Total Football II Offers in a Single Volume The Complete History of Professional Football. Here are the most complete statistics for each of the nearly 18,000 players who’ve played in even a single NFL game. You'll find essays on the history of the game, its championship teams, most significant games, and greatest players--along with the legend, lore and mystique of football. The official encyclopedia of the National Football League, Total Football II includes: articles on the evolution of strategy through the years histories of every team past and present biographies of the NFL's 300 greatest players football families the most complete lists ever published of team rosters, awards, and the NFL draft and more. New to this completely revised and updated edition are a host of new articles, covering an eclectic range of football-related topics, from offensive formations to football at the movies. This nearly inexhaustible wealth of gridiron material was provided by the NFL staff, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the Pro Football Researchers Association, as well as by the game's foremost writers and historians. The heart of Total Football is the Player Register with statistics provided by the Elias Sports Bureau, the NFL's official statistician since 1961, Bob Carroll and David Neft. For more than 30 years, Carroll and Neft have collected information on players, birthdates and places, high schools, and colleges attended. For Total Football they supplemented their research by contacting hundreds of former players and more than 400 colleges and universities. If it's about football, you'll find it within these pages, the book that Pro Football Weekly and other experts have called "the best football book ever"

"For the first time ever, you'll find complete statistics for every player who has played even a single game in the NFL. Essays on the history of the game, its championship teams, and most significant games are just the beginning." "Total Football also features articles on the evolution of strategy through the years, team histories, the 300 greatest players, football families, players who enjoyed great public careers after football (such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White), and the most complete lists ever published on team rosters, awards, and the draft."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Founded in 1920, the National Football League chose famed athlete Jim Thorpe as its first president, a position he held briefly until a successor was elected. From 1921 to 1939, Joe F. Carr guided the sport of professional football with intelligence, hard work, and a passion that built the foundation of what the NFL has become: the number one sports organization in the world. During his eighteen-year tenure as NFL President, Carr created the organization's first Constitution & By-Laws; implemented the standard player's contract; wrote the NFL's first-ever Record and Fact Book; helped split the NFL into two divisions and establish the NFL's World Championship Game; started keeping league statistics; and developed the NFL Draft. But Carr's greatest achievement was creating a vision for the NFL as a big-city sport. By skillfully recruiting financially capable owners to operate NFL franchises in big market cities, he created the solid foundation for the league's successful future. While the sport has grown to unheard of heights, Carr's name and accomplishments have been lost and forgotten. The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr captures the life and career of this pivotal figure in professional sports, chronicling the many achievements of a man whose vision helped shaped what the NFL is today. With unlimited access and complete cooperation from the Carr family—including family interviews, personal letters, and family photos—as well as NFL League Minutes, Willis recounts the fascinating life and career of a man dedicated to the game.

"...provides a detailed look at America's pastime through the lens of pop culture, [an] A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society."--from publisher description.

Soccer is the world’s game, more popular than any other sport. Fans fill stadia, and players strive to perform at the highest levels for them. Soccer’s Most Wanted™ II presents more of the best and brightest, funniest and freakiest, and the highs and lows of soccer. It highlights the crazy incidents and interesting bits of trivia that have helped make soccer (football to the rest of the globe) the most-watched sport on the planet. Everyone remembers the World Cup winners, but what about the best teams who fell just short? And what about the great players who never got to appear on the world stage? Then there is the burgeoning American game, thanks to the steady progress of Major League Soccer and the strides made by the country’s respective national teams. Jeff Carlisle presents all that and more in fifty top-ten lists chock full of entertaining stories. He covers strange injuries, bizarre bookings, and some of the more colorful feuds worldwide. He discusses the greatest players to travel from the MLS to overseas and lambastes the biggest flops who came to MLS assuming glory and fell flat on their faces. He covers European leagues and players too, from the EPL to Serie A and everything in between. Through it all he presents the game as only a true follower can, with an expertise gained through years of coverage. Soccer’s Most Wanted™ II brings the beautiful game to life!

The New York Giants returned to prominence with a Super Bowl victory in 2008, but the franchise has a long and proud history. This book focuses on six different eras of the team, from its 1925 inaugural season, through the "glory years" of the 1950s with stars Frank Gifford and Sam Huff, to its victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, one of the greatest upsets in football history. Players, coaches, general managers, and critical games are highlighted, along with the Mara family, which has guided the franchise since its inception. The growth of the team's popularity mirrors the rise of the NFL as America's most popular spectator sport.

In this collection of original and archival interviews, former players, owners, fans, family members and league officials provide a rare glimpse into the origins of professional football. Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films, conveys what the era of professional football was like in the age of leather helmets, no television, dirt fields, small salaries and playing for the love of the game was its own reward.