly contemplated suicide, maybe on more than one occasion, and suffered from depression.

Fourth, Payton was a philanderer and liked women.  He clearly had fell out of love with his wife Connie and didn’t really live with her for most of his post-football life.  In fact, he fathered a child with another woman and had another long-term relationship with a flight attendant. 

This lead to another bittersweet moment in Walter Payton’s life.  Against his wishes his girlfriend showed up at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, unbeknownst to his estranged wife Connie.  In public, Payton, and probably more so Connie, put on the façade of the happy couple.  Payton was angry that his girlfriend showed up and she was literally just a few rows back from his wife and children during his induction speech.

So once again, what should have been one of the happiest moments in Walter Payton’s life instead turned into a nerve wracking, bittersweet experience.

A fifth aspect of Walter Payton that is apparent, even if Pearlman doesn’t say this directly, is he was probably a manic depressive.  If the behaviors exhibited in the biography are accurate, one moment he is manic and happy go lucky, being out public, and trying to make a living on his up and down again business interests.  And at other times he is darkly depressed, not wanting to be out in public, and even contemplating suicide.

Pearlman also points out all of Walter Payton’s good traits.  Even though he trusted very few people, he cared about people and went out of his way to make people around him feel good and he was very charitable to those in need.  He was also a great teammate who led by example on the field and was real locker room leader, even when the Bears had dreadfully inadequate talent around him.  The persona that surrounded Payton as a caring, hardworking, class act was a real part of Walter Payton too.

Jeff Pearlman has been unfairly castigated by many of Walter Payton friends, family, and fans for this biography because he dares tell the real story of Walter Payton.  Mike Ditka said he wanted to spit on him and has no respect for him.  Others claim the biography is not truthful and essentially fiction.  And Connie Payton and his children also claim the biography is mostly untrue.

I think the veracity of this book is hard to question for one very simple reason.  Nearly all of Pearlman’s sources are identified by name.  Only two sources are not – his longtime girlfriend who showed up at his Hall of Fame induction and the woman with whom he has a child (which he never acknowledged).  Otherwise, former agents, players, long-time personal assistant, family members, coaches, and other acquaintances who Pearlman interviewed are all there, speaking through the author.  I have yet to see any of these people come out and refute what they said to Pearlman.  I know that the truth might be painful for many, but Pearlman has done a service to the memory of Walter Payton.

Tom Brady on the Couch

Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything by Charles P. Pierce
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0374214449

This is undoubtedly one of the oddest biographies I have ever read. And one of the most intriguing.

Author Charles Pierce tries to uncover what makes Tom Brady tic. What makes him such a consummate team player and leader on the field? What made a player drafted in the sixth round, whom nobody but maybe Bill Belichick and Scott Piloli, thought would ever amount to much in the pros, become a Hall of Fame bound quarterback, one of the best to have ever played?

There are a lot of things.

First, Brady was never the most gifted athlete and he had to work for everything through high school and college. In fact, he was barely recruited and his father put together a video package and he ultimately ended up at the University of Michigan. He persevered despite not even being a full time starter, even as a senior, despite that he was a winner.

Second, in the pros his work ethic is infectious to his teammates. He is the first to arrive and the last to leave. His hard work put him in a position to take over for Drew Bledsoe when he was hurt during the 2001 regular season and progress. He became the team leader that despite his talents Beldsoe never really was.

Third, he is a team first player. He truly buys in to the Patriots' modern day credo, there is no "I" in team. He doesn't care about stats, he cares about wins. But that has propelled him to put up unbelievable stats.

Elsa/Getty Images

And he his simply a nice person. He gives credit where credit is due. He doesn't do a lot of endorsements. And when he had the opportunity to do one for a credit card company he refused to do it unless his offensive linemen, his protectors, were involved. He wanted them to shine to.

Don't believe Tom Brady is a really good guy in a sport fraught with me first, selfish, athletes with an undertone of criminality? Read Charlie Weiss's book about his near death experience and how Brady helped him and his wife out in their time of greatest need. Read Tedy Bruschi's book that has a few anecdotes about what Brady's friendship means. Or simply read this book about to hear what his family, friends, and teammates have all said about his leadership skills. There is a reason his teammates and coaches have the utmost confidence in him.

