The Best NFL Books 2025

1. Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL, (Paperback)

In the NFL there is only one certainty: that every day, someone will have to be the Next Man Up. Football is an unrelentingly punishing sport, played and practiced at undiminished intensity, and it devours its players. Confronting injuries, trades, and the grim reality of competition, every NFL team prepares constantly for the likelihood -- the certainty -- that even franchise players can go down at any time. And someone new must be ready, trained, and primed to step in at the highest level. Bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein persuaded one NFL team to lift the extraordinary secrecy that shrouds the sport and let him see how a team operates at the closest level. One team let him join every practice, every coaches' meeting, every players' gathering, every strategy debate. From the give-and-take of draft day, into the grinder of summer training camps, and from 100-degree practice games to the last game in frigid conditions, Feinstein reveals how a football team works -- or fails to work -- as no writer has done before. Next Man Up unveils rituals (what a coach tells a player at the moment he cuts him); rules (the inanities of league-appointed "uniform Nazis"); conflicts (the scouts vs. the coaches, the general managers vs. the agents, the offense vs. the defense, the special teams coaches vs. everybody); money (how much a journeyman makes, and how his life differs from the multi-million-dollar-a-year star players)-every nuance of a team's life, from the owner's goals to the coach's day-to-day travails to the feeling of the sleet-soaked ball in the hands of a receiver on artificial turf. The access John Feinstein enjoyed allows him to discuss with equal understanding the owner's management strategy, the coaches' and coordinators' plans for each new game, and how it all affects the players themselves. Anyone who loves football -- any team, in any era -- will savor the thousands of details revealed here for the first time, and the extraordinary drama that goes into following week after week, the most sensational sport in America.

Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL, (Paperback) Author: Back Bay Books ISBN: 9780316013284 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2006-10-01 Page Count: 544

2. Matt Christopher Sports Bio Bookshelf On the Field With...Peyton and Eli Manning, (Paperback)

No other family has conquered football like the Mannings. Discover their amazing story in this biography that includes stats and the achievements of the Mannings, on and off the football field. It all started with the dad, Archie, a former pro quarterback who taught his sons Peyton and Eli to play football. Now, the brothers have a legacy of their own as pro quarterbacks, starting with two stunning Super Bowl wins. This exciting Matt Christopher biography gives readers the story behind this famous football family, as well as thrilling recaps of some of the most awesome games in NFL history.

Matt Christopher Sports Bio Bookshelf On the Field With...Peyton and Eli Manning, (Paperback) Author: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers ISBN: 9780316036962 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2008-09-01 Page Count: 144

3. Pre-Owned Where Men Win Glory : The Odyssey of Pat Tillman 9780739327630

ISBN: 9780739327630 ISBN10: 0739327631 Contributors: Krakauer, Jon,

The bestselling author of "Into the Wild," "Into Thin Air," and "Under the Banner of Heaven" delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man's haunting journey. " "Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan. Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Long after Tillman's nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had "probably" been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible. In "Where Men Win Glory," Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman's journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account""of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq--a war he would openly declare was "illegal as hell" --and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers. Krakauer chronicles Tillman's riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer's storytelling, "Where Men Win Glory "exposes shattering truths about men and war. "From the Hardcover edition."

4. Patriot Reign: Bill Belichick, the Coaches, and the Players Who Built a Champion, (Paperback)

When Bill Belichick arrived in New England, the Patriots were a laughingstock, an organization with a losing record and a roster of overpaid, underperforming players. So how did a head coach with a questionable record transform this team, garner three Lombardi trophies in four years, and -- with the Pats' 2005 Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles -- cement the team's place as an NFL dynasty? With unprecedented access granted by Belichick and his staff, author Michael Holley spent two years with the coach, his team, and his brain trust. Holley provides insights into how Belichick and his coaching cabinet prepare for opponents, evaluate talent, run the draft, and design their offensive and defensive schemes. Patriot Reign captures Belichick at his most candid, and what emerges is a portrait of a complicated man who is cerebral, yes, but also tough, demanding, stubborn, funny, profane, and a master strategist. Frank, uncompromising, and stunning, Patriot Reign is required reading for football fans who want to understand what makes a champion tick .

Patriot Reign: Bill Belichick, the Coaches, and the Players Who Built a Champion, (Paperback) Author: It Books ISBN: 9780060757953 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2005-10-01 Page Count: 272

5. Super Bowl Super Touchdowns (Other) 9780439828154

Meet the players who score the big points. When it's down to the final seconds and your team is behind by three-points, who do you want to see holding that football? These fourteen guys can take the ball all the way to the end zone-and they don't let anyone get in the way. Learn more about them and the touchdowns that made them game winners.Extra components, such as CDs, DVDs, figurines, or access codes are not included. ISBN: 9780439828154 ISBN10: 0439828155 Contributors: Preller, James, Scholastic, Inc. Staff, Layden, Joe,

Get in on all the grid iron action with Scholastic and the NFL. Meet the players who score the big points. When it's down to the final seconds and your team is behind by three-points, who do you want to see holding that football? These fourteen guys can take the ball all the way to the end zone-and they don't let anyone get in the way. Learn more about them and the touchdowns that made them game winners.

6. Jim & Me (Hardcover) by Dan Gutman

Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 208. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 208 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white. Baseball Card Adventures. Intended for a juvenile audience. Jim Thorpe played professional baseball and football, and he won two track-and-field events in the 1912 Olympics. However, after a scandal regarding his eligibility, he was stripped of his medals. Now Stosh and Bobby Fuller head back to the past in a rip-roaring trip to save Thorpe's reputation.

ISBN: 9780060594947 Condition: New Hard cover Language: English Pages: 208 Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 208 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white. Baseball Card Adventures. Intended for a juvenile audience. Jim Thorpe played professional baseball and football, and he won two track-and-field events in the 1912 Olympics. However, after a scandal regarding his eligibility, he was stripped of his medals. Now Stosh and Bobby Fuller head back to the past in a rip-roaring trip to save Thorpe's reputation.