A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat—those on the flip side of an epic triumph—and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player—Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettner's famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for...

A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat—those on the flip side of an epic triumph—and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player—Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettner’s famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for...

A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat—those on the flip side of an epic triumph—and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player—Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettner’s famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The wildly opinionated, thoroughly entertaining, and arguably definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA—from the founder of The Ringer and host of The Bill Simmons Podcast“Enough provocative arguments to fuel barstool arguments far into the future.”—The Wall Street JournalIn The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for a...

No football fan will want to be without the book that delivers pure, unfiltered Rex Ryan—head coach of the New York Jets and one of the most popular, outspoken, well-liked, and widely respected personalities in the National Football League.Rex Ryan is known for his exuberance . . . and Play Like You Mean It explores every aspect of Ryan’s amazing passion for the game of football, plus the lessons he has learned in leadership and motivation during his years...

Who are the best quarterbacks in NFL history? How about running backs? Wide receivers? How can we objectively rate the performance of individual defensive players? And how can we make reasonable judgments about players at different positions and from different eras? Who is the greatest football player of all time? Jerry Rice? Lawrence Taylor? Jim Brown?Such are the questions pondered by pro football writer Steve Silverman late at night (and during the day). As statistician Elliott ...

A treasury of witty quotes and wild stories covering decades of baseball history.Baseball is a funny game. No other sport can compare to the national pastime's vast catalog of silly quotations, unforgettable characters, memorable nicknames, and inventive pranks.Alphabetized by topic, The Funniest Baseball Book Ever captures the game in all its humorous glory. It's simply the most complete, contemporary resource for over a century of the sport's histo...

The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history—pro football’s raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence.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 Montana’s gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted...

An instant New York Times bestseller—the “insidery, detailed, and absorbing” (Sports Illustrated) biography of Nick Saban, the polarizing University of Alabama football coach who not only transformed the college game, but might also be the best ever at winning.As the head coach of the University of Alabama’s football team, Nick Saban is perhaps the most influential—and polarizing—man in the sport. His program-building vision has delivered packed s...

He was an NFL superstar and Drag Racing icon. He had Hollywood starlets on his arm and a legion of fans in the palms of his hands. Dan Pastorini lived on the edge and palye don the brink. No oneleast of all Pastoriniknew what the next turn would bring. His life was indulgent, brilliant, cursed and humbling. He was known a s the toughest man in football, a cover-boy heart-throb and a soft-hearted friend. He changed the way NFL quarterbacks played the game, donning the first Flak Jacket to p...

NBA List Jam! is an entertaining and informative collection of 125+ ranked lists that discuss and debate the people, games, events, and ephemera that have made the NBA the spectator sport of choice for millions in North America and beyond.The wide variety of list topics include Greatest Teams, Best Comebacks, Best High School to NBA Stars, Worst Collapses, Best Pure Shooters, Oddest Hairdos, Greatest Players from the Big 5, Top NBA Announcers, Best/Worst U...

Popular and outspoken NFL cornerback Hanford Dixon offers an inside look at the turbulent, exciting, and frustrating Cleveland Browns seasons of the 1980s. A three-time Pro Bowler and co-inventor of the now legendary Dawg Pound, Dixon recalls both the roller-coaster on-field action and a culture of drug use that permeated the NFL and led to the tragic death of a teammate.He shares in detail what it was like to be a first-round NFL draft pick fighting for the starting job in training...