photo source
Real football is just days away, but that’s just on Sundays (and Mondays, and sometimes Thursday, but you know what I mean). What will you be doing to pass the time between games?
There will be yardwork, schoolwork, and plain old work work to be sure, but I hope that’s not all you’ll be limiting yourself to over the next few months.
There are three books out this fall that Chiefs fans may want to find time to read. I’m giving you a preview of each of these titles below. Check them out and see if you can’t work one (or more) into your autumn reading list.
It’s pretty easy to decide which of the three books to lead off with. Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Professional Sports by David Sweet is set to hit stores sometime this month. Pretty good timing considering the recent dedication of the Lamar Hunt statue at Arrowhead.
Here’s some of what the publisher’s website has to say about the book.
Author David A.F. Sweet delves deep into Hunt's impact on sports in Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Sports, revealing never-before-disclosed details of this soft-spoken man's true importance to many different popular sports. Hunt's human side is brought to light as well. As a teenager, he had said his ambition in life was simply, "To do bigger and better things than my dad." His lifelong love of sports transformed the sporting landscape into the massive industry that everyone recognizes today.
The book is being published in hardcover by Triumph Books and retails in stores for $24.95.
The second book is Sports Illustrated Blood, Sweat & Chalk: Inside Football's Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today's Game. It is written by Tim Layden who has been writing at SI for 16 years.
photo source [author's note: I have no idea if this play is in the book]
Sports Illustrated published an excerpt of the book on their website last month. Here is the intro they used.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden's book, "Blood, Sweat and Chalk; The Ultimate Football Playbook; How the Great Coaches Built Today's Game,'' examines the roots of many of football's most iconic offensive and defensive systems. What follows here is a chapter on the Ryan Family, including Buddy and his "46" defense and son Rex and his groundbreaking pressure system. Blood Sweat and Chalk is available in bookstores on Aug. 3 and can be ordered here.
This book was released last month. It is in hardcover and retails for $26.95.
The last title I want to let you know about is NFL Unplugged: The Brutal, Brilliant World of Professional Football by Anthony L. Gargano. This book is scheduled to be released near the end of the month and retails for $25.95.
I received an advance copy of the book and started reading it last weekend. While I haven’t finished it yet, I can say that it is very interesting thus far. It takes the reader into the meeting rooms, locker rooms, huddles, and dog piles of the NFL with eyewitness reporting and player interviews.
What I have really noticed so far is just how terrible the wear and tear is on the NFL player. This book is just in time to lend its voice to the debate on the merits of an 18 game season.
Patrick Allen over at Arrowhead Addict is also reading the book. He put up a post with an excerpt about Mike Vrabel that you might like.
The book is published by Wiley, and this is what their website has to say.
Behind every glittering NFL game on television is a world of happy pain for a hundred men. NFL Unplugged lets you see that world through the eyes of the pros who live and sweat in it. Here are the places the cameras don't go: the locker room where coaches' speeches can deflate or motivate, the huddle where fart jokes vie with playcalling, the training camp where locusts and heat conspire to break the strongest bodies and shake the most determined minds. Now you can experience it all up close and unplugged.
There you have it, three intriguing books that are hitting stores, just as the hitting starts on the field of play. These are by no means the only football titles that are coming out right now, but I do feel that these particular titles have something to offer the readers here at Arrowhead Pride. I know most of the members here are always looking for a new and better understanding of the game and their team. Hopefully one (or all) of these books can help with that.