Superbowl Sunday

Former NFL wife Cyndy Feasel tells the tragic story of her family's journey into chaos and darkness resulting from the damage her husband suffered due to football-related concussions and head trauma--and the faith that saved her. "If I'd only known what I loved the most would end up killing me and taking away everything I loved, I would have never done it." - Grant Feasel Grant Feasel spent ten years in the NFL, playing 117 games as a center and a long snapper mostly for the Seattle Seahawks. The skull-battering, jaw-shaking collisions he absorbed during those years ultimately destroyed his marriage and fractured his family. Grant died on July 15, 2012, at the age of 52, the victim of alcohol abuse and a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Cyndy Feasel watched their life together become a living hell as alcohol became Grant's medication for a disease rooted in the scores of concussions he suffered on the football field. Helmet-to-helmet collisions opened the door to CTE and transformed him from a sunny, strong, and loving man into a dark shadow of his former self. In this raw and emotional memoir that takes a closer look at the destruction wrought by a game millions love, Cyndy describes in painful and excruciating detail what can happen to an NFL player and his family when the stadium empties and the lights go down. A powerful tale of warning for football moms and NFL wives everywhere, After the Cheering Stops is also a story of the hard-won hope found in God's presence when everything else falls apart"-- Provided by publisher.

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An NFL quarterback turned small-town coach gets sacked by a Texas beauty queen in this swoony, passionate romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills. Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant, NFL quarterback Ronan Smith has the world in his hands. But after losing his career and his fiancee in a car accident, he falls into a pit of grief and bad choices. When a mysterious girl shows up to his party, he feels drawn to her and makes her his...for one night. Former beauty queen Nova Morgan is on a mission. Scantily clad as a princess from a galaxy far, far away, she sneaks into a high-profile party to capture the attention of her favorite quarterback. But her hopes crash after an awful one-night stand. Fast-forward two years. Broke and desperate, Nova returns home to Blue Belle, Texas, where, by a cosmic twist of fate, her broody neighbor is none other than Ronan, the shiny new football coach everyone adores. But he has no idea who she is. The booster club keeps shoving women at Ronan to keep him in town. His solution? He proposes fake dating to Nova. But things heat up for real under these Friday-night lights when he realizes she's the one who slipped away. Has this jaded beauty found her forever baller, or will his past keep them apart?

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"Denny Torres needs a break. After a series of embarrassments on and off the field, the Adirondacks provide the perfect hideout for his new, quiet, post-football life...Bee does not have time for a hunky former athlete...Bee's just going to ignore the fact that when Denny offers her the chance to channel her creative energy into redesigning his house, she finds herself building the home--and the life--of her dreams"-- Provided by publisher.

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"When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle. And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former pro athlete wants back into the game, and he wants Taylor to train him. There's just one catch--no one can know what they're doing. But when they're accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor's plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win ... or is he playing for keeps?"-- Provided by publisher.

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I hit a bit of a rocky patch during my childhood. My little brother, Phillip, and I were very young when both our parents died. We were shuffled around to different foster homes, and none of them were good situations. Eventually, a wonderful couple adopted us and treated us like we were their own. It was smooth sailing after that. I went through middle school and high school like a normal girl with a normal family. My parents had another child, a son named Evan. So, I was the oldest with two younger brothers. I was in high school when I fell in love with Bradley Clark, the star of the football team. Things happened with us, and I ended up being homeschooled during my senior year. I am now the single mother of a three-and-a-half-year-old boy named Mac whose football star father has never so much as met him. I was as happy as a single mother could be. Bradley was never there for us, so I didn't know anything else. My life was what I made it, and I made it good. I had settled into a nice routine where I took care of my responsibilities and made time for writing children's books, which was a passion of mine. I didn't think I was lacking anything. Until I met Drew.

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"Trent Powers relocates his family from Anaheim to Arkansas to take over as head coach of the Denton Pirates, a high school football team powered by a volatile but talented running back named Billy Lowe. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his unstable mother's abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, and it's not long before he crosses a line. Instead of punishing him, though, Trent takes Billy into his home, hoping to protect his star player as the Pirates begin their playoff run. But when Billy's stepfather is found murdered, nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the town apart"-- Provided by publisher.

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"A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It. Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego's newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell. When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the bakery and rehabilitate Jada's image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient. Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side"-- Provided by publisher.

