It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age.America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.From the Trade Paperback edition.

An inside look at how the battle off the field affects the competition on the field of america’s most popular sport—from one of the Nfl’s most successful and respected head coaches.Fresh off the sidelines from a nine-year stint as one of the most successful leaders in pro football, Super Bowl–winning head coach Brian Billick has written a book about the sport he knows and loves, giving readers a fresh perspective on America’s Game. Combining his own experiences with a wealth of new interviews gained through his unsurpassed access to pro football’s most influential figures, Billick has written a vibrant, compelling account of the true state of the game today, and the dangers that it faces in the near future. The National Football League stands as perhaps America’s last great mass entertainment, the rare enterprise that brings together a broad cross-section of our increasingly niche-driven marketplace. But even as the game has grown more popular, so has the financial pressure and stakes for all concerned. In this taut, lucid breakdown of the game’s inner workings, Billick shows how dynasties are built and teams assembled, and he explains in detail how the economic pressures of the modern NFL can affect coaches and players alike. Billick welcomes fans into the locker rooms and the boardrooms for a revealing portrait of pro football and a penetrating look at the forces that will vie for control of America’s most popular game in the future. 

For those obsessed with Premier League soccer, following your favorite team is a true collective experience, where it is easy to feel as one with thousands of others. It is also an individual one, in which the emotions you feel are your emotions, the experiences you feel are your experiences, and nobody else can perfectly understand.Over the course of the 2019–20 season, two longtime Liverpool FC followers wrote to each other about those emotions and experiences. American writer Michael MacCambridge, living in Austin, Texas, is a devoted Liverpool follower. Five thousand miles away, his friend Neil Atkinson, Liverpool resident and a longtime season ticket holder, is the host of the popular podcast The Anfield Wrap.Each week throughout the historic season, Atkinson and MacCambridge exchanged letters, contemplating Liverpool’s progress, comparing and contrasting their different perspectives on the club and the sport, meditating on the manner in which their shared obsession for Liverpool works its way into nearly every corner of their personal lives, and discussing the differences between how the game is consumed in the United States and the United Kingdom and the role modern media plays in shaping our views of sport.Their collaboration was both timely and serendipitous, as Liverpool marched toward its first ever Premier League title and its first league title in thirty years, with a charismatic manager and the most entertaining team in the sport. In March, of course, the soccer story was overtaken by the larger story of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc throughout the world, including sports events. In the course of their correspondence, Red Letters provides a real-time account of the pandemic that threatened the very existence of the season that Liverpool followers had been waiting more than a generation to experience.Red Letters provides a different way to examine the culture of a worldwide sport and development of a soccer season-game by game, in real time, with hopes and expectations tested and altered as the season progresses to Liverpool’s Premier League championship, with insight from two avid supporters.

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of this legendary season in Kansas City sports history—when the Kansas City Chiefs reached the pinnacle of pro football, defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV to become world champions. Experience the magic of this epic journey through the words of award-winning writer, Michael MacCambridge, and pictures, including a treasure trove of photographs from Rod Hanna, the Chiefs'' team photographer during that historic season (many never-before-seen). You''ll join the Chiefs on their extraordinary journey, from the heat of training camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, to the adversity of losing quarterback Len Dawson to an early-season injury, to the triumph of upset playoff wins over the defending world champion New York Jets and the arch-rival Oakland Raiders, to the final triumph in Super Bowl IV, after one of the most chaotic Super Bowl weeks ever.This lavish book documents how the Chiefs revolutionized pro football, transformed the way the rest of the nation saw Kansas City, and helped Kansas Citians see themselves more clearly. Whether you''re a longtime Chiefs fan who wants to relive that thrilling season, or a younger Chiefs diehard seeking to better understand why the Chiefs of that era were so beloved, this is the book for you.

In 2019, the NFL''s one hundredth season, the Chiefs once again scaled pro football''s summit, persevering through a season marked by adversity and resilience. Experience the historic journey as it has never been seen before: from the inside, through rare, on- and off-the-field photography, key never-before-seen artifacts spanning the entire campaign, and Andy Reid''s personal account of winning his first Super Bowl ring as a head coach. Chiefs Kingdom is more than a commemorative celebration of a world title; it is the epic story of a team on a mission, as a revamped defense and its new coordinator came together over the course of a long season, and the league''s most potent offense survived the temporary loss of its MVP quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.From "The West Is Not Enough" to "2-3 Jet Chip Wasp," this lavish, handsome book documents the remarkable turn of events during the marathon regular season, as well as the unprecedented post-season run in which the Chiefs rallied from double-digit deficits in all three games. Colorful, insightful, and dramatic, Chiefs Kingdom is an absorbing account of one of the most unforgettable seasons in pro football history.

