Keepers of the Flame


Book Description

NFL Films changed the way Americans view football. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media traces the subsidiary's development from a small independent film production company to the marketing machine that Sports Illustrated named "perhaps the most effective propaganda organ in the history of corporate America." Drawing on research at the NFL Films Archive and the Pro Football Hall of Fame and interviews with media pioneer Steve Sabol and others, Travis Vogan shows how NFL Films has constructed a consistent, romanticized, and remarkably visible mythology for the National Football League. The company packages football as a visceral and dramatic sequence of violent, beautiful, graceful, and heroic gridiron battles. Historically proven formulas for presentation--such as the dramatic voiceovers once provided by John Facenda's baritone, the soaring scores of Sam Spence's rousing background music, and the epic poetry found in Steve Sabol's scripts--are still used today. From the Vincent Price-narrated Strange but True Football Stories to the currently running series Hard Knocks, NFL Films distinguishes the NFL from other sports organizations and from other media and entertainment. Vogan tells the larger story of the company's relationship with and vast influence on our culture's representations of sport, the expansion of sports television beyond live game broadcasts, and the emergence of cable television and Internet sports media. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media presents sports media as an integral facet of American popular culture and NFL Films as key to the transformation of professional football into the national obsession commonly known as America's Game.




CTE, Media, and the NFL


Book Description

CTE, Media, and the NFL: Framing a Public Health Crisis as a Football Epidemic examines the central role of mediain constructing an entangled relationship between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the National Football League (NFL), challenging a predominately symbiotic sports/media complex. The authors of this book analyze more than a decade of media coverage, along with three prominent films, to unpack how media discourse resurrects CTE, a preventable degenerative brain disease linked to boxing in 1928, and subsequently frames it as a football epidemic dating back to 2005. The authors position CTE as a public health crisis, whereby media coverage of CTE and the NFL’s vigorous reliance on controversial published research by the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) Committee parallels the moral panic of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and Big Tobacco’s manufacturing of doubt through faulty science. This book argues that the continued aspiration and idolization of the NFL, and its lack of accountability for health concerns surrounding brain injuries, highlight the firm grasp of hegemonic masculinity on the ideology of American football - further problematizing media’s glorification of the sport. Scholars of sports media, health communication, and general media studies will find this book particularly useful to discuss longitudinal effects of media framing centered on critical health risks in sport and the challenge of translating accurate scientific knowledge to the public domain.




Interference


Book Description

One of the most debated sports books of all time, Interference led to a hard-hitting fight with the New York Times, ultimately refereed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Moldea provides a blow-by-blow account of his bloody battle with the Times as well as an explosive update that chronicles newly exposed connections between the NFL and organized crime.




Football and Manliness


Book Description

Women, African Americans, and gays have recently upended US culture with demands for inclusion and respect, while economic changes have transformed work and daily life for millions of Americans. The national obsession with the National Football League provides a window on this dynamic period of change, reshaping ideas about manliness to respond to new urgencies on and beyond the gridiron. Thomas P. Oates uses feminist theory to break down the dynamic cultural politics shaping, and shaped by, today's NFL. As he shows, the league's wildly popular product provides an arena for media producers to work out and recalibrate the anxieties, contradictions, and challenges that characterize contemporary masculinity. Oates draws from a range of pop culture narratives to map the complex set of theories about gender and race and to reveal a league and fan base in flux. Though longing for a past dominated by white masculinity, the mediated NFL also subtly aligns with a new economic reality that demands it cope with the shifting relations of gender, race, sexuality, and class. Indeed, pro football crafts new meanings of each by its canny mobilization of historic ideological processes.




The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football


Book Description

During his nearly 30 years at Sports Illustrated, Paul Zimmerman—known to readers as “Dr. Z”—rose to fame as one of the top writers in football history. The follow up to Zimmerman’s 1971 classic The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football, The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football builds on the timeless insights of his original work. Filled with personal anecdotes from Zimmerman’s years covering football, this book offers a fascinating insight into the sport that will appeal to any fan that wants a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game. More than a generation later, Zimmerman’s work is as applicable today as when the updated edition came out in the late 1980s. This widely-acclaimed guide covers: Positions Tactics Football scouting Broadcasting Minor leagues Time strategies Great players and top moments




