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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > American football
Tackle football has been primarily viewed as a male sport, but at a
time when men's participation rates are decreasing, an increasing
number of women are entering the gridiron-and they have a long
history of doing so. Women's American Football is a narrative
history of girls and women participating in American football in
the United States since the 1920s, when a women's team played at
halftime during an early NFL game. The women's game became more
organized in 1974, when the National Women's Football League was
established, with notable teams such as the Dallas Bluebonnets,
Toledo Troopers, Oklahoma City Dolls, and Detroit Demons. Today
there are two main professional leagues in the United States: the
Women's Football Alliance, with nearly seventy teams, and the
Women's National Football Conference, with eighteen, in addition to
a number of smaller leagues. The National Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics and the NFL have recently begun
sponsoring flag football teams at the college level, and the game
is growing for high school girls as well. In 2021 more than two
thousand girls played on mostly boys' teams, and there are
currently four all-girls leagues in the United States and Canada,
in Manitoba, Utah, Indiana, and New Brunswick. In addition to the
rapid growth of women playing football, there have been
advancements in other areas of the game. Beginning with Jennifer
Welter in 2015, several women have earned positions coaching the
professional game. In 2020 ESPN aired Born to Play, a documentary
on the Boston Renegades, the 2019 champion of the Women's Football
Alliance. Based on extensive interviews with women players and
focusing closely on leagues, teams, and athletes since the passage
of Title IX in 1972, Russ Crawford illuminates the rich history of
the women who have played football, breaking barriers on and off
the field.
In 2008 over six million people attended an SEC football game. They
spent thousands on season tickets, donated millions to athletic
departments, and for three months a year ordered their entire lives
around the schedule of their favorite team. As a Christian, Gibbs
knows he cannot serve two masters, but at times his faith is
overwhelmed by his fanaticism. He is not alone.Gibbs and his six
million friends do not live in a spiritually void land where such
borderline idol worship would normally be accepted. They live in
the American South, where according to the 2008 American Religious
Identification Survey, 84 percent identify themselves as
Christians. This apparent contradiction that Gibbs sees in his own
life, and in millions of others', has led him to journey to each of
the twelve schools to spend time with rabid Christian fans of
various ages and denominations. Through his journey, he learns how
others are able to balance their passion for their team with their
devotion to God.
In the past, sport, particularly football, has been defined as a
male domain. Women s interest stereotypically ranges from gentle
tolerance to active resistance. But increasingly, women are proudly
identifying themselves as supporters of their teams, and have
become highly desirable audiences for sport organizations and
merchandisers. Football provides a unique site at which to examine
the complex interplay between three theoretical areas: identity
formation and maintenance, commercialization of cultural practices,
and gender hegemony. This book explores how women experience their
fandom, and what barriers exist for the female fan.
Very few athletes are invited to a combine. Whether they are elite
high school athletes vying for a college scholarship or standout
college players looking to catch the eye of NFL scouts, only the
best of the best get the chance to showcase their abilities in the
unique environment of the combine, where a fraction of a second can
make or break an athlete's dream to play at the next level. All-Pro
Performance Training: An Insider's Guide to Preparing for the
Football Combine takes combine training to a whole new level by
featuring a groundbreaking approach to movement training by one of
the most sought after performance coaches in the country. As
strength and conditioning coach of the NFL's Denver Broncos, Loren
Landow trains some of the most finely tuned athletes in the world.
