Sports Biographies Football

Joe Paterno believed that football was a way to teach young men how to live. He coached at Penn State for 62 years. In the course of his years as a head coach, his teams won 409 games, a Division I record. At the end of his life, more than 100 of those wins were invalidated by the NCAA because of the crimes of a longtime assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, and Paterno’s alleged knowledge of those crimes—knowledge Paterno denied until his death. In the process, the name Paterno—the name he had spent a lifetime building—came to represent scandal and controversy.

Freddie Steinmark was starting safety for the undefeated University of Texas Longhorns in 1969. In the thrilling “Game of the Century,” a come-from-behind victory against Arkansas that ensured Texas the National Championship, Steinmark played with pain in his left leg. Two days later, X-rays revealed a cancerous bone tumor so large that it seemed a miracle Steinmark could walk, let alone play football. Within a week of the Arkansas game, his leg was amputated.

Patrick Mahomes, the 2018 most valuable player in the National Football League, could have succeeded in any sport. Growing up, he played baseball, basketball, and football. After joining the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL, he broke record after record, including most passing yards and most passes completed in a single season. Learn all the facts on Mahomes's meteoric rise in the NFL in this exciting biography.

Ruud Gullit knows better than anyone else that to understand soccer you have to understand strategy. When he started playing soccer, his only "strategy" was to get the ball, outrun everyone else to the other end of the field, and score. At first it served him well, but as he advanced through the sport, he learned that it takes much more than speed to make a winning team.

From fighting for his life to pursuing a career in the NFL, ACC Player of the Year and star Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner shares how his choice to not fear the unknown made all the difference in his extraordinary journey. In Fear Is a Choice, James candidly shares his experiences during his battle with cancer and beyond, encouraging listeners and illustrating the spiritual truths and personal principles that got him through his darkest days.

Foden is one of the hottest talents in the world and his rise through the Manchester City first team has been remarkable. He has matured from Man City youth prospect, to the first footballer ever to be named Premier League Young Player of the Season in consecutive years, despite competing for a position in a team of world class players. And this is testament to his silky style of play and natural flair for football.

The unauthorized biography of John Elway, Hall of Fame quarterback, two-time Super Bowl champion, now president of football operations and general manager of the Denver Broncos.

Any number of writers could spend an entire season with an NFL team, from the first day of training camp until the last pick of the draft, and come up with an interesting book. But only Roy Blount Jr. could capture the pain, the joy, the fears, the humor - in short, the heart - of a championship team.

The US Women’s National Soccer Team has won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, set record TV ratings, drawn massive crowds, earned huge revenues for FIFA and US Soccer, and helped to redefine the place of women in sports. But despite their dominance, and their rosters of superstar players, they’ve endured striking inequality: low pay, poor playing conditions, and limited opportunities to play in professional leagues.

When Declan Rice was released by Chelsea's youth academy at the age of 14, he was devastated. But he wasn't going to let that get in the way of his Premier League dreams. He worked harder than ever, and by the time he was 20, he was the captain and star of top-flight West Ham. Discover how the two-footed, high-energy, combative midfielder established himself as an irreplaceable member of the England national team and Arsenal's new record signing.

My name is James Milner and I'm not a Ribena-holic. Let me share insights into what it's like being a professional footballer, across my different experiences with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and now Liverpool (not forgetting a six-match loan spell at Swindon). Plus my highs - and a few too many lows - playing for England. There isn't a current player who's been playing Premier League football as long as I have, and that gives me a pretty rare perspective into how the top-flight game has changed over the past 17 years.

Aaron Rodgers is a standout NFL quarterback. Learn about his childhood and his rise to becoming a football superstar.

Known for decades as one of the NFL’s most iconic and spectacular playmakers, Deion Sanders remains college football's most intriguing newsmaker. In just three years, he has become the most talked about coach by recruiting elite players to moribund programs and reviving the spirit and pride of forgotten fanbases by winning. Along the way, he’s changing how we think about college sports while rejuvenating whole communities with the national attention that follows him and the fresh commerce a winning culture ignites.

Super Bowl Champion and two-time Pro Bowler Michael Bennett is an outspoken proponent for social justice and a man without a censor. One of the most scathingly humorous athletes on the planet, he is also a fearless activist, grassroots philanthropist, and organizer. Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter movement and women's rights.

LEARN WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN A WORLD CUP FROM AN ENGLISHMAN WHO DID IT "The best sports biography? Probably. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant." The Daily Telegraph. The greatest coach England has ever produced? Madmen? Genius? This is the ultimate, award winning, highly acclaimed biography of Sir Clive Woodward out in e-book for the first time. Brought fully up-to-date to celebrate the 10th anniversary of England's rugby World Cup victory. Learn about ever facet of Woodward 's life - what made him great? Who did he upset along the way? What do the players REALLY think of him? What went wrong ...

In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach Tandy Gerelds was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School - one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win - until he saw Tony Nathan run.

In July 2021, shortly after being named League Two's Player of the Season and Golden Boot, Paul Mullin sent shockwaves through the EFL by taking a downwards move to National League team, Wrexham AFC. Since then, 'Super Paul Mullin' has helped transform the Wrexham team, scoring dozens of goals and capturing the imaginations of football fans across the world in the process. Here for the first time, Mullin tells his own story: his roots in Liverpool, the highs and lows of English football's promotion race, lessons learnt from his young son, and what happens when Hollywood comes knocking.

Ken "The Snake" Stabler was the embodiment of the original Men in Black - the freewheeling, hard-hitting Oakland Raiders. The league's first swashbuckling pass thrower, the mythical southpaw Southerner famous for come-from-behind drives late in the game, Stabler led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship in 1977.

Jeanne Marie Laskas first met the young forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu in 2009, while reporting a story for GQ that would go on to inspire the movie Concussion. Omalu told her about a day in September 2002, when, in a dingy morgue in downtown Pittsburgh, he picked up a scalpel and made a discovery that would rattle America in ways he’d never intended. Omalu was new to America, chasing the dream, a deeply spiritual man escaping the wounds of civil war in Nigeria.

From LA Times columnist and ESPN Around the Horn panelist Bill Plaschke, a story of tragedy, triumph, and the remarkable power of high school football in one small California town.