Ebook: The Great American Sports Page

"An All-Pro line-up of writers including Red Smith, Frank Deford, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton, Richard Price, Charles Pierce, Michael Lewis, and Roy Blount Jr tackle our most popular pastime. Since football's meteoric rise in the mid-twentieth century, the standout writers on the sport have gone behind and beyond the spectacle to reveal the complexity, the contradictions, and the deeper humanity at the heart of the game. Now, in a landmark collection, The Library of America brings together the very best of their work: gems of deadline reportage, incisive longform profiles of football's storied figures, and autobiographical accounts by players and others close to the game. Celebrating the sport without shying away from its sometimes devastating personal and social costs, the forty-four pieces gathered here testify to football's boundless capacity to generate outsized characters and memorable tales."--Publisher's description.;From The Tumult and the Shouting / GRANTLAND RICE -- The Ghost of the Gridiron / W.C. HEINZ -- from The Game That Was : Johnny Blood / MYRON COPE -- The Redskins' Longest Day / SHIRLEY POVICH -- The Most Important Thing ; The Lost Cause / RED SMITH -- from A Fan's Notes / FREDERICK EXLEY -- from Iron Men : Pat Summerall / STUART LEUTHNER -- Moment of Truth / GARY SMITH -- The Best There Ever Was / FRANK DEFORD -- Concrete Charlie / JOHN SCHULIAN -- from When Pride Still Mattered / DAVID MARANISS -- Greatness / JIMMY CANNON -- . . . The One Last Good One That Wasn't to Be / JIMMY BRESLIN -- from Paper Lion / GEORGE PLIMPTON -- An Upside-Down Game / DAN JENKINS -- A Whistle-Stop School with Big-Time Talent / JERRY IZENBERG -- from Instant Replay / JERRY KRAMER and DICK SCHAAP -- from Fifth Quarter / JENNIFER ALLEN -- Gale Sayers : The Hard Road Back / AL SILVERMAN -- Don't Look Now . . . but the Funny Little League is No. 1 / JIM MURRAY -- from . . . And Every Day You Take Another Bite / LARRY MERCHANT -- Butkus / ARTHUR KRETCHMER -- Yesterday's Hero / PAUL HEMPHILL -- Tom Landry : Melting the Plastic Man / GARY CARTWRIGHT -- Smith Hates for It to End Like This / TOM ARCHDEACON -- Bear Bryant's Miracles / RICHARD PRICE -- A Matter of Life and Sudden Death / RICK REILLY -- A Miracle in Miami / LEIGH MONTVILLE -- from Friday Night Lights / H.G. BISSINGER -- No Pain, No Game / MARK KRAM -- Legends of the Fall / CHARLES P. PIERCE -- The Minority Quarterback / IRA BERKOW -- Flesh and Blood / PETER RICHMOND -- The Best Years of His Life / JOHN ED BRADLEY -- Pulled Pork & Pigskin : A Love Letter to Southern Football / WRIGHT THOMPSON -- Atkins a Study in Pride and Pain / RICK TELANDER -- Broncos Earn Respect With Improbable Victory / PAT FORDE -- The Kick Is Up and It's . . . a Career Killer / MICHAEL LEWIS -- G-L-O-R-Y! / JEANNE MARIE LASKAS -- from Slow Getting Up / NATE JACKSON -- The Ferocious Life and Tragic Death of a Super Bowl Star / PAUL SOLOTAROFF -- Friday Night Tykes / BRYAN CURTIS -- Immaculate Memory / ROY BLOUNT JR.