The most recommended NFL books

As I researched the AAGPBL for my novel, I wanted to learn what it was like to play women’s baseball from the mouths of those who lived it.

This book was instrumental in helping me piece together, not just the stories of what happened, but the personalities of those in the league. Each interview told the story of a woman who overcame, achieved, dreamed big, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Entertaining and touching, these stories of women playing ball in a male-dominated sport will inspire just about anyone.

David Halberstam, who died in an auto accident in 2007 while doing research for a book about the 1958 NFL championship game, wrote with clarity and perpetual curiosity about all sports. This posthumous anthology highlights his diverse mix of stories. For example, horse racing in Warsaw in the 1960s, American slugger Reggie Smith’s experience as a pro baseball player in Japan in the 1980s, a character study of NBA coaching great Pat Riley in the 1990s, fishing with pals in Argentina as a septuagenarian in the 21st century. And Halberstam’s probing search for the soul of sports is underlined in the “Anatomy of a Champion,” detailed reportage on American fencers and their quest for Olympic glory. This book's mesmerizing range of sporting topics and the author's incredible eye for details captured my attention from start to finish.

A political writer, Leibovich brings tremendous levity to the ever-serious NFL. The author had good access to Tom Brady and outs Jerry Jones and Bob Kraft for the needy buffoons they are. You will learn and laugh. Jones and Kraft, two of the most powerful owners in the might National Football League, engage in wild and hilarious competition for a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

Since 2001, when Baseball America first expanded their prospect lists from 10 players per team to 30, this book has been required reading for fantasy league and Strat-o-matic draft prep.

BA writers have access to scouting directors, managers, coaches, and rival scouts, and the scouting reports are compiled from talking to numerous sources inside the game. Having written several team lists for them myself over the years, I know how much work they put into this book.

I absolutely loved this book by Asante Cleveland and my dear friend Jordan Pinckney because it is an incredible testimony of how faith in the human condition, and his ability to overcome struggle, strife, and pain can lead to light at the end of any tunnel.

This book must be read by any person who has ever experienced pain, as I can attest that it has helped me get through mine. If you think about it, we’ve all experienced pain.

Asante is a great role model for anyone who needs a jolt in life to find a better path. The two authors have written a book that changed my heart, my mind, and my life indefinitely.  

A philosophy professor during my senior year in college recommended this book to me. I was the university’s quarterback, and also an English major, and for whatever reason he thought this book would be a good fit. Boy, was he right! This is one of the few books that I have actually read in one sitting. Gent’s descriptions of players as cogs in a machine are spot on and highlight the ugly—and often overlooked—side of football.

Zirin, the first sports columnist in the 150-year history of The Nation magazine, is arguably America’s best sportswriter, not just because of his fine prose style and encyclopedic knowledge of the contemporary sporting scene, but also due to his deep understanding of the connections between sports and politics. His biography of the legendary Brown, the most dominant player to ever carry a football, is no mere act of hagiography. While acknowledging Brown’s unrivaled achievements on the field as well as his role as a leader in the Black Power movement and his trailblazing work as a Hollywood icon, Zirin also presents a frank picture of the Cleveland Browns legend’s troubling behavior toward women and his recent opportunistic support of Trump. The result is a thought-provoking, no-holds-barred template that all sports biographies should strive to follow.  

This story was a funny, sexy romance and I loved the slow-burn as Ian falls for a woman, Blake, who is off-limits for a number of reasons. I also really loved the banter between the characters. Maybe it’s because I’m a speech pathologist, but I absolutely love dialogue in the books I read. I think it quickens the pace of the book and can reveal so much about the characters.

Although the plot was fairly simple, this book was so much fun, and it ticked all the boxes for me! 

Professional football didn’t begin with the National Football League.

Starting in the 1890s, football teams were organized in various cities and towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. They were amateur teams at first, but occasionally one team or another would pay a player or two to strengthen the lineup. Eventually, more and more players were being paid until teams became entirely professional.

Keith McClellan covers that era of pro football history, paying special attention to teams like the Columbus Panhandles, the Youngstown Patricians, and the Fort Wayne Friars. He clearly dug through hundreds of old newspapers and he presents his findings in often entertaining prose.

I was working on a project about the 1980s Boston Celtics and had to read this as one of a dozen books in my research.

Again, I grew up in Boston in the 1960s and '70s and became a sportswriter and thought I knew everything about the iconic Celtics coach and GM Red Auerbach. No. Not even close. Shaughnessy uses his access to Auerbach and his family, friends, and foes for a hilarious, unflinching look at a bygone era….and a bygone bigger-than-life personality.