For several million armchair quarterbacks, life as they know it ends every year at the conclusion of Super Bowl Sunday. After the trophies are presented to the victors and the President makes his customary congratulatory phone call, it's off the Barcalounger and on to the long, dark night of the soul (that's spring and summer for everyone else) until the reports from National Football League training camps whet the appetite for football and the requisite food groups of chips and beer.Not all football fans are always glued to the TV, though. Some take time to read about football, as if each football season, whether played or lived through vicariously, were not sensory overload already.
Often, one person's impact dictates the direction of an entire team and that team's effect upon the league. No coach in the National Football League has had more dramatic an effect than current Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, a man explored in depth in Steve Hubbard's new biography "Shark Among Dolphins."
Johnson has the distinction of replacing not one but two of the league's most successful and popular coaching icons, Dallas' Tom Landry and Miami's Don Shula. After tearing apart a moribund Cowboys franchise, Johnson's teams won two Super Bowls. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Johnson's college teammate, rewarded Johnson with a pink slip.
After spending two years away from coaching, Miami hired Johnson in 1996 with the hope that he could replicate his success in Miami. Longtime NFL writer Steve Hubbard had complete access to Johnson in his inaugural season. Just as he had in Dallas, Johnson began to rebuild the Dolphin franchise by releasing the unproductive and overpaid. As a motivator and a tactician, Johnson leaves no room for middle ground. Whether Johnson's tactics are ruthless or merely shrewd business is left to the reader. Johnson's Dolphins went 8-8, winning one fewer game than Shula's 1995 team. But in the process, new stars like running back Karim Abdul-Jabber emerged. The book provides a blueprint for the next few Dolphin teams. The seeds of success (or failure) have been planted, Johnson-style.
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In the sports world as in the entertainment world, media attention often gravitates toward the "flavor of the month." Through it all, future Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen has kept his performance at such a consistently high level for so many years that his excellence seems, well, almost commonplace.
His memoir "Marcus" sheds some light on this man's career. A Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Southern California, Allen went on to become one of the mainstays of the great Los Angeles Raiders teams of the 1980s. Then, at a point when many thought Allen's career was over, he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, and along with Joe Montana, revitalized that team and turned it into one of the league's better teams in the 1990s.
Allen reveals his difficulties with controversial Raiders owner Al Davis, shares his thoughts on teammates and friends such as O.J. Simpson and the late Lyle Alzado. Through it all, he comes out not only a star but a survivor.
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If you think that football is a game of numbers, than either one of two new reference books should be the perfect gift you can make to yourself. "The Sports Encyclopedia: Pro Football" deals with just about everything in the past 25 NFL seasons that could quantitatively be measured in numbers. And there's plenty. An added bonus is brief histories of the rival leagues started up in the '70s and '80s. (All those who remember who Larry Csonka and Doug Flutie's teams in those leagues, raise your hand.)
But if "The Sports Encyclopedia" could be considered a Bible of the pro football game, then "Total Football" is the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Magna Carta and U. S. Constitution rolled into one. It's 1,650 pages -- big pages, small print! -- of everything relating to pro football, and the statistics don't even begin until page 470. You can win any argument relating to pro football with this book, either by finding obscure statistics or pummelling someone with the book itself. I can't emphasize enough how big this book is. It's bigger than some placekickers.
For those who prefer a more anecdotal book, "Super Bowl: The Game of Their Lives" has a chapter on each game, written by a key participant. The superstars, naturally, are represented (Bart Starr, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman), but so are the men in the trenches (L.C. Greenwood, Nick Buoniconti, Matt Millen). This one's definitely for those who spend more than 12 hours in front of the tube on Super Sunday.
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If Browns owner Art Modell deserted an unequivocally grieving public when the team moved to Baltimore, Tennessee Oilers owner Bud Adams left behind a much more ambivalent city in Houston. The whole sorry tale comes out in "Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, Bad Football & Big Business." According to Houston Chronicle sports columnist Ed Fowler, Oilers owner and president K.S. "Bud" Adams, Jr. is the man at the center of Houstonians' frustration. Adams would be considered Machiavellian if, in fact, his teams had won a Super Bowl. After the 1980 season, when the Oilers went 11-5, Adams incurred the wrath of the fans by firing the extremely popular coach Bum Phillips after a playoff loss.
In 1995, Adams' front office began a courting dance with the city of Nashville, further angering fans who'd already put up with years of heartbreak. By the time Tennessee had consummated the relationship in 1997, many in the Houston area were sad to lose pro football but relieved to be rid of Adams.
Fowler is unsparing in his criticism of Adams. Some of his descriptions are amusing -- Fowler likens Adams, in resemblance if not wisdom, to Jabba the Hut -- but citizens of Nashville might not like to see their city referred to as "Possum Holler." The cast of characters includes such comic figures as Jerry Glanville, the coach who left tickets for Elvis at the will-call window, and fabled hot-head Buddy Ryan, who punched out a fellow assistant coach on national TV.
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"Another Season" is a complete change of pace from just about any football book you will ever read. Gene Stallings, the gruff coach who led the Alabama Crimson Tide to college football's national championship in January 1993, was the first coach to approach the success of the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant. At the end of the 1996 season, he announced his retirement. Part of the reason he retired was the little-publicized side of Stallings.
John Mark Stallings was born in 1962 with Down syndrome and a serious heart defect. Gene and Ruth Ann Stallings were told that the boy would not live to see his first birthday. Doctors advised them to institutionalize the boy. The family decided at that point to raise their son in a loving, supporting home. The unique relationship between Gene and his son continues to this day, and Stallings' desire to spend more time with Johnny was a key to his decision to retire.
Being a college and professional football coach is pressure enough. Being a parent, often, is pressure enough. But the story of Stallings' family is truly remarkable.
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Shelton Clark writes often about sports.
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