The oddest aspect of this book is Brady himself did not participate in it and it really takes somewhat of a psychologist's approach at times in examining its subject. From the influence of his Catholic upbringing, the impact of his athletic older sisters who sometimes outshined him in his youth, to his perseverance in the face of sports adversity, you learn the inner workings of one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

This is a recommended read.

The 1970's Oakland Raiders

Love them or hate them, the 1970’s Oakland Raiders under John Madden were certainly an entertaining cast of misfits in the guise of one the best professional football teams of their era.  Here, Peter Richmond tells the story of this cast of characters, and characters they were.

The distinctive personality of this team that set it apart from all others of the 1970’s was the perception that this was a group of outlaws and rebels who thumbed their noses at convention.  Add to this the fact many were castoffs from other teams for behavioral or other issues, and you had a truly volatile band of misfits.  But somehow the affable John Madden, who was the perfect coach for this team, was able to take this group of irrepressible “adults” and mold them into a feared, championship football team.  Having read this account of the 1970’s Raiders, I almost liken John Madden to Santa Clause trapped on the island for misfit toys trying to using his magic to make them whole.

Many of the players on these teams are ones most football fans will remember in perpetuity.   You had Jack “The Assassin” Tatum, Gene Atkinson, Skip “Dr. Death” Thomas, and Willie Brown, aka The Soul Patrol, one of the  most feared set of defensive backs in the league who relished huge hits, clothesline tackles, and knocking their opponents out of games.  They also had characters like quarterback Ken Stabler, the bad southern Alabama boy, carouser and partier extraordinaire, linebackers Phil Villapiano and Ted Hendricks, and the truly crazy John Matuszak, along with the rest of the team full of similar head cases, creating a volatile mix of testosterone, craziness, and child like desire to have fun, on the field and off.

This was a hard partying team and not an insignificant part of the book talks about Raiders’ training camps that were part hard partying and hard practicing and all the pranks the players pulled while preparing for the season.  It was a fun loving and wild group of men who John Madden somehow molded into winners.
Partially he did it by letting them have their fun and treating them like men, but making sure that they practiced and played hard.  While they might have been a wild, fun loving bunch, they also loved football and wanted to win.

This book is clearly told from an unabashed Oakland Raiders fan’s perspective, which really worked well in this case.  The author revels in the outlaw persona of this team, which went all the way up to the owner Al Davis, who also flouted convention and thumbed his nose at the powers that be in the National Football League.

And while they only won one Super Bowl in this era, a 32-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI after the 1976 season, they were always in the mix.  They built up a strong rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who the author draws a clear contrast with.  Had they not had one of the greatest football teams of all time as their nemesis, the Oakland Raiders may have been the team of the 1970’s.   

The author starts the book with the “Immaculate Reception,” one of the most famous plays in NFL history.  With the Steelers desperately trying to stage a comeback in the 1972 playoffs against Oakland, down 7-6 with 22 seconds left in the game and hardly a prayer, Bradshaw threw a pass that careened off a receiver and was picked up off his shoe tops by running back Franco Harris who ran it in for the go ahead score.  At that time, if an offensive player touched the ball while it was in the air, another offensive player could not catch it.  Argument ensues to this day whether they ball bounced off “Frenchy” Fuqua, the Pittsburgh running back, or Jack Tatum, who nailed him just as the ball arrived.

The author marks this as the beginning of the rise the Oakland Raiders whose “rebel image, their defiant owner, had stamped them as an enemy of civilized football.”  He contrasts the “staid, old-world NFL Rooney’s franchise” with the “rebels of Al Davis, a man who bowed to no higher power.”  He also throws words around like “benevolent” versus “demonic” and the “dark side.”  That was the Oakland Raiders image, and they came to revel in it.

