Austin Murphy knows a thing or two about football. His twenty-three years at Sports Illustrated include six covering the NFL and a decade chronicling the college game. In Saturday Rules, Murphy leaves no doubt as to which beat he preferred. Does the NFL have better athletes? Yes. Does it entail more direct flights? Undoubtedly. Which game is better, more entertaining, less predictable? It's not even close—college football wins by two touchdowns. With rich traditions and deep passions—marching bands and menageries of living, breathing animal mascots; arm-long lists of ancient blood grudges—college football is far more captivating, fan-friendly, and, frankly, more fun than the corporate, clinical, risk-averse, imitation-intensive, hermetically sealed game they play on Sunday. No two programs are more storied than Notre Dame and USC, headed by those ex-NFL rivals and philosophical (and physiological) opposites Charlie Weis and Pete Carroll, perhaps the biggest names in the college game. With the inside scoop on these top-ranked teams, Murphy closely follows their arcs through the 2006 season, up to their late-November showdown in the L.A. Coliseum. He puts you in the field, in the meeting room, and in the huddle as both teams fight to keep alive their national title ambitions. Between trips to South Bend and Los Angeles, Murphy ranges repeatedly into Big Ten country, hooking up with Michigan and Ohio State, whose November 17 collision in Columbus constitutes one of the book's most memorable chapters. He ventures into the proud SEC, bearing witness to Florida's single loss of the season (and the ensuing "rolling" of Toomer's Corner). He is in the Rose Bowl for the season's most stunning upset (UCLA 13, USC, 9), and is in that grand old bowl a month later, as the Trojans are born anew. Murphy is on the field after the national title game, asking the Gators how they pulled off the upset. ("This is a fast . . . ass . . . team!" replies linebacker Brian Crum.) And he makes it his business to drop in on the Boise State Broncos after their miraculous, trick-play-intensive upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Whether hanging out with members of the Ohio State marching band (including the senior sousaphonist, who will "dot the i" in the Buckeyes' famed cursive Ohio), or sampling the frighteningly potent "Gator-Killer punch" at TGFKATWLOCP (The Game Formerly Known as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party), or staying up past his bedtime to witness Notre Dame's midnight drum circle, Murphy is the perfect guide for this rich and raucous celebration of the pageantry and tradition, the talismans and rituals, that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that when it comes to football, Saturday rules.
After fifteen years as a Sports Illustrated writer, pleading for interviews with large men in possession of larger egos, Austin Murphy decides to bail out. The time has come, he concludes, to fly beneath the radar of big-league sports, to while away a season with the Johnnies. So, he moves his family to the middle of Minnesota to chronicle a season at St. John's, a Division III program that has reached unparalleled success under the unorthodox guidance of John "Gags" Gagliardi. The Sweet Season is an account of what happens when a family pulls up stakes and spends months in a strange and wonderful place. It is also, not incidentally, the story of the most incredible football program in the country, run by a smiling sage who has forgotten more about the game than most of his peers will ever know.
A father takes a break from every guy's dream gig--covering football (and the odd swimsuit shoot) for Sports Illustrated--to give it a go as Mr. Mom, in this hilarious and heartfelt book After nineteen years as a writer for Sports Illustrated, Austin Murphy should have had it made. Instead, he'd had it--with measuring his life by hotel rooms and Heisman stories, with members of his church assuming that his wife, Laura, was a single mother. With each missed birthday and recital, he became more convinced that he was missing out on his kids' lives. So he decided to trade in his current job for a new one: Laura's. Once an ambitious young journalist, Laura's career had slowed when she went on the mommy track. Now, with a "wife" of her own, she would be able to write full time, while he could be present for more Kodak moments. Alas, the man charged with preparing three nutritious meals a day had never mastered his own outdoor grill. Sublimely ignorant of everything from grocery shopping to house-cleaning to the need to trim his children's nails more than, say, semi-annually, Murphy embarked on his journey much as Shackleton took on the Antarctic: spectacularly ill-equipped to survive it. Between the lice checks, the spring break trip to Las Vegas, and the chairmanship of the Lower Brookside Elementary Variety Show, there were bound to be casualties. Lively, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny, How Tough Could It Be? is the story of one man's decision to reorder his life around things that really matter and of his adventures (and misadventures) along the way.