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THE FORGOTTEN FIRST chronicles the lives of four incredible men, the racism they experienced as Black players entering a segregated sport, the burden of expectation they carried, and their many achievements, which would go on to affect football for generations to come. More than a year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, there was another seismic moment in pro sports history. On March 21,1946, former UCLA star running back Kenny Washington-a teammate of Robinson's in college-signed a contract with the Los Angeles Rams. This ended one of the most shameful periods in NFL history, when African-American players were banned from league play. Washington would not be alone in serving as a pioneer for NFL integration. Just months after he joined the Rams, thanks to a concerted effort by influential Los Angeles political and civic leaders, the team signed Woody Strode, who played with both Washington and Robinson at UCLA in one of the most celebrated backfields in college sports history. And that same year, a little-known coach named Paul Brown of the fledgling Cleveland Browns signed running back Marion Motley and defensive lineman Bill Willis, thereby integrating a startup league that would eventually merge with the NFL. THE FORGOTTEN FIRST tells the story of one of the most significant cultural shifts in pro football history, as four men opened the door to opportunity and changed the sport forever.

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"Explore the power of communication to heal hurt, overcome adversity, and build a unified team In The Locker Room, bestselling author Damon West and player development coach Stephen Mackey team up to explore difficult conversations about eliminating both discrimination and the cancel culture, as well as overcoming adversity. The book tells the story of four characters: two high school football coaches and two players, each of whom must deal with the fallout of an offensive comment that severely disrupts the unity and cohesion of their locker room and threatens to destroy their team. In The Locker Room, you'll find: A guide to building an inclusive culture The blueprint for using servant leadership and a willingness to listen to break down barriers Encouragement to have the difficult conversations that lie at the heart of modern life Strategies for navigating your personal and professional life in a way that gracefully deals with the realities of prejudice, discrimination, and cancel culture Techniques for giving all people an equal voice and an equal chance at success through learning with humility and teaching with grace An indispensable exploration of some of the most critical and most difficult issues faced by professionals, coaches, athletes, and students today, The Locker Room is a must-read resource that belongs in the libraries of anyone who seeks a life or culture that can not only overcome adversity, but can also use it to reach their goals and improve their communities"-- Provided by publisher.

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As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as "The Mosquito Bowl." The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them.

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"An intriguing and twisty domestic suspense about loyalty and deceit in a tight-knit Texas community where parents are known to behave badly and people are not always who they appear to be. Emily, a popular but bookish prep school senior, goes missing after a night out with friends. She was last seen leaving a party with Alex, a football player with a dubious reputation. But no one is talking. Now three mothers, Catherine, Leslie and Morgan, friends turned frenemies, have their lives turned upside down as they are forced to look to their own children—and each other’s—for answers to questions they don’t want to ask. Each mother is sure she knows who is responsible, but they all have their own secrets to keep and reputations to protect. And the lies they tell themselves and each other may just have the potential to be lethal in this riveting debut." --Amazon.com

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For almost twenty years now, the NFL has been simultaneously an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse-and a league that can't seem to go more than a few weeks without stumbling into a scandal. Whether it's about domestic violence, performance-enhancing drugs, racism, or head trauma, the NFL always seems to be in some kind of trouble. Yet no matter the drama, the TV networks keep showing games, the revenue keeps going up, and the viewers keep tuning in. How can a sports league-or any organization-operate this way? Why do the negative stories keep happening, and why don't they ever seem to affect the bottom line? In this wide-ranging book, Mike Florio takes readers from the boardroom to the locker room, from draft day to Super Bowl night, answering these questions and more, and showing what really goes on in the sport that America can't seem to quit.

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Brian Billick, Super Bowl-winning coach and current analyst for the NFL network, takes on the 2018 draft class of quarterbacks and follows them for two years, identifying the tangibles and intangibles of success, in search of the key to better predicting who will make it as a top-ranked NFL franchise QB. There are elite athletes in every sport -- people who possess tangible and intangible qualities that allow them to overcome daunting odds, spot opportunity in the midst of adversity, and turn defeat into victory. No position embodies this dynamic more than football quarterbacks, and nothing is a greater test of performance than the NFL. The tangibles -- metrics, stats, ratings, bowl games, championships -- are critical to evaluation. But they're not enough. Every year, highly rated college quarterbacks are analyzed, critiqued, hyped up and/or doubted, and those who manage to survive the scrutiny are drafted early. Some of those early picks make it to the top, some end up journeymen, and some just wash out. Why? What separates the elites from the pack? In THE Q FACTOR, former NFL coach Brian Billick takes the highly promising 2018 NFL quarterback Draft class -- the most touted class since 2004 (Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers) and 1983 (Elway, Kelly, Marino) -- and measures the top five quarterback picks to gauge how, why, and if they succeed. They are all first rounders, all with sterling college credentials, all talented athletes, all taken by teams betting their futures. One or maybe two could go on to greatness. But which ones, and why? Could the prediction process be better? Are the experts looking at the wrong factors? How do we find the best of the best? That's what THE Q FACTOR explores...and finally explains.

