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That First Season
- How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory
- Narrated by: Pat Young
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
John Eisenberg's That First Season is the seldom-studied prequel to a phenomenal football career for Vince Lombardi and the Packers, drawing on exhaustive new research and interviews to tell an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader.
The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughingstock by the late 1950s. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior, and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City. In a single year, Vince Lombardi - the grizzled coach who took no bull - transformed a team of underachievers into winners and resurrected a city known for its passion for sport.
That First Season chronicles Vince Lombardi's remarkable first year as head coach with the franchise he would reinvent and etch forever in football history. In a single year, as the grizzled coach who took no bull, he would transform a team of underachievers into winners and reignite a city known for its passion for its sport.Eisenberg pushes away the mist that surrounds the Lombardi legend to bring listeners the real story of how the seeds of a football dynasty were sown. He also brings alive an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader.
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By: Adam Lazarus
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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A Season on the Brink
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: John Feinstein
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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A Season on the Brink chronicles the basketball season that John Feinstein spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach, Bob Knight. Knight granted Feinstein an unprecedented inside look at college basketball - with complete access to every moment of the season. Feinstein saw and heard it all - practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and mid-game huddles - during Knight's struggle to avoid a losing season.
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Great Sports Journalism
- By Robert on 04-18-13
By: John Feinstein
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Badasses
- The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders
- By: Peter Richmond
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A book that explores the enduring legends of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders, Badasses is the definitive biography of arguably the last team to play old-fashioned tough-guy football. Peter Richmond, co-author of the New York Times best seller The Glory Game, offers a fascinating look at the 1970s Oakland Raiders, led by colorful greats from another era.
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Good story, slightly obnoxious author and reader
- By Harry Seaward on 01-06-19
By: Peter Richmond
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The Last Headbangers
- NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless 70s - The Era that Created Modern Sports
- By: Kevin Cook
- Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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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, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today.
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Brilliant and Poignant
- By Mike McDaniel on 05-22-18
By: Kevin Cook
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12
- The Inside Story of Tom Brady's Fight for Redemption
- By: Casey Sherman, Dave Wedge
- Narrated by: Greg Baglia
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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12 is the propulsive story of this gritty comeback. It's a drama that unfolds in the locker room, the court room, and under the brightest lights in all of sports - the Super Bowl. Now for the first time, listeners will have an exclusive look into Tom Brady's experience and the NFL's shocking strangle-hold on their players. With unprecedented access to Brady himself, his teammates, and his lawyers, we will see just how a football legend went up against one of the largest corporations in the world to stage the greatest comeback in NFL history and emerge a god of the gridiron.
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He didn't do it
- By Rigid on 08-03-18
By: Casey Sherman, and others
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The Missing Ring
- How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize
- By: Keith Dunnavant
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured 25 conference titles, finished 34 times among the country's top ten, and played in 53 bowl games.
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Fantastic
- By John Rogers on 03-29-18
By: Keith Dunnavant
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The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968
- By: George Howe Colt
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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On November 23, 1968, near the end of a turbulent and memorable year, there was a football game that would also prove turbulent and memorable: the season-ending clash between Harvard and Yale. Both teams entered undefeated and, technically at least, came out undefeated. The final score was 29-29. To some of the players on the field, it was a triumph; to others a tragedy. George Howe Colt’s The Game is the story of that iconic American year, as seen through the young men who lived it and were changed by it.
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More than a game
- By Hebern on 11-05-18
By: George Howe Colt
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Play by Play
- Calling the Wildest Games in Sports - From SEC Football to College Basketball, the Masters and More
- By: Verne Lundquist
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner, Verne Lundquist
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Verne Lundquist's remarkable broadcasting career has placed him at the center of major sporting events in America for more than 50 years, from Jack Nicklaus' final victory at the 1986 Masters to Tonya Harding's attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Olympics to the Auburn-Alabama shocker of 2013. In his first memoir, he replays highlights from his career, taking sports fans behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic moments in modern sports history.
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Decent Sorry, Bit Boring
- By Allena on 08-20-24
By: Verne Lundquist
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Monsters
- The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Tom Taylorson
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever - a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won but how they did it....
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For any Bears fans
- By Frank S. Saltiel on 11-18-21
By: Rich Cohen
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Undefeated
- Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
- By: Steve Sheinkin
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When superstar athlete Jim Thorpe and football legend Pop Warner met in 1904 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football", they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work.
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I don't even like sports.
- By Melmonie on 03-12-18
By: Steve Sheinkin
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Rising Tide
- Bear Bryant, Joe Namath, and Dixie's Last Quarter
- By: Randy Roberts, Ed Krzemienski
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime. During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath - two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports - changed the game of college football forever.
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Love Alabama football? Read this!!
