The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of soccer and contemporary Britain. Soccer in the United Kingdom has evolved from a jaded, working-class tradition to a sport at the heart of popular culture, from an economic mess to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. The changes in the game, David Goldblatt shows, uncannily mirror the evolution of British society. In the 1980s, soccer was described as a slum game played by slum people in slum stadiums. Such was the transformation over the following twenty-five years that novelists, politicians, poets, and bankers were all declaring their footballing loyalties. At one point, the Palace let it be known that the queen -- like her mother, Prince Harry, the chief rabbi, and the archbishop of Canterbury -- was an Arsenal fan. Soccer permeated the national life like little else, an atavistic survivor decked out in New Britain flash, a social democratic game in a cutthroat, profit-driven world. From the goals, to the players, to the managers, to the money, Goldblatt describes how the English Premier League (EPL) was forged in Margaret Thatcher's Britain by an alliance of the big clubs -- Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur -- the Football Association, and Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV. Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon traces the momentous economic, social, and political changes of post-Thatcherite Britain in a more illuminating manner than soccer, and The Game of Our Lives provides the definitive social history of the EPL -- the most popular soccer league in the world.

This book combines grammar with English for Specific Purposes ( ESP football ) to make the process of English language learning more fun and enjoyable for students by providing an appropriate context and specific settings with which they are familiar and to which they can relate.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the “poet laureate of Michigan football," a riveting inside chronicle of the Jim Harbaugh era, and "an unprecedented look at the inner workings" (Sporting News) of a big-time college football program John U. Bacon received rare access to Head Coach Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising? In the spirit of HBO’s Hardknocks, Overtime delivers a deeply reported human portrait that follows the Wolverine coaches, players, and staffers. Above all, thisis a human story. In Overtime we not only discover what these public figures are like behind the scenes, we learn what the experience means to them as they go through it – the trials, the triumphs, and the unexpected answers to a central question: Is it worth it? From the “poet laureate of Michigan football” (according to New York Times’s Joe Drape), and one of the keenest observers of college football, Overtime offers a window into a legendary program and the sport itself that only John U. Bacon could deliver.

Today Australian Rules football is a multi - million - dollar business' with superstar players' high - profile presidents and enough scandals to fill a soap opera. The game has changed beyond recognition - or has it? In A Game of Our Own' esteemed historian Geoffrey Blainey documents the birth of our great national game. Who were the characters and champions of the early days of Australian football? How was the VFL formed? Why was the umpire's job so difficult? Blainey takes a sceptical look at the idea that the game had its origins in Ireland or in Aboriginal pastimes. Instead he demonstrates that footy was a series of inventions. The game played in 1880 was very different to that of 1860' just as the game played today is different again. Journey back to an era when the ground was not oval' when captains acted as umpires' when players wore caps and jerseys bearing forgotten colours and kicked a round ball that soon lost its shape. A Game of Our Own is a fascinating social history and a compulsory read for all true fans of the game.

Text and photos. introduce various components of football culture in the United States, ranging from the peewees to the NFL.

The first Jewish brothers in the NFL since 1923 take readers inside their lives and into the locker rooms in a revealing book on football, food, family, and faith. Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz are the NFL’s most improbable pair of offensive linemen. They started their football careers late, not playing a down of organized football until they joined their low-key high school program. Despite all that, they wound up at top-tier college programs and became the first Jewish brothers in the league since 1923. In Eat My Schwartz, Geoff and Mitch talk about the things that have made them the extraordinary people that they are: their close-knit and supportive family, their Jewish faith and traditions, their love of the game and drive for excellence and, last but not least, the food they love to eat, whether at home or on the road. Theirs is an inspiring story not just for every football fan but for everybody wanting to figure out what it takes for dreams to come true—and how to stay well-fed throughout the process.

Talking Trash, Trading Studs, and Drafting Sleepers -- an Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Obsession U.S. businesses lose $200 million in productivity each football season because employees are managing their fantasy squads instead of working. In Why Fantasy Football Matters (And Our Lives Do Not), two grizzled veterans revel in the addiction that is fantasy football. From pre-draft hijinx to post-draft trash talk, from tumultuous trades to the perils of free agency, it celebrates the eccentric personalities, absurd rituals, and hilarious superstitions of one of the most fanatical fantasy leagues on earth. With humor, insight, and a dash of advice, Why Fantasy Football Matters celebrates the thirty-two million Americans who prefer managing their fantasy squads to relaxing with loved ones. And it gives girlfriends, coworkers, and sports purists all the proof they need to accept that this is an obsession that really matters.

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'The good news for those who loved THE ACCIDENTAL FOOTBALLER: this new book is even better. There were times as I read Pat Nevin's account of his years running - or, trying to run - Motherwell, I had to remind myself to breathe. It's a thrilling read - funny, nerve-wracking, precise and very, very human' - Roddy Doyle So, you fell into football by accident. You've played for Chelsea, Everton and your country at an international level. But what happens when you discover you're in so deep that football has taken over your whole life? In his brilliant new memoir, Pat Nevin takes us on a journey to the less glamorous side of football. From Tranmere to Kilmarnock, he plays some of the best football he's ever played. Then, in an unprecedented twist of fate, finds himself both player and Chief Executive of Scottish First Division club Motherwell. What follows is an entertaining and revealing tale of the side of football that you rarely see as Pat tries to keep the lid on simmering tensions between owner and the manager; travels in Lear jets one moment, but has to sell off half the team, the next. So much is madness, like being the manager's boss, and his player at the same time; or discovering that the ground's goalposts are higher on one side than on the other! And with impossible challenges at every corner, such as learning that their son is autistic, and the club hurtling towards administration, Pat strives to walk the impossible line between player, parent and boss. FOOTBALL AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT is a real one-off, uncovering the sport in all its complex, confusing and calamitous glory. Once you've read it, you may never look at the game in the same way again.