Frank Carlson Library

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times,...

"With new reporting on Tom Brady's run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football history-from the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning. Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFL's most dominant team, but also--and by far--the most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness-and what...

"As the city was rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina, Sean Payton arrived in 2006 as a relative unknown, a first-time NFL head coach tasked with resurrecting a New Orleans Saints team that had just finished 3-13. Two months after Payton was hired, the Saints signed a free agent quarterback who was cast aside by the San Diego Chargers: Drew Brees. Together, these two underdogs joined forces and transformed the Saints from laughingstock to juggernaut....

Michael Strahan distills the wisdom he's gleaned from his childhood years in Europe where, he grew up as the youngest child in a tight-knit community on a military base, his time with the NFL where his sheer discipline and willpower made him a Hall-of-Fame, legendary football player, and his broadcast career, which puts him contact with the heartland of America every morning.

Describes how Joe Namath and Bear Bryant led the Crimson Tide to an Orange Bowl championship in 1965, amidst bloody fights in the civil rights movement and a pair of ethics scandals, to change football's culture and economics.

Recounts the fateful 1912 gridiron clash that pitted one of America's finest athletes, Jim Thorpe, against the man who would become one of the nation's greatest heroes, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The story begins with the massacre of the Sioux by the U.S. Army at Wounded Knee in 1890, then moves to rural Pennsylvania and the Carlisle Indian School, an institution designed to "elevate" Indians by uprooting their youths and immersing them in the white man's...

"The extraordinary behind-the-scenes story of how Coach Bruce Arians, Tom Brady, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came together to deliver one of the most improbable Super Bowl victories in NFL history." --