Football Health

In Against Football Steve Almond details why, after 40 years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions: Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia? What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood--run, leap, throw, tackle--into a billion-dollar industry?

In this new edition of The TB12 Method, Tom Brady further explains and details the revolutionary training, conditioning, and wellness system that has kept him atop the NFL at an age when most players are deep into retirement. Brady - along with the expert Body Coaches at TB12, the performance lifestyle brand he cofounded in 2013 with Alex Guerrero - explain the principles and philosophies of pliability, a paradigm-shifting fitness concept that focuses on a more natural, healthier way of exercising, training, and living.

Following a stellar 12-year career as a linebacker, including a Super Bowl win with Baltimore in 2000, O. J. "Juice" Brigance joined the Ravens' front office. But in 2007, Brigance was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - and told he had only three to five years to live. As a player, he'd battled hundreds of injuries and setbacks. None of them prepared him to face ALS.

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn't so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won't even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself.

Warren St. John decided to find out why people care so much about the outcomes of games they're not playing in by joining a group where the particulars of the fan psyche would show themselves in sharp relief: the caravan of hundreds of RVs that follow the Alabama Crimson Tide across the South, taking over college towns with a moveable feast of Weber grills, karaoke machines, Igloo coolers, and fast-draining liquor bottles.

The book draws on public health ethics, public health law, and the histories of occupational and public health to assess the limits of parental choice to expose their children to risks of injury. Chris Nowinski, former Harvard football player and WWE wrestler, provides a timely and insider's perspective on these critical issues in the foreword.

Exclusive interviews with the top athletes in sports today. Trust the Grind: How World-Class Athletes Got to the Top reveals how these men and women reached the heights of their profession so that you can too. Each chapter tells a different story, as each superstar shares the habit that helped them accomplish their goals and reach the pinnacle of their profession.

Horrified by the thought of breaking off his life-long love-affair with running, Richard Askwith began to think seriously about a question with profound implications for every enthusiastic runner: how can you keep running, happily and well, for the rest of your life—ideally, well into your nineties and beyond? Askwith's quest for the secrets of running longevity takes him on a long, mystifying journey: to laboratories and running tracks, cities and remote mountain villages, on several continents.

Are you a skilled soccer player who can't make it big? Is it because of your lack of physical and mental fitness? Soccer Fitness provides an excellent way to help with soccer fitness for players and coaches. It offers examples of ways in which players can enhance their endurance for playing soccer and looks at the kind of fitness specifically needed for playing soccer at the highest level.

In December 2015, Zac Easter, a twenty-four-year-old from small-town Iowa, decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against traumatic brain injuries he had sustained as a high school football player and which led him to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). For this deeply reported and powerfully moving true story, award-winning writer Reid Forgrave was given access to Zac’s own diaries and was able to speak with Zac’s family, friends, and coaches.

Life is looking up for D.J. Schwenk. She's in 11th grade, finally. After a rocky summer, she's reconnecting in a big way with her best friend, Amber. She's got kind of a thing going with Brian Nelson, who's cute and popular and smart but seems to like her anyway. And then there's the fact that she's starting for the Red Bend High School football team, as the first girl linebacker in northern Wisconsin, probably. Which just shows you can't predict the future.

In 1998, Spielman's wife, Stefanie, was diagnosed with breast cancer, launching an eleven-year journey that brought joy and suffering to the Spielmans and hope and inspiration to thousands of others. In That's Why I'm Here, Spielman traces his storied career, recalls his courtship with Stephanie, cherishes the growth of their four children, and invokes the deep, spiritual faith that gave their family wisdom and comfort in times of struggle.

"I'm not gay, but..." College freshman athlete Basil Rothsteller is straight, but his gorgeous tall chiseled physical therapist, Lucien, has an amazing touch. The more Lucien touches him, the more uncertain Basil grows. It's just a physical reflex, right? Basil is sure he's straight, but his body refuses to listen. His first time is nothing like he's ever felt, but he's not sure whether to let himself enjoy it. "I'm your physical therapist, not your plaything." Lucien wouldn't mind dating a younger man, especially one with a body like Basil's. But first he has to be convinced that Basil ...

Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-hear for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game.

Marcus Rashford, MBE, is famous worldwide for his skills both on and off the pitch—but before he was a Manchester United and England footballer, and long before he started his inspiring campaign to end child food poverty, he was just an ordinary kid from Wythenshawe, South Manchester. Now the nation's favourite footballer wants to show YOU how to achieve your dreams, in this positive and inspiring guide for life.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Play On by Jeff Bercovici, read by Adam Sims. Sports are about challenging our physical limits. But the greatest limit of all remains undefeated: age. We're taught to believe that ageing thwarts effort and grace, talent and grit, outstanding teamwork and individual brilliance. But a new breed of top professionals - the likes of Roger Federer, Jo Pavey and Tom Brady - are overturning long-held assumptions about the duration of primetime in a sporting career. It's not that aging causes a decline in fitness; rather, a decline in fitness causes aging.

The Immaculate Reception, the Drive, Red Right 88, the Catch, the Helmet Catch, and Ambush are all specific plays that may readily come to mind as defining moments in pro football history. The closer we examine games, seasons, careers, and legacies in any area, especially professional football, the more we will see these moments. There is one play, decision, person, or moment that connects a team with who they become. It only takes one! As you read this book, you'll come across the motivation behind every championship season, the personnel with the team, the Hinge moment, and the ...

Elizabeth Rusch’s A Greater Goal chronicles how members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team fought to receive fair treatment and equal pay despite the intense pushback they received from U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in the United States. With a narrative that includes player profiles and vignettes framed from team member perspectives, A Greater Goal illuminates the work, support, and grit needed to be treated with equality in a world that often undervalues the contributions of women.

Award-winning journalist Vicki Mayk raises a critical question for football players and their communities: Does loving a sport justify risking your life? This is the insightful and deeply human story of Owen Thomas - a star football player at Penn, who took his own life when he was 21, the result of the pain and anguish caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

He is one of the most talented footballers of the modern era and a dual international in rugby league and rugby union. But for a long time, Mat Rogers lived in both the shadow and the thrall of his famous father, and their complex relationship shaped him in ways he couldn’t fathom. Craving paternal acceptance while determined to carve out his own identity and, later, to avoid repeating the sins of the father, he veered between periods of jubilation and depression. Now, in his majestic, evocative autobiography, Rogers tells the story of a life framed by triumph and tragedy.