Kevin Cook
Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montanaâ€™s gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today. Kevin Cookâ€™s rollicking chronicle of this pivotal decade draws on interviews with legendary playersâ€”Harris, Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Ken â€œSnakeâ€ Stablerâ€”to re-create their heroics and off-field carousing. He shows coaches John Madden and Bill Walsh outsmarting rivals as Monday Night Football redefined sportsâ€™ place in American life. Celebrating the game while lamenting the physical toll it took on footballâ€™s greatest generation, Cook diagrams the NFLâ€™s transformation from second-tier sport into national obsession.
Football,Nonfiction,Sports,Sports,History
The Last Headbangers: NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless '70s: the Era that Created Modern Sports