While this book chronicles the Oakland Raider’s seasons of the 1970’s, it as much about the unusual character of the team as it is their exploits on the field.  The author conducted extensive interviews with players from that era and has crafted a well done and very interesting read, really a must read for Oakland Raiders fans, but one that all football fans can enjoy.  The only real drawback to the book is the author only had a very short and not very illuminating interview with Al Davis, who did seem very cooperative.  But his perspective can be rather easily gleaned from his own actions and public pronouncements, so this has little impact on the completeness of this work.

Michael Oher in His Own Words

Michael Oher has had so many other people tell his story that he must have felt he finally had to tell his own story in his own words.

Michael Oher may be the most well known offensive lineman in the history of the National Football League after the movie, The Blind Side, based on the best selling book of the same name by Michael Lewis. The Blind Side tells of an inner city Memphis kid who grew up virtually homeless but rose to become the first round pick of the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.

Anyone who read or saw The Blind Side knows the basics of Oher's story. He grew up in drug infested neighborhoods in Memphis with an indifferent mother addicted to crack cocaine, who often left her many kids to fend for themselves and was at times homeless.

Oher grew up often not knowing where his next meal was coming from or even where he would sleep. In an out of foster care, sometimes homeless, always destitute in if not the basics, direction and care, his character and work ethic, along with a lot of help from some very generous people, eventually landed him at a private school in well to do part of Memphis.

The amazing aspect of Oher's success beyond people like the Tuohy family who took him into their home and made him part of their family, is his work ethic and perseverance through severe disadvantages.

Yes, Oher got lucky that there were enough people to help him along the way achieve his dreams. But it takes more than being huge and athletic to take those opportunities and turn them into success. While there are many, many, better off, less disadvantaged athletes that never graduate from college or achieve any level true success in professional sports, Oher graduated and had had success as a pro. Regardless of talent and background, that takes a lot of hard work. And despite the unbelievable disadvantages, Oher took the opportunities in front of him and made a success of his life.

In this book Michael talks about his life growing up, his love for his siblings and his adopted family, the Tuohys, but he also has a message. And that message is to those in similar circumstances not to give up, work hard, and take the opportunities afford and make the best of them. While not all kids in Oher's situation will be quite as lucky, and probably not have quite the perseverance, Oher's success creates a model and gives hope to others.

And another amazing thing about Oher is how self aware he is. He notes that the life of a professional football player is short, so he doesn't live lavishly and plans to save and have a plan for the future. He understands that he doesn't know everything about football and the professional game and understands he has to continue to learn and improve. It's a rather refreshing perspective.

This book is readable, interesting, and while it will not really tell much that is not basically known about Oher's life and success, it is his message of hope and perseverance that makes it a worthwhile read.

Bigger than the Game: The Self-Aggrandizement of the Modern Athlete

Bigger than the Game is an outstanding treatise on the self-aggrandizement of the modern athlete. The author chose the year 1986 as somewhat of a watershed year. 1986 saw: Bo Jackson play two professional sports, a steroid laden and overrated linebacker at the University of Oklahoma, Brian Bozworth, become the face of the college football, the cocaine induced death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, and the crowning of the Chicago Bears as NFL champions behind the brash quarterback Jim McMahon, the outspoken coach Mike Ditka, and everyone's darling 330 plus pounder William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

The theme of this book is how the modern athlete in the media age has become bigger than the sports they play. It's about narcissist self promotion, the breakdown of the team concept where there is only "I" not "we." Or, as the dust jacket says, it was "the era when athletes evolved from humble and honest to brash and branded." There is certainly a little hyperbole to this description as there are scores of athletes in all eras that fit this mold, but there was not a 24 hour news cycle and the Internet for any but the greatest superstars to rise to such fame (or infamy).

After reading this book we should have predicted the steroid scandals that have wracked baseball, track and field, and cycling, the despicable display of self adulation in the Lebron James reality TV hype surrounding his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, the sniping between superstars Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, the Allen Iverson type athletes with great talent that can't seem to find a way to play for anything other than themselves thus never fulfilling championship potential, the criminality of college athletes with the University o f Miami football team being exhibit A and B, and even the tiresome will he, won't he perennial retirement saga of Brett Favre. Maybe it didn't all start in 1986, but the stories the author tells are a prelude of what came after.

