Football Century

With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, The Age of Football explores soccer's vital role in our social, political, and economic lives: its connections to social discord in the Middle East and political division in Europe; the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States; and its use (and misuse) in the global advance of equality and human rights. Goldblatt proves that whether you call it football or soccer, you can't make sense of the modern world without understanding its most popular sport.

In Masters of Modern Soccer, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl asks: How do some of the game's smartest figures master the craft of soccer? By profiling players in every key position (American phenomenon Christian Pulisic, Mexican superstar Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Belgium's Vincent Kompany, Spain's Xabi Alonso, Germany's Manuel Neuer) and management (Belgium coach Roberto Martínez and Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc), Wahl reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field and execute in high pressure game situations.

The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the 100 years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL.

Football, Stalkers and Family Secrets One month after his eighteenth birthday, Billy Ray Suggs receives an ultimatum; get married, or find a new place to live. Billy Ray discovers living accommodations are hard to find, in a small Texas town, when you're the illegitimate son of a disreputable woman. Milton, Texas is in turmoil. When a prostitute is murdered two blocks from the high school restless citizens worry about a murderous stalker lurking within their town. As Billy Ray and his teammates play their last football game of the season the Milton Police Chief uncovers a dark secret which ...

Winners. Losers. Lovers. There’s only one more football game, and it’s time to go big or go home. A district championship is in reach for the Creekridge Wildcats, but no one is thinking about football. The Creekridge Quarterback, Dan Spencer, tries to forget the passion of a former lover when a new female in his life bestows her affection on him. Two weeks after his car mysteriously caught on fire; Creekridge Halfback, Wayne Myers, discovers his step-mother is willing to forget her knowledge of the incident if Wayne is willing to accept an unusual offer for her silence. Across the ...

The most popular college football team in the early 20th century belonged to an institution called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Its story begins with Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, a fierce abolitionist who believed that Native Americans deserved a place in American society. In 1879, Pratt made a treacherous journey to the Dakota Territory to recruit Carlisle's first students. Years later, three students approached Pratt with the notion of forming a football team.

Two Teams. One Week. One Game It's almost game time; Creekridge versus Milton for the district championship, and the real action occurs off the football field. While opposing coaches resume a personal grudge match; players on both teams run fast and loose. To settle a debt, Creekridge Quarterback Dan Spencer gets involved in a risky endeavor with a team mate. In the Creekridge neighborhood, where clandestine lovers meet and parents fund drug deals, everyone wants more of the good life. Sixty miles away in Milton, it's a battle for survival as Milton Halfback Billy Ray Suggs struggles with ...

Nations, peoples and neighbourhoods across the globe imagine and invent themselves through playing and following the game. In The Age of Football, David Goldblatt charts football’s global cultural ascent, its economic transformation and deep politicisation, taking in prison football in Uganda and amputee football in Angola, the role of football fans in the Arab Spring, the footballing presidencies of Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Turkey’s Recep Erdogan, China’s declared intention to both host and win the World Cup by 2050 and the FIFA corruption scandal.

From the day Princeton played the first intercollegiate game in 1869, these major schools of the northeast - Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale - shaped football as we now know it. In this rich history, Bernstein shows that much of the culture that surrounds American football, both good and bad, has its roots in the Ivy League.