- By Miss Faulk on 07-16-15
By: Randy Roberts, and others
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Saban
- The Making of a Coach
- By: Monte Burke
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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As the head coach of the University of Alabama's football team, Nick Saban is perhaps the most influential - and controversial - man in the sport. Unpredictable in his professional loyalties, uncompromising in his vision, and unyielding in his pursuit of perfection, the highest-paid coach in college football has changed the face of the game. His program-building vision has delivered packed stadiums, rabid fans, legions of detractors, countless NFL draft picks, and a total of four championships.
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Narrator is awful.
- By kenneth on 08-12-15
By: Monte Burke
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Madden
- A Biography
- By: Bryan Burwell
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Several years after his playing career was cut short by injury before it had a chance to really begin, John Madden was hired as an assistant coach by the Oakland Raiders, one of professional football's most iconoclastic franchises. Two years later he was named the team's head coach and proceeded to lead the Raiders to five championship games in his first seven seasons. Following years of heartbreaking losses in some of history's most memorable games.
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Essential For Raider And Madden Fans
- By MovieGuy on 03-08-16
By: Bryan Burwell
What listeners say about That First Season
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andy
- 11-22-19
Outstanding story from Lombardi Packers lore fans
Outstanding story from Lombardi Packers lore fans. Let's you in on the realities of what Coach Lombardi and the team went through, physically, mentally, and emotionally, not just the superman champion stuff.
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- Vera Family
- 05-01-20
The early stories of the Green Bay Packers
A wonderful look at what it takes to succeed from a time gone by. Stories most people have never heard because what we focus on and remember are the championships. Not what it took to get there. Highly recommended!
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- Zach Zahl
- 01-05-21
Narration questionable
I feel like if someone is going to narrate a book about Vince Lombardi, they should know how to pronounce Wisconsin cities. Oh well, still a great book!
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- Anonymous User
- 08-07-23
Terrific Content- Amazingly poor narration
Really enjoyed to content and the story. Hard to imagine someone writing a book and allowing the reckless mispronunciation to be as bad as this was. It really took away from the story that was being told. It's as if they pulled someone out of the grocery store and had them read this in the parking lot having never checked the proper names pronunciation of people or towns. Vince would've cringed.
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- AJD
- 06-17-20
Great story, but have issues with the reading
This is an unbelievable story of how Vince Lombardi turned around the Green Bay Packers in one season. Truly a great story. However, it was kind of hard to listen to at times because the names of many players and cities were just butchered. You would think they would ask somebody how to pronounce them instead of just guessing. Some were so far off I wasn't even sure who they were talking about, and I've lived in Green Bay my whole life.
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- sergio
- 06-11-15
Great story on how one man's goal, fearless determination to win, succeed ,No excuses, get to work, straight up down to basics
How he brought out the best in many players, Great story on how one man's goal, fearless determination to win, succeed ,No excuses, get to work, straight up down to basics
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1 person found this helpful
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- CA Cheesehead
- 03-23-16
Narrator Needs to Learn to How to Pronounce Names
What did you like best about That First Season? What did you like least?
Growing up in Appleton, WI I know all of the towns and names that Pat mentions in the book. Only difference is I know how to say them. First time I hear him pronounce a key players in Packer History - Ray Nitschke's name as "Knit- Ski" when it's pronounced "Nitch key" I was turned off. Onieda was pronounced "O-knee-da" when it's O-nigh-da or the town of Allouez as "Al -O-wez" instead of "Al-o-way" People who are fans and know of the area will be turned off by the lack of preparation the narrator did in figuring out how to say these names.
Loved the content and the story when it was all said and done.
What was one of the most memorable moments of That First Season?
About how some of the veteran players came into training camp early and thought they would be able to play golf just like the year prior to Lombardi getting there. Vince saw them and said if you were staying at camp, you were going to practice!! Set the tone!
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Pat Young?
Anyone who would have spent the time to learn how to pronounce the names in the story correctly.
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1 person found this helpful
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- S. Jackson
- 01-23-18
Great book.
Great listen. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the stories told by the players about the greatest football coach of all time. Very inspirational.
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- Brian W. Barton
- 08-20-18
Narrator should refund his fee
THE worst narration I’ve heard in over 100 audiobooks!! Nearly EVERY name, whether person or place was mispronounced. I’m surprised he was able to say Green Bay properly. One would think that someone be paid to read a NON-FICTION book would learn the pronunciation of names and places, particularly many PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAMERS, before recording the performance. Absolutely AWFUL!
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3 people found this helpful
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- D. Lichtenstein
- 03-06-17
Great content, poor narration
What made the experience of listening to That First Season the most enjoyable?
The story was wonderful, great book.
What did you like best about this story?
The history of a great man and the way he changed a team. It was great to hear the story of how Vince Lombardi changed the culture of the Packers with his management style. The joys and pains of a team in transition. Left me wanting more!
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Great voice, poor narration. Obviously does not know anything about football, many names mispronounced, basic football terms mispronounced. Reading style really took away the pleasure of the story.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, and it left me wanting more.
Any additional comments?
Definately worth the listen, IN SPITE of the narration.
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2 people found this helpful