The book centers mainly on four athletes with ESPN and the advent of 24 hour sports coverage in the foreground of the revolution. First, Jim McMahon, the "punky QB" in the clunky title, is a fascinating case of self promotion and thumbing his nose at authority, especially because he readily admits he did and does care. He went to Brigham Young University for one thing and one thing only, to start at quarterback for the football team. He didn't go to get an education or graduate, and he certainly didn't go for any religious purposes. In fact, he almost openly flaunted the rules, drinking and carousing his way through a solid college career. And then with the Bears he was the unorthodox quarterback who defied and fought with his coach, thumbed his nose at NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, but was winner. And that's all that mattered.

Brian Bozworth, the self-admitted steroid laden Oklahoma Sooners linebacker spent much of his college career trying to gain attention. His Mohawk and constantly taking his helmet off to play to the cameras and his brash mouth made him one of the faces of college football. Of course, he was a high draft pick in the NFL and was a complete bust. Bozworth built an image that had little substance, other than steroids, behind it. I will never forget the game where Bo Jackson ran over "The Boz" on national television.

And perhaps the saddest story is the untimely cocaine induced death of Len Bias. Weinreb completely dispatches all the myths surround Bias's death. It was clear from who he hung out with and those who knew and talked about him that he was not a first time cocaine user, but appears to have at least been an occasional, recreational user of the drug. After being drafted by the Boston Celtics he went on a little cocaine binge that killed him. Len Bias may have been a great player, but a certain myth built up around his innocence, suggesting even naivety, that doesn't stand up to reality.

Bo Jackson is mostly a foil to all this. Jackson was a quiet, mostly unassuming personality who chose baseball over football but ultimately decided he wanted to play both, and did. His rise to fame from a poor, rural childhood was marked by a shyness and lack of desire for the spotlight. But he parlayed his fame into endorsement opportunities long after his untimely retirement from sports because of an unfortunate, freaky hip injury. The ability to be a relevant marketing personality long after his career was over could have only happened in burgeoning electronic era.

Despite the unfortunate choice of title, this book is very readable and bring backs memories for those whose formative years were the mid-1980s. While ultimately the theme of the book is darker one, for better or worse we live in the era that might not have started exactly in 1986, but certainly that year is as good as any to point to the beginning of the aggrandizement of the modern athlete.

Well Done Short History of the New England Patriots

There are so many "The Best Stories Ever Told" books about the New England Patriots and other NFL teams it all starts to get jumbled together and there is very little to distinguish between them.

While there is nothing really new in this volume, it is well written and organized and has a bit more than similar books on the New England Patriots of the new century.

There are a lot good, short player profiles of the prominent Patriots' players throughout its history and of course good stories on the biggest games, including all the Super Bowl's.

The chapter on the 1985 Patriots discussing the relationship between Steve Grogan and Tony Eason is a very good synopsis and a reminder that Eason was a pretty good quarterback.

Chapters 9-11 talk about the reemergence of the Patriots as a competitive to eventually championship team starting with Bill Parcels becoming the head coach to Bill Belichick, to Tom Brady, to new owner Robert Kraft. These are also nicely done.

A good bonus feature is an audio CD that has interviews with Steve Grogan, Jon Morris, and Larry Eisenhauer that I really enjoyed.

Overall, if you want to get a "greatest stories" book and want to relieve the good times and the bad, this book is one of the better ones.

Comprehensive Chronice of the 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns

This is an extremely comprehensive history of the Cleveland Browns from 1946-1955. It is also a very well done argument that the Cleveland Browns team of that era is the greatest dynasty of all time.

Despite playing in the All American Football Conference from 1946-1949, a competitor to the National Football League at the time, Piascik makes a great case for the greatness of the Cleveland Browns. They won seven championships in ten years, an unbelievable feat. But four of those championships came as members of the AAFC, which many consider to be an inferior league. The AAFC folded in 1950 but took in some of the old AAFC teams, with the Cleveland Browns being one of them.

