The Library of America
August 2014
On Sale: August 14, 2014
500 pages ISBN: 159853307X EAN: 9781598533071 Kindle: B00LQ26SLG Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
An All-Pro line-up of writers including Red Smith, Frank
Deford, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton, Richard Price,
Jeanne Marie Laskas, 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.