Search results for ""Author Barry Wilner""

This title compares classic star Joe Montana and contemporary champion Tom Brady. From leadership and accuracy to arm strength and running, chapters explore and compare each player’s skills on the field. The title also features end-of-chapter fact boxes for side-by-side player comparison, as well as a glossary. It will be up to the reader to decide who is the all-time football hero.

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Learn more about quarterback Tom Brady and the legendary New England Patriots. The title features informative sidebars, a timeline, a glossary, and team file filled with awards and records held by team members.

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Learn more about Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s. The title features informative sidebars, a timeline, a glossary, and team file filled with awards and records held by team members.

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The NFL draft features no action on the field. No passing, running, tackling, or kicking. Hey, there isn't even a field. Yet the draft has become more popular than many other sporting events, including the NBA and NHL playoff games, against which it goes head-to-head for viewers. In fact, the draft has spawned its own cottage industry in which names such as Gil Brandt, Mel Kiper Jr., and Mike Mayock have become as well known as any of the first-round selections. In On the Clock, Barry Wilner and Ken Rappoport chronicle the history of the proceedings. The veteran sportswriters take you from the first grab bag in 1936, when Philadelphia chose Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago only for him to decline to play in the NFL, to the 2014 draft—considered one of the deepest in talent ever. Along the 78-year journey, learn about the competitions for the top overall spot (Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf), the unhappy No. 1s (John Elway and Tom Cousineau), the big flops (JaMarcus Russell), and the late-rounders-turned-superstars (Tom Brady). Meet the draft wizards, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson, and read about the draft whiffs that cost personnel executives their jobs. On the Clock takes you behind the scenes at one of pro football’s most suspenseful annual events.

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From fond memory or through the film Miracle, most Americans know about the stunning upset of the Soviet Union by the underdog U.S.A hockey team at the 1980 Olympics—engagingly retold in this book—but after this most unlikely of achievements, what do the authors consider to be the top twenty sports upsets of all time? Their answers in this entertaining volume will surprise some, perhaps appear obvious to others, but will no doubt prove to be fodder for bar-room arguments and spirited debate over sports talk radio. Ranking the miracle at Lake Placid in 1980 as the hands-down, undisputed greatest sports upset ever, the authors go on to describe nineteen others whose ranking may prove to be more controversial. Which team was the most improbable World Series winner—the 1969 New York Mets or the 1914 Boston Braves? What was the sport of boxing’s greatest upset—Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990, or Cassius Clay (Mohammad Ali) over Sonny Liston in 1964? How surprising was Billy Mills’ 1964 Olympic marathon win? Or seventeen-year-old Michael Chang’s triumph at the French Open in 1989? The authors make their case for each of these “miracles, shockers, and upsets” in convincing style, and also include sidebars on upsets that didn’t “make the cut” but still qualify as compelling stories, such as “Cinderella Man” James Braddock and the 1950 World Cup shocker that was the subject of the film “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”

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Covered by four networks, allowing every game to be televised, “March Madness” has become an American phenomenon as anticipated as the Super Bowl. This is the story of the tournament from its beginnings seventy-three years ago as just an eight-team “bracket” to today’s sixty-eight-team format. From the “Cinderella” teams like Butler and Gonzaga to perennial powerhouses such as UCLA and Kentucky, covering buzzer-beaters, upsets, and dynasties, the story of one of the most-followed sporting events in history is comprehensively told here.

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