The greatness of the Browns' however is evident in that they won the 1950 NFL Championship in their first season in the NFL. They also won it again in 1954 and 1955. It is pretty clear that despite playing in the AAFC they were a great team, and maybe the best of that time period.

Beyond the argument that the Browns are the greatest dynasty of all time this book chronicles the rise of Paul Brown as the taskmaster head coach who sought perfection and greatness from his players. And possibly the greatest quarterback of all time, Otto Graham, was at the helm in these winning years. This book does a fine job of chronicling the team and its players of this era, and also serves as partial history of the AAFC. This by itself makes the book a worthy read for those who like football history.

Informative History of the NFL/AFL Merger

Despite the stodgy prose this is a comprehensive history of the merger between the American Football League and the National Football League in 1966.

The most informative aspect of this book is story behind the formation and advancement of the upstart American Football League when several wealthy (and some not so wealthy) businessmen wanted into the professional football fold. Thwarted by the NFL and desiring a team, it was Lamar Hunt, owner of the Dallas Texans (later the Kansas City Chiefs) that really brought the AFL to fruition and helped create a league that was competitive with the long established NFL.

The story behind the merger is equally as fascinating, especially the clear lack of trust AFL Commissioner Al Davis had among owners, as they essentially worked for a merger behind his back while he was taking a all out go to war approach in trying to sign the biggest stars from the other league. I also learned a great deal about how the television contacts the AFL was able to garner greatly helped the league, and the integral role Ralph Wilson played in the not only this, but the eventually merger itself. It's surprising that it took so long for Ralph Wilson (owner of the Buffalo Bills) to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

For those interested in NFL history and how the AFL was founded, grew, and eventually managed to merge with the NFL, this book is worth reading. But I will warn that the writing and organization of the book lack a lot to be desired.

The Real 1925 NFL Champions: The Pottsville Maroons

If you love good writing, football history and the meaning of football to society, look no further than this account of the 1925 Pottsville Maroons. This is sports history and sports writing at its very best.

The Pottsville Maroons were a team located in a small, hard scrabble coal mining town in Eastern Pennsylvania, the kind of small town that would never be able to successfully host a professional team in 2010. But 1925 was a different era when professional football was a more quixotic endeavor and college football reigned supreme.
The team featured some great players that came from the coal mines, like the tough running back Tony Latone, who the author convincingly argues should be in the NFL Hall of Fame. The author tells the stories of many of the key players on this team, including the player/coach Dick Rauch and the colorful owner Dr. John G. Striegel. It was a very fascinating era and group of men.

This book also does an outstanding job of placing the team in its era and locale. He renders up what it must have been like to live in a tough coal mining town in the 1920's, as well as what professional football was like at a time when many of the professional teams were located in smaller markets.

He also relates the importance of the team to the town. It was the one common element between the poorest of the poor, the hard working coal miners, and the wealthy owners of the mines and other establishments. This team was the one thing the entire town could rally around. It gave the very hard working denizens of Pottsville something to look forward to.

And of course the team itself is just absolutely fascinating. It was a motley group of men with some great players and a dedicated coach who had a year that should have crowned them in perpetuity as champions of the football world.

This book walks us through the entire 1925 seasons with the context of previous seasons mixed in so we understand just where the Pottsville Maroons stood. They only lost two games that year but they avenged each close loss later in the season with convincing blow out wins over the Providence Steam Roller and the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The 1925 Pottsville Maroons went 14-2 including a 9-7 win over the Notre Dame All Stars. At that point in history, college teams were superior to professional football teams and no professional team had ever won this exhibition game. This win over the storied Notre Dame players and the Four Horsemen put the NFL on the map and legitimized professional football.

At the end of the season the Pottsville Maroons were the rightful owners of the NFL title. But then a travesty occurred. At that time in professional football they had "territories" where no other professional team could play an exhibition game in another teams "territory." Being cash strapped and wanting to prove to the world how great they were, the Pottsville Maroons played the exhibition game against the Notre Dame All Stars in Philadelphia, the territory of the Frankford Yellow Jackets (a suburb of Philadelphia). The jealous general manger of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, Shep Royle, protested and in a convoluted turn of events the Pottsville Maroons had their title striped from them by then NFL commissioner Joseph Carr.

