Crackback


Book Description

In his gripping debut novel, acclaimed picture book author John Coy presents the high stakes world of high school football, where doing what it takes to win doesn't always mean doing the right thing.When Miles Manning, a successful high school football player, discovers his teammates are using steroids--and one of them is his best friend--he's faced with a tough decision: Is he willing to do what it takes to win? Football is his life, and his family, especially his dad, is pinning its hopes on him. It's a lot of pressure for a high school junior to bear. This gripping look into the world of high school boys and athletes--and their struggle to be the best--is provocative and searingly honest.




Crackback!


Book Description

Every Saturday in the autumn, millions of Americans watch college football. They visit leafy campuses, tailgate with friends, and then sit down to enjoy one of the country's oldest and most beloved sporting traditions. They also witness one of the country's most visible tableaus of racial inequity. Some 120 colleges and universities field teams in the NCAA's top tier of the sport, known as the Football Bowl Subdivision. But only a small fraction of those teams are coached by African-Americans or other minorities. Yet there seems to be little focus on this issue in today's society, even from the African-American community itself. Why is it that the National Football League has advanced so much farther in giving opportunities to minority coaches? Dr. Fitzgerald Hill, along with award-winning sportswriter, Mark Purdy, attack the racial dynamics of the important Crackback syndrome, in which minority coaches are led to believe they actually do have a fair chance at every job opening-only to be blindsided at the last minute by hidden forces that undermine their dreams. There is hope for the future, but first we have to be willing to look closely at a sensitive topic. That is why Crackback is necessary for everyone, especially college football fans-of any color or team.




Box Out


Book Description

John Coy turns to the high-stakes world of high school basketball in this fast-paced YA novel--now in paperback with new cover art! Sophomore Liam Bergstrom just joined the varsity basketball team. His teammates made varsity because they're good. Liam's here because he's tall and Coach needs a guy who can grab rebounds. It's the chance Liam's been waiting for, but already he's playing catch-up. The other guys know what Coach expects, and they're willing to do things Coach's way, no matter what. So when Liam questions the team's practice of praying together before games, he's suddenly the odd man out. Now Liam has to find the guts to stand up for what he believes in--and take his game to a whole new level.




When You Learn the Alphabet


Book Description

Kendra Allen’s first collection of essays—at its core—is a bunch of mad stories about things she never learned to let go of. Unifying personal narrative and cultural commentary, this collection grapples with the lessons that have been stored between parent and daughter. These parental relationships expose the conditioning that subconsciously informed her ideas on social issues such as colorism, feminism, war-induced PTSD, homophobia, marriage, and “the n-word,” among other things. These dynamics strive for some semblance of accountability, and the essays within this collection are used as displays of deep unlearning and restoring—balancing trauma and humor, poetics and reality, forgiveness and resentment. When You Learn the Alphabet allots space for large moments of tenderness and empathy for all black bodies—but especially all black woman bodies—space for the underrepresented humanity and uncared for pain of black girls, and space to have the opportunity to be listened to in order to evolve past it.




Cracking the Bell


Book Description

Friday Night Lights meets Concussion in this powerful and important novel by Geoff Herbach, author of the Stupid Fast series, exploring the dangerous concussion crisis in football through the eyes of a high school team captain. Isaiah loves football. In fact, football saved Isaiah’s life, giving him structure and discipline after his sister’s death tore his family apart. But when Isaiah gets knocked out cold on the field, he learns there’s a lot more to lose than football. While recovering from a concussion, Isaiah wonders what his life would look like without the game. All his friends are on the team, and Isaiah knows they can’t win without him. The scholarship offer from Cornell is only on the table if he keeps playing. And without football, what would keep his family together? What would prevent him from sliding back into the habits that nearly destroyed him? Isaiah must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the sport that gave him everything, even if playing football threatens to take away his future.




Monsters


Book Description

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is the New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime team and their lone Super Bowl season. 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. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan "Danimal" Hampton and "Samurai" Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on TV, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video the morning after the season's only loss. Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What's it like to win? What's it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended? The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it's about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.




Gap Life


Book Description

Cray got into the same college his father attended and is expected to go. And to go pre-med. And to get started right away. His parents are paying the tuition. It should be an easy decision. But it's not. All Cray knows is that what's expected of him doesn't feel right. The pressure to make a decision—from his family, his friends—is huge. Until he meets Rayne, a girl who is taking a gap year, and who helps him find his first real job, at a home of four adults with developmental disabilities. What he learns about himself and others will turn out to be more than any university could teach him—and twice as difficult.




Baseball Great


Book Description

From New York Times bestselling author and former NFL player Tim Green comes a baseball book pulsing with action. Baseball Great offers a baseball story attuned to today’s headlines, a totally involving, character-driven, sports-centered thriller. Perfect for fans of Mike Lupica. As a young reviewer on Brightly.com said: “Great book with many exciting, surprising events that make you want to keep reading." When the school paper calls him “Grant Middle’s best hope for its first-ever city-wide championship,” Josh feels like he’s starting to get noticed—in good and bad ways. Seeing Josh’s talent, his father drags him out of the school baseball tryouts and gets him in the running for the Titans, the local youth championship team coached by Rocky Valentine. All Josh really wants to do is play ball, but now Rocky wants him to gulp down protein shakes and other supplements. Suspicious, Josh and his new friend, Jaden, uncover a dangerous secret—and catch the attention of one man who will do anything to keep them from exposing it.




The Knickerbacker


Book Description




Official Playing Rules of the National Football League


Book Description

Official playing rules of the National Football League. Game Action Editing organizes the rules by the flow of the live game.