Using metrics of his own design, the author ranks the best professional football players of all time by position, along with providing rankings for the greatest coaches of all time.

Gridiron football or American football or just plain football is the most popular sport in the United States in the 21st century. Although attempts have been made to develop the sport outside North America, it is still predominantly a North American sport with similar games (but significant rules differences) played in the United States and Canada. The Historical Dictionary of Football covers the history of American football through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on both amateur (collegiate) and professional players, coaches, teams and executives from all eras. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of football.

This accessible, informative, and beautifully illustrated book celebrates the 100th anniversary of the NFL and is the perfect keepsake for football fans of all ages. The National Football League is the most popular sports league in the United States. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is watched by millions of people every year. But it wasn’t always like this. In the last one hundred years, football has changed from a poorly organized, often overlooked sport to America’s favorite pastime. Here are the stories of that remarkable transformation. The stories of the greatest players, the most successful coaches, the most memorable games—and the amazing plays that made us gasp as we watched them in stadiums and on televisions all over America. Discover the league’s scrappy beginnings in an automobile showroom, and early players like Red Grange, the Galloping Ghost. Relive the very first championship game, played indoors after a circus had visited, and famous games like the Ice Bowl. See the NFL at war, and meet some of the remarkable athletes who helped desegregate the league. Learn how the draft came into existence, and about the teams that strove for that almost impossible goal—a perfect season. Veteran sportswriter Fred Bowen brings his in-depth knowledge and lively prose to these fascinating stories, and award-winning artist James E. Ransome has created stunning full-page illustrations that bring the sport of football to life like never before.

Boomer Esiason still holds the Cincinnati Bengals record for most passing yards in a game and is tied for the most 300-yard passing games. Jim Breech is the teams all-time leading scorer in points and remains a beloved figure more than twenty years after his retirement. Cris Collinsworth led the team in receptions and receiving yards several times in the 1980sand topped the team in receiving touchdowns three times. But these great players and many others arent in the Bengals Hall of Fame, and its for a simple reason: It does not exist. That needs to change, according to die-hard fan Mark Powell. By creating its own Hall of Fame or Ring of Honor, the team would be paying tribute to its great players and personalities. But it would need to determine who is eligible and who should be honored first. Get a detailed look at one of the NFLs most interesting franchises, discover its rich history, and decide for yourself who deserves to be among the Legends of the Jungle.

Fred "Duke" Slater was the greatest African American football player of the first half of the 20th century. Born into poverty, he developed into a two-time All-American tackle at the University of Iowa from 1918 to 1921. When the College Football Hall of Fame opened decades later, Duke was the only African American elected in the inaugural class. He then became the first black lineman in National Football League history in 1922, embarking on a remarkable ten-year career in the NFL. Incredibly, Slater was the only African American in the entire NFL for most of the late 1920s, yet he was widely recognized as one of the League's best linemen. But his pioneering influence extended beyond the gridiron. After retirement, he broke ground in the legal field as just the second black judge in Chicago history. On the field or on the bench, the inspirational life of Judge Duke Slater is a true American success story.

For fans of professional football who thought they had read everything about the history of the game, Mark L. Ford breaks new ground with this account of the NFL preseason. Described as “test labs” by Ford, the preseason games are a time for trying out new strategies, considering future rule changes, and implementing television coverage innovations. For thousands of players who vie for a spot in the league every summer, the preseason is also the defining moment where careers can be made or broken. A History of NFL Preseason and Exhibition Games: 1960 to 1985 is one of two books by Ford on professional football’s preseason. Along with its companion volume—which covers 1986 to 2013—this resource provides information on every NFL and AFL preseason game played since the AFL was launched in 1960. All the interesting events and people that were part of these summer battles are detailed, as well as the first outings for new teams, new rules, and new stars. In addition, Ford includes amusing anecdotes and mishaps, such as a 1972 game that was lost because the players wore the wrong shoes. Throughout the book, Ford recounts key off-season developments that would transform professional football from a modest enterprise into a global monopoly with annual revenues and assets worth billions. A History of NFL Preseason and Exhibition Games is a unique and important reference for pro football fans and cultural historians alike.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting to engage reluctant readers! Touchdown: The Power and Precision of Football's Perfect Play takes readers beyond the record books and explores all aspects of bringing the ball into the end zone. From football's very beginnings to the most current action on the field, authors Mark Stewart and Mike Kennedy cover the touchdown in fascinating detail. Find out all about the top players, witness the most memorable touchdowns in college and the pros, and check out a full listing of NFL touchdown records.

As a star linebacker for the Cleveland Browns in the 1940s and 1950s, Marion Motley invented the modern concept of the fullback. In 1946, he and three other players broke professional football's color barrier, helping set the stage for Jackie Robinson's desegregation of Major League baseball in 1947. Retiring with five championships and the universal respect of his peers, Motley returned to ordinary life as a black man in pre-Civil Rights Act America. Because his career pre-dated nationally televised football, Motley's name is largely unknown today, when a figure of his stature would enjoy celebrity as a coach or owner. This first ever biography tells the story of the football player Sports Illustrated's Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman described as the greatest ever to take the field.

From an award-winning writer, the first linked history of African Americans and Latinos in Major League Baseball After peaking at 27 percent of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americans now make up less than one-tenth--a decline unimaginable in other men's pro sports. The number of Latin Americans, by contrast, has exploded to over one-quarter of all major leaguers and roughly half of those playing in the minors. Award-winning historian Rob Ruck not only explains the catalyst for this sea change; he also breaks down the consequences that cut across society. Integration cost black and Caribbean societies control over their own sporting lives, changing the meaning of the sport, but not always for the better. While it channeled black and Latino athletes into major league baseball, integration did little for the communities they left behind. By looking at this history from the vantage point of black America and the Caribbean, a more complex story comes into focus, one largely missing from traditional narratives of baseball's history. Raceball unveils a fresh and stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business, never weaker as a game.

Filled with compelling biographical narrative, innovative analysis, historical allusion, hockey folklore, humour, heartbreak, and tragedy, Bench Bossesbrings about a new type of hockey history book. By introducing a creative new method for evaluating coaching success, professional historian and hockey columnist Matthew DiBiase settles many a debate. His hard-hitting prose and cogent analysis covers key aspects of coaching and definitively identifies the greatest offensive and defensive coaches, expounds on the best penalty-killing or power-play coaches and delves into statistics to determine the nastiest squads on the ice. His unique assessment method determines his selection of the top fifty head coaches of all time. DiBiase's in-depth hockey research delivers a powerful, gripping and informative look at the game's best of the best. This seminal book tells the story behind the story of coaching success. It removes subjectivity and bias and provides a comprehensive overview of each coach's major career achievements and the contributions each has made to the game. With first-person research and interviews of many of the game's best-known coaches and their players, readers will get the most accurate and complete perspective of the sport and its coaching elite.