The championship was given to the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) who are officially listed at the NFL Champion of 1225, despite that the Pottsville Maroons beat them convincingly 21-7 in the lat game of their season. The controversy of the Pottsville Maroons continues today.

A Comprehensive If Not Always Well Organized Encyclopedia of the New England Patriots

Being a rather comprehensive encyclopedia of the New England Patriots this is clearly a must have for any Patriots fan. It has a synopsis of ever single New England Patriots season in it's history, a list of every single player who ever played a game for the Patriots, profiles of historical and current players, and game synopsis of all the playoff and prime time games ever played. And of course it has about every single record imaginable.

While this is a great, great resource for Patriots fans, I have many suggestions for any future editions because I found it lacking in many areas.

First, the writing is rather pedestrian and dry. This was a ton of work for just one author so I can certainly understand that. But the prose is uneven and often inconsistent, which leads me to my next point.

In the season by season synopsis the author does a poor job of really providing a theme for the season. It's just dry prose walking the reader through what happened that year. Worse yet the major title to each season doesn't even always tell you what the ultimate result was. For example, under the 1978 season it does tell you the last game was a 31-14 loss to the Houston Oilers in the playoffs. And in fact it barely even mentions the game at all. Yet later, for example the 1998 recap, the header does tell you that the Patriots lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 25-10 in the Wild Card playoff. I would have found it extremely helpful for this information to be more prominent throughout.

Further, I really wish in this section the player statistics didn't talk about touchdown's thrown or interceptions made, but gave us the leading rusher, passer, receiver, kick returner, tackler, interceptions leaders, similar to what is done in the NFL Record and Fact Book. I found the information on player statistics here to be interesting but not greatly informative.

I did greatly enjoy the player profiles, which were mini-biographies of all the Patriots' great players throughout it's history, some with a list of their biggest highlights for moments as Patriots players. I did wonder why safety Ron Hall didn't merit a bio (1961-1967). He still holds the team record with the most interceptions in a season with 9 and was an important part of the defense in the Patriots' early years, including some of the more successful seasons.

There are all kinds of records in this book, even very obscure ones. And the author does a nice of job of walking the reader through the progression of records being made and broken. But I found this section somewhat disorganized and were you looking for one specific fact it would take a while to wade through all the information to get to what you are looking for.

There is a good, concise synopsis of the major records at the end of the book, but it would be nice to have one little area with all the major ones listed instead of having to wade through to find what you are looking for.
There is also a trivia section near the end which is sometimes pretty entertaining but like the rest of the book I often found the way it was organized off putting.

All this aside, this is truly a great resource for almost anything you'd want to know about the New England Patriots.

Unsatisfying Account of the Life of Professional Football Players

NFL Unplugged tries to take the reader into the nitty-gritty world of the National Football League. It primarily focuses on injuries, pain, and the locker room, male dominated hijinks of professional football players. In many instances it relies on the stories of unnamed players, usually not the superstars, and we get a glimpse of their life in the trenches.

Unfortunately, this book fails on many fronts. First, there really isn't anything new here. None of the stories told are surprising and many of them are the types of things we have heard from other sources. Second, the writing relies too heavily on Philadelphia Eagles players. While players from other teams are included, there isn't a lot of breadth in this book.

And finally, the writing is sometimes so over the top pretentious as to be laughable. The author tries to show off his erudite writing skills in a way that is frankly a little embarrassing. It made for long, unnecessary "literary" attempts to tell stories that were best left unadorned with unnecessary verbiage. It tried to describe the guts and sweat and pain of professional football with ill advised flowery language.

While overall I more or less enjoyed this book, being a football fan. But I would not recommend it, nor would I felt I had missed out anything had I quit halfway through.

A Good Treatise on Today’s National Football League

Brian Billick was the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens for nine years and his team won Super Bowl XXXV thanks mostly to its great defense.  Prior to that he was the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, at the time one of the most prolific offenses in league history.

