George Plimpton's follow-up to Paper Lion, one of his personal favorites among his classic books -- repackaged and including a foreword from Steve Almond and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton archives. In Mad Ducks and Bears, George Plimpton's engaging companion to Paper Lion, Plimpton focuses on two of the most entertaining and roguish linemen and former teammates -- Alex Karras ("Mad Ducks") and John Gordy ("Bears"), both of whom went on to achieve brilliant post-football success. A more reflective, less madcap book than Plimpton's other work, Mad Ducks and Bears is no less truthful and searching. In this fond exploration of football's values and follies, Plimpton rejoins his two teammates to discuss their careers in this brutal but captivating game. The result is an astute exploration into the fascinating lives and motivations of the players at home, in the locker room, and on the field.

Four goal-scoring books in one! ·Mark's Dream Team ·Nice One, Sam! ·There's Only One Danny Ogle ·The Worst Team in the World Kick it, pass it, head it, cross it, live it, dream it - SCORE! If you're mad about football, you'd be mad to miss this book! Four awesome stories about all kinds of players - some great, some rubbish, some fair, some foul - all MAD ABOUT FOOTBALL! Whether you like to play football, watch football, wear your team's shirt, or just love kicking a ball around the garden, there's a story in here for you. Black and white illustrations throughout.

With 4 noisy sounds, join in with the crowd as they clap and cheer at the most exciting match of the season!

From a multiple New York Times bestselling author, the rollicking, outrageous, you-can't-make-this-up story of the USFL The United States Football League--known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL--was the last football league to not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, 1983-85. It secured multiple television deals. It drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner--a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump. The league featured as many as 18 teams, and included such superstars as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Doug Flutie and Mike Rozier. In Football for a Buck, the dogged reporter and biographer Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals, to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and also how, thirty years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler. For fans of Terry Pluto's Loose Balls or Jim Bouton's Ball Four and of course Pearlman's own stranger-than-fiction narratives, Football for a Buck is sports as high entertainment--and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.

Sport is something rather taken for granted and little studied as part of man's and society's behaviour. This collection of essays, many of which appear in print for the first time, provides an international comparative and developmental orientation to the sociology of sport, thereby clarifying the nature of modern sports and their central structural and functional characteristics. The sports treated include football, soccer, rugby, wrestling, baseball, and bull-fighting, and some historical background is given on the development of sport. In the introduction to each section, the editor explains the questions that the selections are intended to illustrate, and treats briefly such matters as theories of sport and play, the social factors in their development, sport and socialization, class and race in sport, sport as an occupation and an industry, and conflict and social control in sport. This reader will be of interest to those professionally concerned, either as teacher or student, with sociology and physical education, but it should also appeal to athletes, sports-lovers, and sports commentators who like to keep their thinking in good shape too.

Are you looking for the perfect birthday or Christmas gift for your football-mad kid or teenager? Football Forfeits is a great way for kids to stay fit, have loads of fun, and take on their mates with a whole host of different challenges! Best of all, there are over thirty forfeits to choose from for the loser of each round! Football Forfeits can be used when meeting up with mates for a regular kickaround or as an activity for a birthday party or football-themed sleepover! It can be played by just two people or by a large group and games can take place in a garden or at the park. So, if you know someone who loves football, likes a laugh, and doesn't mind taking a risk, then let's go! It's time for some Football Forfeits! Football Forfeits is recommended for ages 10+. Please note that many of the forfeits are similar to those in other books in the series.

Football Rage! follows in the footsteps of Football Mad! and Football Wild! and concludes the Football Satires Trilogy. Following the abysmal efforts of Team England at the last Football World Cup, a wave of protests has taken the football fraternity by surprise. Excess is no longer acceptable at a time of austerity and the fans are claiming their forgotten right to exercise some control over their favourite team. The demise of the old regime sends political tremors and plots abound at the very heart of Football governance as well as in the media circus. Change is in the air, sometimes welcome, often feared.

The best chants, the funniest nicknames, the greatest headlines and enough little-known facts to keep the average football supporter entertained - and entertaining - for several seasons. This is the story of the greatest game on earth, from 'abandoned matches' to 'Yeovil Town', via celebrity fans, mascots, punditry and superstitions, written from the fan's point of view and with a separate entry for every club in the English and Scottish leagues. Who cares why, if Torquay United's strikers had been more prolific in the 1950s, England may never have won the World Cup; or where football hooliganism actually began; or who the hell Captain Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam is? We do. Because as every true student of the game knows: it's important.

Our view of football will never be the same again... Written by a world-respected football historian, this football history/gift title reveals the global game's greatest myths and untruths. Football has been completely mythologized and many of the things football fans think they know about football and its history turn out not to be true. We want to believe the myths, and so they become accepted. So much football writing is not properly researched, and so the myths get repeated ... again and again and again. Written by Kevin Moore, the founding director of the National Football Museum (the world's leading football museum), this thoroughly researched and authoritative book will debunk more than 50 of the greatest myths surrounding football. Backed up by the highest level of academic research yet written in an accessible, mass-market style, the book will explore the truth behind many accepted myths. For example, did you know: · The Germans took football to Brazil, not the English · Rugby and not football could quite easily have been the world's leading sport · There are gay professional players ....and always have been! · Goalkeepers should not dive for penalties · Football hooliganism did not begin in England · Shirt colours do make a difference · Cambridge and not Sheffield is the home of the oldest football club in the world · Arsenal should not be in the Premier League... they cheated to be there · The Dynamo Kiev team were not executed after beating a German SS team in 1941 · England did not win the World Cup fairly in 1966 ... but not in the way you think!

If you're mad about football, this book will help you make the most of your favourite sport. Find out how to perfect your skills, from dribbling and passing to scoring and saving goals, play competitively for a club and expand your abilities into captaining a team.