Top 100 Pro Football Books of All-Time

[mwald]

-I have a book called Pro Football Championships before the Super Bowl by Joseph Page and I had never heard of Championship.... by Jerry Izenberg which seems to be out of print. Has anyone read both? What are the differences?

Pro Football Championships Before the Super Bowl by Page is pretty good, although it does seem to have a higher than acceptable (for me, anyway) number of factual errors.

[MatthewToy]

"Mean Joe Greene and the Steelers Front Four". I got this when I was about 8 or 9. I wasn't expecting this book to be on the list because it was probably written for people at a 4th grade reading level which I was at that time. But it meant a lot to me because it was my first real insight into those great Steelers teams. It was written shortly after Super Bowl IX. It gave backgrounds of all 4 of the original Steel Curtain members. Including Ernie Holmes' mental breakdown on the Ohio parkway in the summer of 73. It talked about how bad the Steelers were before Joe Greene was drafted. It was the first time I'd ever heard that before the Steelers hired Chuck Noll they offered the job to Joe Paterno. I read it more than a few times and while it's not the best football book it's the one that means the most to me.

[JWL]

Overall it was a great list with several books that I'm going to try to find in the near future.

Same here. The list was good for that reason. Matter of fact, I expect to buy one of the top 10 books this weekend. A book store in a flea market not far from me and Chris sells it.

The Great Teams' Great Years books seem interesting to me. The book on Weeb Ewbank's last year, and "The Pros" are a couple others I will look to get.

[Rupert Patrick]

Overall it was a great list with several books that I'm going to try to find in the near future.

Same here. The list was good for that reason. Matter of fact, I expect to buy one of the top 10 books this weekend. A book store in a flea market not far from me and Chris sells it.

The Great Teams' Great Years books seem interesting to me. The book on Weeb Ewbank's last year, and "The Pros" are a couple others I will look to get.

I've got all the Great Teams Great Years books, I found some at a Goodwill Store, but unless you go to a lot of book sales, your best bet is to go to Ebay. The thing that gets me about the series is that there were only nine books, and the books were produced around 1973, and while they covered newer teams like the Chiefs, they totally missed teams like the Bears and Packers. I get the feeling the original nine books were a stage one, with stage two of the project covering the Bears and Packers and Eagles and Cards and Dallas and Minnesota and Baltimore and maybe a couple others, but the plug was pulled on stage two.

[mwald]

Overall it was a great list with several books that I'm going to try to find in the near future.

Same here. The list was good for that reason. Matter of fact, I expect to buy one of the top 10 books this weekend. A book store in a flea market not far from me and Chris sells it.

The Great Teams' Great Years books seem interesting to me. The book on Weeb Ewbank's last year, and "The Pros" are a couple others I will look to get.

I've got all the Great Teams Great Years books, I found some at a Goodwill Store, but unless you go to a lot of book sales, your best bet is to go to Ebay. The thing that gets me about the series is that there were only nine books, and the books were produced around 1973, and while they covered newer teams like the Chiefs, they totally missed teams like the Bears and Packers. I get the feeling the original nine books were a stage one, with stage two of the project covering the Bears and Packers and Eagles and Cards and Dallas and Minnesota and Baltimore and maybe a couple others, but the plug was pulled on stage two.

Yes, it seemed like just the beginning, then they stopped. It's a shame, they were (are) great books. Many times series books aren't very well done, but these were.

[BD Sullivan]

The book on Weeb Ewbank's last year

Which was overshadowed somewhat by the controversy of Weeb bringing in his son-in-law Charlie Winner in order to make him his successor. That po'ed Walt Michaels, who had been with Ewbank since he arrived and expected to succeed him. Michaels joined old teammate Mike McCormack at Philly and eventually found his way back to Shea after they hit rock bottom with the Lou Holtz debacle.

[fgoodwin]

Is this list the same thing you guys are talking about?

http://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/ ... me_20.html

[JWL]

Yeah, that is it.

[fgoodwin]

Yeah, that is it.

Thanx -- somehow I missed the link in the VERY. FIRST. POST.

Duh

[fgoodwin]

It helped that Kramer was the focal point of getting Bart Starr in the end zone--legally or illegally, depending on who is commenting. Had they failed to score and ended up losing, I suppose the book still would have been published, but it would have been long forgotten.

Was there ever anyone else that complained about Kramer being offsides/in motion?

Oh yes, Cowboy fans to this day say Kramer was in motion. I was only in the 7th grade at the time, and of course, there was no Internet or social media. But to tell you the truth, I don't recall Cowboy fans at the time complaining about Kramer possibly being offside. I wonder if current fans are retroactively "mis-remembering" based on Kramer's admissions long after the fact?