Having stepped away from the game for a while Billick has written a nice little monograph on today’s game.  This is not a biography of Billick or the inside scoop of what it’s like to be a head coach in the National Football League, although a little bit of that is in here.  Instead is a topical “conversation” about issues facing the National Football League today.

Billick does a nice job explaining some of the modern day offensive and defensive schemes proliferating around the NFL and gives a nice synopsis of the progression of the now pass oriented game of professional football and how that has changed the modern game.  He also briefly discusses the “wildcat” offense where the running back takes the snap directly and can either pass or throw the ball.  Billick does not think the “wildcat” offense will be around too long as defenses are likely to catch up with it.

The most concerning part of the book is where Billick discusses the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the player’s union.  If an agreement is not reached there could be a lock out and no football in the near future.  Hopefully it will not come to that as professional football has been able to avoid the damaging play stoppage that has plagued other leagues, most notably the National Hockey League, which has yet to recover from its lost season.

There are many other tidbits of football knowledge in this book and it is well worth a read by fans of the National Football League.

My Story Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan with Mark Dagostino

When I was growing up Hulk Hogan was THE star in professional wrestling. Being younger I was hooked on the soap opera like storylines and larger than life characters in professional wrestling, and Hulk Hogan was the man!

In this autobiography Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan lays it all on the line in an honest, sometimes searing account of his life, including the more recent tragedies that have befallen him and his family.

The Hulkster talks about his life growing up in a lower middle class neighborhood in Tampa with his prospects in life mostly being laboring on the docks or a similar profession. He became enamored of the local pro wrestling scene and did everything he could, well almost, to become part of the action. He started in the lowly local circuits and through his personality and character driven storylines, he made the climb to the top of the wrestling world.

His retelling of the early days of his pro wrestling career, literally sleeping in his car, and later traveling non-stop from one locale to another, were quite an interesting insight into the early days of pro wrestling at the lower end of the totem pole. And he not only admits to steroid use but talks about how steroids were part of the entire package of being a pro wrestler. As Hogan aged and injuries from the constant pounding in the ring took their toll he began the slow descent into an occasional wrestler and main attraction.

More recent events in Hogan's tabloid life are what most people today will be familiar with. In his hit reality TV show Hogan Knows Best, we don't see the utter turmoil his marriage and life had become. He tells his side of the story in the ugly divorce from his wife Linda and his struggles to keep up the lavish lifestyle that his riches had bestowed upon him. And more tragic yet, his son Nick was driving when he had a car accident that put a family friend into a coma with head injuries that he will make him an invalid for life. Nick was allegedly both intoxicated and racing another car at the time. Eventually he was convicted of a felony in the matter and was jailed for about six months. Somehow the tabloid media got a hold of a recording of a phone conversation Hogan had with his son while in jail that sounds like he is being callous and uncaring about the injuries to the passenger. Hogan gives a believable explanation of the conversion as being taken completely out of context.

The final chapters talk about how Hogan sank into a deep, deep depression with all the turmoil in his life - a son in jail, an ugly divorce, a falling out with this daughter over the divorce, financial problems from his lavish lifestyle, and a lawsuit for an enormous sum of money filed by the family of the injured passenger, all took their toll. He finally turned around his life and is telling his side of the story in this hard to put down autobiography.

Hogan's ghostwriter, Mark Dagostino does an outstanding job of organizing the material into a coherent, well written account of the life and travails of Hulk Hogan. The only real drawback to the book is the first half keeps using the phrase "you know," just like I am sure Hogan does in real life. It certainly gave an authentic tone to the book, but it sure got extremely annoying after a while. Thankfully he knocked off this colloquialism about half way through the book. Otherwise the writing and organization of the book are superb.

Finally, the reader must ask, how honest or true is the book? I am sure Hogan believes it is honest and true. The tone and unveiling of the good and the bad in Hogan's life makes what Hogan says ring true. I, frankly, believe what he has to say, although I am sure there are other sides to the story as well.