For two decades, Davis Phinney was one of America’s most successful cyclists. He won two stages at the Tour de France and an Olympic medal. But after years of feeling off, he was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s. The body that had been his ally was now something else: a prison. The Happiness of Pursuit is the story of how Davis sought to overcome his Parkinson’s by reaching back to what had made him so successful on the bike and adjusting his perspective on what counted as a win. The news of his diagnosis began a dark period for this vibrant athlete, but there was also light. His son Taylor’s own bike-racing career was taking off. Determined to beat the Body Snatcher, Davis underwent a procedure called deep brain stimulation. Although not cured, his symptoms abated enough for him to see Taylor compete in the Beijing Olympics. Davis Phinney had won another stage. But the joy, he discovered, was in the pursuit. With humor and grace, Phinney weaves the narrative of his battle with Parkinson’s with tales from his cycling career and from his son’s emerging career. The Happiness of Pursuit is a remarkable story of fathers and sons and bikes, of victories large and small.
The definitive, lavishly illustrated history of the Green Bay Packers, commemorating the team's 100-year anniversary Not only are the Packers the only fan-owned team in any of North America’s major pro sports leagues, but Green Bay—population 104,057—is also the smallest city with a big-time franchise. The Packers are, in other words, unlikely candidates to be pro football's preeminent team. And yet nobody in the NFL has won more championships. The story of Titletown, USA, is the greatest story in sports. Through extensive archival research and unmatched insider access to players and team officials, past and present, Mark Beech tells the first complete rags-to-riches history of the Green Bay Packers, a full chronicle of the most illustrious team in NFL history. The People’s Team paints compelling pictures of a franchise, a town, and a fan base. No other team in pro sports is so bound to the place that gave birth to it. Here is the story of the Packers and of Green Bay—from the days of the French fur traders who settled on the shores of La Baie in the seventeenth century, to the team’s pursuit of its fourteenth NFL championship. Featuring essays by Peter King, Chuck Mercein, Austin Murphy, and David S. Neft, The People’s Team is a must-have for fans, old and new, and the definitive illustrated history of the most important team in the NFL.
Ryan Droden went straight into public service life after graduating from university. He had had a relatively normal childhood, though some would consider him luckier than others, because of the many outings he had with his father. At times, Ryan felt he probably learned more on those outdoor trips, than he ever did at school. His career began slowly, but because his service was always of a high standard, he took the opportunities that came his way. Soon he was managing his own team within the Department of the Interior. In the blink of an eye, that all changed when a truck careened out of control and hit him while he was on his way from the underground to work. While in a coma, he had a dream. The dream had built up over years of reading documents and reports, which had crossed his desk. He had never had any real involvement in action out in the field, but secretly he hoped some day he would. His dream allowed him to escape to the field, and for once, become the center of attention. That is, until he met a woman who maintained she was on his side. There were times Ryan doubted her sincerity, as she always had an air of mystery surrounding her. Ryan succumbed to her charms, and together they were out to save the world, if they could save themselves first. When Ryan comes out of his coma, his mind goes blank, except for the beach memories. He's not convinced the dream was real. Watch out for The Longest Dream to become a reality.
The powerful and inspiring story of an all-American wrestler who defied the odds—soon to be an original movie produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, starring Jennifer Lopez, Jharrel Jerome, Don Cheadle, Michael Peña and Bobby Cannavale! Anthony Robles is a three-time all-American wrestler, the 2011 NCAA National Wrestling Champion, and a Nike-sponsored athlete. He was also born without his right leg. Doctors could not explain to his mother, Judy, what led to the birth defect, but at the age of five, the one-legged toddler scaled a fifty-foot pole unassisted. From that moment on, Judy knew that her son would be unstoppable. Anthony first began wrestling in high school; he was the smallest kid on the team and finished the year in last place. But he completed his junior and senior years with a 96–0 record to become a two-time Arizona State champion. In college, he faced personal hardships which almost forced him to drop out. But Anthony remained focused on his goals and won the NCAA National Championship in March 2011. Unstoppable is the story of one man whose spirit and unyielding resolve remind us all that we have the power to conquer adversity—in whatever form.