It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age.America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.From the Trade Paperback edition.

An inside look at how the battle off the field affects the competition on the field of america’s most popular sport—from one of the Nfl’s most successful and respected head coaches.Fresh off the sidelines from a nine-year stint as one of the most successful leaders in pro football, Super Bowl–winning head coach Brian Billick has written a book about the sport he knows and loves, giving readers a fresh perspective on America’s Game. Combining his own experiences with a wealth of new interviews gained through his unsurpassed access to pro football’s most influential figures, Billick has written a vibrant, compelling account of the true state of the game today, and the dangers that it faces in the near future. The National Football League stands as perhaps America’s last great mass entertainment, the rare enterprise that brings together a broad cross-section of our increasingly niche-driven marketplace. But even as the game has grown more popular, so has the financial pressure and stakes for all concerned. In this taut, lucid breakdown of the game’s inner workings, Billick shows how dynasties are built and teams assembled, and he explains in detail how the economic pressures of the modern NFL can affect coaches and players alike. Billick welcomes fans into the locker rooms and the boardrooms for a revealing portrait of pro football and a penetrating look at the forces that will vie for control of America’s most popular game in the future. 

For those obsessed with Premier League soccer, following your favorite team is a true collective experience, where it is easy to feel as one with thousands of others. It is also an individual one, in which the emotions you feel are your emotions, the experiences you feel are your experiences, and nobody else can perfectly understand.Over the course of the 2019–20 season, two longtime Liverpool FC followers wrote to each other about those emotions and experiences. American writer Michael MacCambridge, living in Austin, Texas, is a devoted Liverpool follower. Five thousand miles away, his friend Neil Atkinson, Liverpool resident and a longtime season ticket holder, is the host of the popular podcast The Anfield Wrap.Each week throughout the historic season, Atkinson and MacCambridge exchanged letters, contemplating Liverpool’s progress, comparing and contrasting their different perspectives on the club and the sport, meditating on the manner in which their shared obsession for Liverpool works its way into nearly every corner of their personal lives, and discussing the differences between how the game is consumed in the United States and the United Kingdom and the role modern media plays in shaping our views of sport.Their collaboration was both timely and serendipitous, as Liverpool marched toward its first ever Premier League title and its first league title in thirty years, with a charismatic manager and the most entertaining team in the sport. In March, of course, the soccer story was overtaken by the larger story of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc throughout the world, including sports events. In the course of their correspondence, Red Letters provides a real-time account of the pandemic that threatened the very existence of the season that Liverpool followers had been waiting more than a generation to experience.Red Letters provides a different way to examine the culture of a worldwide sport and development of a soccer season-game by game, in real time, with hopes and expectations tested and altered as the season progresses to Liverpool’s Premier League championship, with insight from two avid supporters.

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of this legendary season in Kansas City sports history—when the Kansas City Chiefs reached the pinnacle of pro football, defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV to become world champions. Experience the magic of this epic journey through the words of award-winning writer, Michael MacCambridge, and pictures, including a treasure trove of photographs from Rod Hanna, the Chiefs'' team photographer during that historic season (many never-before-seen). You''ll join the Chiefs on their extraordinary journey, from the heat of training camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, to the adversity of losing quarterback Len Dawson to an early-season injury, to the triumph of upset playoff wins over the defending world champion New York Jets and the arch-rival Oakland Raiders, to the final triumph in Super Bowl IV, after one of the most chaotic Super Bowl weeks ever.This lavish book documents how the Chiefs revolutionized pro football, transformed the way the rest of the nation saw Kansas City, and helped Kansas Citians see themselves more clearly. Whether you''re a longtime Chiefs fan who wants to relive that thrilling season, or a younger Chiefs diehard seeking to better understand why the Chiefs of that era were so beloved, this is the book for you.

In 2019, the NFL''s one hundredth season, the Chiefs once again scaled pro football''s summit, persevering through a season marked by adversity and resilience. Experience the historic journey as it has never been seen before: from the inside, through rare, on- and off-the-field photography, key never-before-seen artifacts spanning the entire campaign, and Andy Reid''s personal account of winning his first Super Bowl ring as a head coach. Chiefs Kingdom is more than a commemorative celebration of a world title; it is the epic story of a team on a mission, as a revamped defense and its new coordinator came together over the course of a long season, and the league''s most potent offense survived the temporary loss of its MVP quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.From "The West Is Not Enough" to "2-3 Jet Chip Wasp," this lavish, handsome book documents the remarkable turn of events during the marathon regular season, as well as the unprecedented post-season run in which the Chiefs rallied from double-digit deficits in all three games. Colorful, insightful, and dramatic, Chiefs Kingdom is an absorbing account of one of the most unforgettable seasons in pro football history.