No sport rivals football for building character. In the scorching heat of two-a-days and the fierce combat of the gridiron, true leaders are born. Just ask Bill Curry, whose credentials for exploring the relationship between football and leadership include two Super Bowl rings and the distinction of having snapped footballs to Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas. In Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle, Curry shares the wit, wisdom, and tough love of teammates and coaches who turned him from a next-to-last NFL draft pick into a two-time Pro Bowler. Learning from such giants as Vince Lombardi and Don Shula, Ray Nitschke and Bubba Smith, Bobby Dodd and even the indomitable George Plimpton, Curry led a football life of nonstop exploration packed with adventure and surprise. Blessed with irresistible characters, rich personal history, and a strong, simple, down-to-earth voice, Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle proves that football is much more than a game. It’s a metaphor for life. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The 1960s were a tumultuous period in U.S. history and the sporting world was not immune to the decade's upturn of tradition. As war in Southeast Asia, civil unrest at home and political assassinations rocked the nation, professional football struggled to attract fans. While some players fought for civil rights and others fought overseas, the ideological divides behind the protests and riots in the streets spilled into the locker rooms, and athletes increasingly brought their political beliefs into the sports world. This history describes how a decade of social upheaval affected life on the gridiron, and the personalities and events that shaped the game. The debut of the Super Bowl, soon to become a fixture of American culture, marked a professional sport on the rise. Increasingly lucrative television contracts and innovations in the filming and broadcasting of games expanded pro football's audiences. An authoritarian old guard, best represented by the revered Vince Lombardi, began to give way as star players like Joe Namath commanded new levels of pay and power. And at last, all teams fielded African American players, belatedly beginning the correction of the sport's greatest wrong.

The bestselling author of My Orange Duffel Bag helps readers “overcome obstacles, set a big vision, and define a life of purpose greater than self” (Michael K. Simpson, author of Unlocking Potential). Sam Bracken’s backstory would make Dr. Phil turn tail and run. During his childhood, he suffered years of abuse and was even set on fire by a relative. What didn’t kill Bracken made him stronger. And he is now on a mission to bring self-empowerment to others—to realize a life of grit and grace. This book is about achieving a purpose-driven life. You’ll have to push past failure again and again. And it is also about beating the odds no matter how high they are stacked against you. To be a true leader, you have to start with yourself. In Sam Bracken’s GUTS, you will learn about: Mental strengthResisting feelings of low self esteemSelf-empowermentBuilding self confidenceLiving a life of passionAnd, most importantly, what it takes to have grit and grace “Sam Bracken had no advantages, but went from being a hopeless street kid to a champion college football player. In this insightful book, he illustrates how success in life is less about talent, wealth, or good luck, and more about GUTs. And having GUTs is a choice anyone can make!” —Sean Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

A timely discussion on the impact and importance of integrity. Author Ronald J. Greer: “People today want to live with more depth and authenticity—to be true to who God created them to be. There is a desire to get it right, to live lives of integrity. There is a sense that living with integrity would be to experience greater meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. “But what does integrity mean? What does it involve? And how do we go about doing it? This book is designed to address the issue of integrity in a thoughtful, practical way. It is written from my vantage as a Christian, a minister, and a pastoral counselor. It is for those who want to understand what integrity means, how it can benefit them, and how to apply it to their lives.”

A timely discussion on the impact and importance of integrity. Author Ronald J. Greer: “People today want to live with more depth and authenticity—to be true to who God created them to be. There is a desire to get it right, to live lives of integrity. There is a sense that living with integrity would be to experience greater meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. “But what does integrity mean? What does it involve? And how do we go about doing it? This book is designed to address the issue of integrity in a thoughtful, practical way. It is written from my vantage as a Christian, a minister, and a pastoral counselor. It is for those who want to understand what integrity means, how it can benefit them, and how to apply it to their lives.”

We don’t stop being parents when our kids are grown...but some things do change. Life is filled with change. As our sons and daughters move into young adulthood, our role of what it means to be loving parents changes dramatically. This book aims to help readers miss as many potholes as possible in making the transition from parenting children to being parents of young adults. Here are ways to nurture our adult children while encouraging their independence and maturity. Learn to have balance. Here is how to respond to them in times of struggle. Readers will see how to be supportive, yet not intrusive, caring without enabling dependency. The questions are important. The answers are not obvious. It is a new day in our relationships with our children. The page has been turned, and we are now writing the new chapter in the life of our family. It is important that we get it right.

In their seven years together, quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, kings of the fabled Baltimore Colts of the 1960s, created one of the most successful franchises in sports. Unitas and Shula had a higher winning percentage than Lombardi's Packers, but together they never won the championship. Baltimore lost the big game to the Browns in 1964 and to Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III--both in stunning upsets. The Colts' near misses in the Shula era were among the most confounding losses any sports franchise ever suffered. Rarely had a team in any league performed so well, over such an extended period, only to come up empty. The two men had a complex relationship stretching back to their time as young teammates competing for their professional lives. Their personal conflict mirrored their tumultuous times. As they elevated the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league's winningest coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas, and how their secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were as memorable as their victories.

The 1966 Green Bay Packers were one of the greatest teams in professional football history. Led by legendary head coach Vince Lombardi and 10 future Hall of Famers--including Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Willie Davis and Ray Nitschke--they were the decisive winners of Super Bowl I, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs and upholding the superiority of the National Football League over the upstart American Football League. This book tells the story of the hard-working '66 Packers on the gridiron and their legacy in Titletown, USA.

The 466 men who have held the increasingly demanding and prestigious position of Head Coach in the National Football League and the two leagues that merged into it (the All America Football Conference of the 1940s and the American Football League of the 1960s) form an exclusive club. This book essentially answers three questions about every professional head coach since 1920: Who was he? What were his coaching approach and style, in terms of both leadership and gridiron tactics? How successful was he? Every entry begins with standard background information, followed by each coach's yearly regular season and postseason coaching record, and then his statistical tendencies toward scoring, defense and play calling. The entry then addresses the three questions noted above.

The Routledge Handbook of Elite Sport Performance is the first book to examine a broad span of performance and support issues in contemporary elite sport; including coaching, sports science and medicine, leadership and management, operating in different societies, living in the system as a performer, and future developments in the domain. The book is written by authors with elite-level experience, expertise, success, and status across individual and team sports, including football, NFL, track and field athletics, rowing, and rugby, in professional, Olympic, and other elite domains. The book also considers the integration of systems at micro to macro levels, from working with individual athletes to developing national organisations and policy, and features in-depth case studies from real sport throughout. This is an essential reference for any researcher or advanced student with an interest in elite sport or applied sport science, from sport injury and sport psychology to sports coaching and sport policy. It is also an invaluable resource for coaches, managers, administrators, and policy-makers working in elite sport, offering them a "breadth first" guide to how and why specialists may work together for maximum effect.