Acclaimed writers, family, friends, and more pay homage to the celebrated Southern author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini. New York Times–bestselling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year career. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Conroy’s fellowship drew from all walks of life. His relationships were complicated, and people and places he thought he’d left behind often circled back to him at crucial moments. The pantheon of contributors includes Rick Bragg, Kathleen Parker, Barbra Streisand, Janis Ian, Anthony Grooms, Mary Hood, Nikky Finney, Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart, Ron Rash, Sandra Brown, and Mary Alice Monroe; Conroy biographers Katherine Clark and Catherine Seltzer; his longtime friends; Pat’s students Sallie Ann Robinson and Valerie Sayers; members of the Conroy family; and many more. Each author in this collection shares a slightly different view of Conroy. Through their voices, a multifaceted portrait of him comes to life and sheds new light on who he was. Loosely following Conroy’s own chronology, the essays herewith wind through his river of a story, stopping at important ports of call. Cities he called home and longed to visit, along with each book he birthed, become characters that are as equally important as the people he touched along the way.
The Book of Booty presents a fun, full color book for fans of WWE's The New Day tag team with all the silliness, positivity, unicorns, trombones, and twerking fans can get. Multi-time W . . . W . . . E! (WWE) TAG! TEAM! CHAMPIONS! The New Day want you to feel the power!! And now you can with The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It. From the purveyors of positivity themselves, each chapter of this handy guide will help you embrace the New Day way of life. Even if you’re feeling booty—and who (who?! who?! who?! who?! who?!) has never felt booty? —you’ll be clapping, gyrating, and radiating positivity like the New Day themselves. Fans will learn: * The New Day’s official definition of “booty,” and the telltale signs that you or a loved one might be booty * The proper attire and headwear for the new you * How to twerk like a man * What your spirit animal says about you * How to project positivity By the time you finish this book, you'll be a rainbow-gazing, trombone-playing, unicorn-loving soldier of positivity, ready to take on nefarious WWE tag teams with a smile on your face. Pro tip: Eat your Booty O’s every morning for added strength!
It is surely not coincidental that the term 'soul' should mean not only the centre of a creature's life and consciousness, but also a thing or action characterised by intense vivacity ('that bike's got soul!'). It also seems far from coincidental that the same contemporary academic discussions that have largely cast aside the language of 'soul' in their quest to define the character of human mental life should themselves be so bloodless, or so lacking in soul. The Resounding Soul arises from the opposite premise: that the task of understanding human nature is bound up with the more critical task of learning to be fully human. The papers collected here are derived from a conference in Oxford sponsored by the Centre of Theology and Philosophy and explore the often surprising landscape that emerges when human consciousness is approached from this angle. Drawing upon literary, philosophical, theological, historical, and musical modes of analysis, these essays remind the reader of the power of the ancient language of soul over against contemporary impulses to reduce, fragment, and overly determine human selfhood.
This is the definitive work on Americans taken prisoner during the Revolutionary War. The bulk of the book is devoted to personal accounts, many of them moving, of the conditions endured by U.S. prisoners at the hands of the British, as preserved in journals or diaries kept by physicians, ships' captains, and the prisoners themselves. Of greater genealogical interest is the alphabetical list of 8,000 men who were imprisoned on the British vessel The Old Jersey, which the author copied from the papers of the British War Department and incorporated in the appendix to the work. Also included is a Muster Roll of Captain Abraham Shepherd's Company of Virginia Riflemen and a section on soldiers of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp who perished in prison, 1776-1777.
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE* From when he was twelve years old Robert Radnor had been in love with the idea of being a sailor. And a sailor he became, at home on the sea as other men were on land. Until the year of 1948, on board the steamship Golden Delta, serving as first officer under Captain Peeke, when Radnor's uncanny intuition about the sea and its ways suddenly deserts him and he finds himself alone with the sea, with his fear and with his terrifying foreknowledge.
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