Inside Pro Football Media


Book Description

How do you get your pro football news? The answer might depend on how old you are! Millions of fans follow the league and its players with devotion and dedication, but how they do that has changed enormously. Inside, see how technology has had an impact on how football is presented and covered from the early days of TV to satellite broadcasts to the creation of the Internet to today's mobile-focused media. The NFL and the world of information have changed at the same time. Inside, a longtime football writer examines this ever-changing issue. Professional football is clearly the most popular and successful sports league in American history. Rather than focus on the star players or big games, this series takes a broader, deeper look at the sport off the field. The insider experience of the authors reveals the secrets that make the NFL No. 1. Just because you know who won the Super Bowl doesn't mean you know ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. The National Football League is by far Americas most popular and successful sports league. Fans know who won the Super Bowl and who the top players are, but do they know how the league is run? How games get on TV? How the draft works? This series, written by longtime pro football journalists, takes an inside look behind the scenes of pro football, opening up new ways to enjoy the game (or even consider careers off the field). Bonus volumes on the state of high school and college football help readers get perspective on the roles of those levels of the sport on the NFL itself. For NFL fans, for sports fans, for business students, this series scores a touchdown! Each title in the ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL series includes color photos throughout, and back matter including an index and further reading lists for books and internet resources. Key Icons appear throughout the books in this series in an effort to encourage library readers to build knowledge, gain awareness, explore possibilities, and expand their viewpoints through our content rich nonfiction books. Key Icons in this series are: Words to Understand shown at the front of each chapter with definitions. These words are set in boldfaced color type in that chapter, so that readers are able to reference back to the definitions, building their vocabulary and enhancing their reading comprehension. Sidebars are highlighted graphics with content-rich material within that allows readers to build knowledge and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Text-Dependent Questions are placed at the end of each chapter referring back to subjects covered within. They challenge the reader's comprehension of the material they have just read, while sending the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects are provided at the end of each chapter as well and give readers suggestions for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Educational Videos are offered in chapters through the use of a QR code, that, when scanned, takes the student to an online video showing a moment in history, a speech, or an instructional video. This gives the readers additional content to supplement the text. A Series Glossary of Key Terms is included in the back matter containing terminology used throughout the series. Words found here broaden the readers knowledge and understanding of terms used in this field.




Things That Make White People Uncomfortable


Book Description

Michael Bennett is a Super Bowl Champion, a three-time Pro Bowl defensive end, a fearless activist, a feminist, a grassroots philanthropist, an organizer, and a change maker. He's also one of the most scathingly humorous athletes on the planet, and he wants to make you uncomfortable. Bennett adds his unmistakable voice to discussions of racism and police violence, Black athletes and their relationship to powerful institutions like the NCAA and the NFL, the role of protest in history, and the responsibilities of athletes as role models to speak out against injustice. Following in the footsteps of activist-athletes from Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, Bennett demonstrates his outspoken leadership both on and off the field.Written with award-winning sportswriter and author Dave Zirin, Things that Make White People Uncomfortable is a sports book for our turbulent times, a memoir, and a manifesto as hilarious and engaging as it is illuminating.




Behind the Line of Scrimmage


Book Description

The author's journey as an athlete and lawyer provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors in the world of professional sports and collegiate athletic programs. It is also a not often told chronicle of growing up black and male in white suburban America. While black athletes are ubiquitous on the playing field and front pages of tabloids, the challenge remains to gain true power in the multibillion-dollar sports industry. Huyghue details that struggle play by play.




Placekicking in the NFL


Book Description

" NFL placekicking has quite a history, from the dropkick, to the placekick, to kicking barefoot, to soccer style kicking. Each style of kicking is analyzed through statistics to show its effectiveness for field goals and extra points. Also discussed is the use of artificial turf and the development of domed stadiums and their effects on placekicking accuracy"--




Outside the Lines


Book Description

Explores the often overlooked role of the NFL in the American civil rights movement Watching a football game on a Sunday evening, most sports fans do not realize the profound impact the National Football League had on the civil rights movement. Similarly, in a sport where seven out of ten players are Black, few are fully aware of the history and contributions of their athletic forebears. Among the touchdowns and tackles lies a rich history of African American life and the struggle to achieve equal rights. Outside the Lines traces how football laid a foundation for social change long before the judicial system formally recognized the inequalities of racial separation. Integrating teams to include white and Black athletes alike fifty years before the reversal of Plessy v Ferguson, the National Football League served as a microcosmic fishbowl of the highs and lows—the trials and triumphs—of racial integration. In this chronicle of the important stories of Black NFL athletes in the early twentieth century, Charles K. Ross has given us an important insight into the role of sports in the fight for racial justice.