🧲 Books like this
Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL
John Feinstein · back to the book
What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football
Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian · 432 pages
A revelatory account based on the authors' unprecedented access to the NCAA's highest-level programs throughout the 2012 season describes its high-powered system of billion-dollar television deals, high-priced coaches, football "hostessing," castoff athlete-students and paid test takers.
The Jordan Rules: The Inside Story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls
Sam Smith · 333 pages
The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams
Darcy Frey · 231 pages
It ought to be just a game, but basketball on the playgrounds of Coney Island is much more than that - for many young men it represents their only hope of escape from a life of crime, poverty, and despair. It is their last shot. This is the story of a small group of high school boys who have given their young lives to basketball, as neighborhood stars and as team members of the Abraham Lincoln Hig
The Breaks of the Game
David Halberstam · 400 pages
The story of one season with the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team touches on many aspects of professional sports: stars, salaries, the media, fans, ethics, drugs, and racial tension.
The Fight
Norman Mailer · 247 pages
In 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaïre, two African American boxers were paid five million dollars apiece to fight each other. One was Muhammad Ali, the aging but irrepressible “professor of boxing.” The other was George Foreman, who was as taciturn as Ali was voluble. Observing them was Norman Mailer, a commentator of unparalleled energy, acumen, and audacity. Whether he is analyzing the fighters’ moves, int
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
George Dohrmann · 435 pages
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Dohrmann's remarkable debut offers an up-close and unforgettable narrative that reveals the gritty reality hiding behind the romanticized hoop dreams of America's basketball prodigies.
League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth
Mark Fainaru-Wada, Steve Fainaru · 419 pages
Both ESPN investigative reporters, the authors reveal how the NFL, over a period of nearly two decades, sought to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage. This narrative moves between the NFL trenches, America's research labs and the boardrooms where the NFL went to war against science; it examines how the league used its power and resources to attac
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Michael Lewis · 318 pages
"This delightfully written, lesson-laden book deserves a place of its own in the Baseball Hall of Fame." ―Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A's, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur basebal
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Christopher McDougall · 287 pages
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we tho
Michael Jordan: The Life
Roland Lazenby · 708 pages
Traces the life of one of the most legendary basketball players in the history of the sport, drawing upon interviews with Jordan's friends, family, and teammates, and following his career from college to the NBA.
Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team
Chris Lear · 261 pages
Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong
David Walsh · 426 pages
Traces the journalist's efforts to uncover the truth behind cycling's biggest star.
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
Madeleine Blais · 266 pages
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty · 384 pages
Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong
Juliet Macur · 480 pages
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
H.G. Bissinger · 367 pages
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 unempl
Unbelievable: From My Childhood Dreams To Winning Olympic Gold
Jessica Ennis, Rick Broadbent
Foley Is Good: And The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling
Mick Foley · 592 pages
Shooting Stars
LeBron James, H.G. Bissinger · 258 pages
From the ultimate team— basketball superstar LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August—a poignant, thrilling tale of the power of teamwork to transform young lives, including James's own.The Shooting Stars were a bunch of kids—LeBron James and his best friends—from Akron, Ohio, who first met on a youth basketball team of the sa
The Last Season: A Team In Search of Its Soul
Phil Jackson, Michael Arkush · 304 pages
Secretariat: The Making of a Champion
William Nack · 362 pages
David Beckham: My Side
David Beckham, Tom Watt · 544 pages
This is Beckham's fascinating life story in his own words. His rise through the ranks at the biggest club side in the world. His complex relationship with United boss Alex Ferguson. The England story, from being vilified by the nation before returning as the prodigal son to eventually captaining his country. His acrimonious falling-out with his manager and departure from Old Trafford in June 2003.

