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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > American football
17th September 2020 will mark the centenary of the National
Football League. It will reach that landmark as a behemoth, an
all-encompassing conglomerate that is the most lucrative sports
league in the world - and also the dominant pop culture entity in
the United States. The NFL is also making considerable gains
worldwide. The International Series has been heading to London
since 2007 with incredible sell-outs at the four games in 2019 at
Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadiums. This may lead some to
believe the league has always been a roaring success story. History
contradicts that reputation, for the NFL of today is a by-product
of the humblest beginnings. It is a rocky road filled with genius
detours and wrong turns; with heroes and villains; and, most
importantly, with thousands of games. Any Given Sunday will detail
some of the biggest of those, beginning with the first contest ever
played in 1920 and working through to multiple key fixtures from
last season. Each chapter will be complemented by countless
interviews with some of the game's true legends, from Hall of Fame
players and coaches to owners and executives; first-hand accounts
from games, including multiple Super Bowls; and, finally, full
access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NFL Films' extensive
archives, including pieces not available to the public. Any Given
Sunday takes readers from the boardrooms to the field, into the
locker-room and inside the journeys of legends, providing a full
snapshot of the NFL's epic first century.
In their seven years together, quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach
Don Shula, kings of the fabled Baltimore Colts of the 1960s,
created one of the most successful franchises in sports. Unitas and
Shula had a higher winning percentage than Lombardi's Packers, but
together they never won a championship. Baltimore lost the big game
to the Browns in 1964 and to Joe Namath and the Jets in 1969's
Super Bowl III-both in stunning upsets. The Colts' near misses in
the Shula era were among the most confounding losses any sports
franchise ever suffered. Rarely had a team in any league performed
so well, over such an extended period, only to come up empty. The
two men had a complex relationship stretching back to their time as
young teammates competing for their professional lives. Their
personal conflict mirrored their tumultuous times. As they elevated
the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about
Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the
complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league's winningest
coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas and how their
secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were
as memorable as their victories.
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