Prior to joining the Broncos, he founded Landow Performance, a
sports performance training facility based in Denver, whose staff
of strength and conditioning coaches has worked with hundreds of
well-known athletes from the highest levels of sport (NFL, NCAA
Division I, WNBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, Olympic Games). Landow knows what
it takes to shine at a combine, and he shares his specialized
knowledge in All-Pro Performance Training: An Insider's Guide to
Preparing for the Football Combine. With a foreword by Christian
McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers running back and Landow Performance
client, the text breaks down the proper execution of combine
staples such as the 40-yard dash and pro-agility shuttle. It offers
tips for mastering position-specific agility drills, and it
provides an inside look into how athletes at the highest level of
the sport both train and recover. Proven techniques for mastering
position-specific agility drills will help players hone their
biomechanical movement efficiency, reduce the risk of injury, and
open scouts' eyes. And Prep Like a Pro sidebars put you right on
the field with the author, revealing the most advanced training
regimens and technological tools used by elite coaches and
athletes. Equip your athletes to reach their full potential. With
All-Pro Performance Training, strength and conditioning coaches,
personal trainers, and motivated athletes have the definitive
playbook for training with purpose, elevating their game, and
performing at their peak at combine time. CE exam available! For
certified professionals, a companion continuing education exam can
be completed after reading this book. The All-Pro Performance
Training Online CE Exam may be purchased separately or as part of
the All-Pro Performance Training With CE Exam package that includes
both the book and the exam.
In order for a football program to be legendary it requires that
its players be legendary as well. In The Legends, Mark Rea writes
about 50 of the most epic Ohio State football players and coaches
and what make them so special. Their stats, football prowess, and
most memorable moments are highlighted in 275 pages of buckeye
lore. Impress your friends with your knowledge of the buckeye team
and its wonderfully rich history. A true fan doesn't just wear the
colors; it knows why the colors were chosen.
What is this madness all about? Anyone who has experienced it
knows: being a Cleveland Browns fan is just different. Why are we
the only fans in the nation who ever demanded their team back?and
got it? Why did three seasons without football fail even to dampen
the enthusiasm? Why have we endured years of heartache (The Fumble,
The Drive, ?Red Right 88? . . .) yet grown ever more attached to
the experience? These 33 essays hold the answer. Author Scott
Huler's nostalgic memoirs, and his personal interviews with Browns
legends and other fans, uncover those essential, special elements
of shared experience that define what being a Browns fan has meant
for us all. It's about pride. It's about desire, tempered by
crushing disappointment. It's about tradition, and learning how to
root for the home team at your father's side. It's about rivalry
and electrifying victory. It's about longing?for a return to past
championships, for future glory. It's about heart. It's about all
that, and much more
This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council
(ARC)-funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football
League's Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote
Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which
investigated the impact of the Australian Football League's
anti-vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. With key
stakeholders the Australian Football League, the AFL Players'
Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (previously the
Victorian Multicultural Commission), the book gauges the attitudes
and perspectives of players and coaches in the AFL regarding Rule
35, the code's anti-vilification rule. The overarching themes of
multiculturalism, reconciliation and social harmony in the AFL
workplace have been the guiding ideals that we examined and
analysed. The outcomes from the research vectors look at and engage
with key issues about race, diversity and difference as it pertains
to the elite AFL code, but also looks at the ongoing international
conversation as it pertains to these themes in sport. This book was
previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
In 1926, Harvard athletic director Bill Bingham chose former
Crimson All-American Arnold Horween as coach of the university's
moribund football team. The pair instilled a fresh culture, one
based on merit rather than social status, and in the virtues of
honor and courage over mere winning. Yet their success challenged
entrenched ideas about who belonged at Harvard and, by extension,
who deserved to lay claim to the American dream. Zev Eleff tells
the story of two immigrants' sons shaped by a vision of an America
that rewarded any person of virtue. As a player, the Chicago-born
Horween had led Harvard to its 1920 Rose Bowl victory. As a coach,
he faced intractable opposition from powerful East Coast alumni
because of his values and Midwestern, Jewish background. Eleff
traces Bingham and Horween's careers as student-athletes and their
campaign to wrest control of the football program from alumni. He
also looks at how Horween undermined stereotypes of Jewish
masculinity and dealt with the resurgent antisemitism of the 1920s.
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.
On any given workday, any little thing might send Steve Smith's
thoughts spinning back to Saturday-last Saturday, Saturday two
weeks ago, Saturday two years ago, back into the thrilling minutiae
of game day-until reality reminds him: this is not how
well-adjusted adults act. Steve Smith is not a well-adjusted adult.
He's a Nebraska football fan, and this is his rollicking account of
what it's like to be one of those legendary enthusiasts whose
passion for the Cornhuskers is at once irresistible and hilarious.
A journey into an obsessed Nebraska fan's soul, Forever Red
immerses readers in the mad, mad world of Husker football
fandom-where wearing the scarlet-and-cream Husker gear has its own
peculiar rules; where displaced followers act as the program's
ambassadors, finding Husker subculture beyond the pale; and where
the team's performance can barely keep pace with its followers'
expectations but sometimes exceeds their wildest dreams. Revised,
updated, and expanded from the 2005 edition, Smith's story of
thirty-plus years following the team takes readers back to
memorable game moments from 1980 up through the roller-coaster ride
of recent years. Blending wit and insight, Smith offers to the
uninitiated and the fellow fanatic alike a window on the world
where fantasy and football meet, where dreams of glory and gritty
gridiron realities forever join. This edition features a new
afterword bringing it up to the dawn of the Scott Frost era.
Billy Cannon's name, his image, and his remarkable athletic career
serve as emblems for Louisiana State University, the Southeastern
Conference, and college football. LSU's only Heisman Trophy winner,
Cannon led the Tigers to a national championship in 1958, igniting
a love of the game in Louisiana and establishing a tradition of
greatness at LSU. But like many stories of lionized athletes who
rise to the status of legend, there was a fall -- and in the case
of Billy Cannon, also redemption. For the first time, Charles N.
deGravelles reveals in full the thrilling highs and unexpected lows
of Cannon's life, in Billy Cannon: A Long, Long Run. Through
conversations with Cannon, deGravelles follows the
athlete-turned-reformer from his boyhood in a working-class Baton
Rouge neighborhood to his sudden rush of fame as the leading high
school running back in the country. Personal and previously
unpublished stories about Cannon's glory days at LSU and his
stellar but controversial career in the pros, as well as details of
his indictment for counterfeiting and his post-release work as
staff dentist at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, unfold in
a riveting biography characterized by uncanny success, deep
internal struggles, and a champion's spirit that pushed through it
all.
When the Florida Agricultural College in Lake City became the
University of Florida and moved south to Gainesville in 1906, it
had a very fledgling football team, although worthy opponents were
difficult to find. Little by little, as the school increased in
size and reputation, its football team attracted higher-performing
athletes and sterner opponents until it was willing to play any
team in the country. In 1966, the team had its first Heisman Trophy
winner, but it was not until 30 years later that UF won its first
national championship. Since then UF has chalked up two more
Heisman Trophy winners and two more national championships. With a
selection of fine historic images from his bestselling book,
Historic Photos of University of Florida Football, Kevin McCarthy
provides a valuable and revealing historical retrospective on the
growth and development of University of Florida football.
Remembering University of Florida Football chronicles the rise of
one of the premier football programs in the country through over
one hundred black-and-white photographs, each of them captioned and
with introductions. The book includes photos of the university and
the surrounding community to which the “Fightin’ Gators” have
become so much an integral part.
From the time he was old enough to remember, Jim Hock was told
stories of his dad's glory days playing football in LA. A member of
the 1950s LA Rams, John Hock, Jim's dad, was a member of
Hollywood's Team, a football team that redefined what a sports team
looked like, sounded like, and acted like, all while
revolutionizing the sport of football. But Jim didn't know John the
football star, he just knew the sweet, funny guy he called Dad. In
a warm and aching memoir of childhood, good dad's, and what it is
to realize that your parents had a life and successes before you
came along.
Newly-minted Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach tells his
captivating story--from rural Wyoming to law school to the upper
echelons of the SEC. SWING YOUR SWORD is the first ever book by one
of the most fascinating and successful coaches in sports today. A
maverick who took an unlikely path to coaching through law school,
Mike Leach talks about his unorthodox approach to coaching and the
choices that have brought him success throughout his career. A
lover of the game who started creating formations and drawing his
own plays as a kid, Leach took his Texas Tech Red Raiders to
numerous bowl games, achieving the #2 slot in national rankings and
being voted 2008 Coach of the Year before being unceremoniously
fired at the end of the 2009 season. The scandalous nature of his
dismissal created a media frenzy and began a personal battle
between Leach and his accusers that remains unresolved.
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