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On July 24, 2020 Laurent Duvernay-Tardif sent shockwaves through the sports world by becoming the first NFL player to opt out of the coming season. The only active player who is also a medical doctor, Laurent spent the months directly after winning the Super Bowl working in a health facility in Quebec on the front lines of the pandemic. As plans for the 2020 NFL season ramped up and daily cases continued to skyrocket, Laurent realized that playing and potentially spreading the virus was antithetical to everything he believed. For the first time in his remarkable career, he couldn't square his twin passions of football and medicine. So he temporarily stepped away from the game he loved, returning to his medical work and enrolling in Harvard to earn his master's in public health, hoping to maximize his celebrity status in order to effect change on a larger scale. But that was just the beginning of this fascinating story.

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"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."

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"Part memoir and part literary true crime, Tell Me Everything is the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private investigator who helped crack it open. Erika Krouse has one of those faces. "I don't know why I'm telling you this," people say, spilling confessions. In fall 2002, Erika accepts a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes she has no idea what she's doing. Then a lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Erika knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own history with sexual violence makes it all too personal. But she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson's conviction that he could help change things forever. And maybe she could, too. Over the next five years, Erika learns everything she can about P. I. technique, tracking down witnesses and investigating a culture of sexual assault and harassment ingrained in the university's football program. But as the investigation grows into a national scandal and a historic civil rights case, Erika finds herself increasingly consumed. When the case and her life both implode at the same time, Erika must figure out how to help win the case without losing herself"-- Provided by publisher.

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A version for Young Adults is also available. Super Bowl Champion and two-time Pro Bowler Michael Bennett is an outspoken proponent for social justice and a man without a censor. One of the most scathingly humorous athletes on the planet, he is also a fearless activist, grassroots philanthropist, and organizer. Written with award-winning sportswriter and author Dave Zirin, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable is a sports book for our times, a sports memoir and manifesto as hilarious as it is revealing. Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter Movement and women's rights. Bennett donates all his endorsement money and half of the proceeds from his jersey sales to fund health and education projects for poor underserved youth and minority communities, and has recently expanded his reach globally to provide STEM programming in Africa. Dave Zirin has been called the "finest, most important writer on sports and politics in America," by Dr. Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at the Harvard Divinity School. He is sports editor for The Nation and author of several titles for Haymarket Books, including his critically acclaimed book The John Carlos Story, written with 1968 Olympian John Carlos.

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"Terry Crews spent decades cultivating his bodybuilder physique and bravado. On the outside, he seemed invincible: he escaped his abusive father, went pro in the NFL, and broke into the glamorous world of Hollywood. But his fixation with appearing outwardly tough eventually turned into an exhausting performance in which repressing his emotions let them get the better of him-leading him into addiction and threatening the most important relationships in his life. Now Crews is sharing the raw, never-before-told story of his quest to find the true meaning of toughness. In Tough, he examines arenas of life where he desperately sought control-masculinity, shame, sex, experiences with racism, and relationships-and recounts the setbacks and victories he faced while uprooting deeply ingrained toxic masculinity and finally confronting his insecurities, painful memories, and limiting beliefs. The result is not only the gripping story of a man's struggle against himself and how he finally got his mind right, but a bold indictment of the cultural norms and taboos that ask men to be outwardly tough while leaving them inwardly weak. With Tough, Crews's journey of transformation offers a model for anyone who considers themselves a "tough guy" but feels unfulfilled; anyone struggling with procrastination or self-sabotage; and anyone ready to achieve true, lasting self-mastery"-- Provided by publisher.

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"Amid a national backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women's Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, the league's star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, would-be drill sergeants. Black, white, Latina. Mothers and daughters and aunts and sisters. But most of all, they were athletes who were denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play. Before the protests and the lobbyists, before the debates and the amendments, before the marches and the mandates, there was only an obscure advertisement in a local Midwestern paper and those who answered it, women such as Lee Hollar, the only woman working the line at the Libbey glass factory; Gloria Jimenez, who grew up playing sports with her six brothers; and Linda Jefferson, the greatest female athlete you've never heard of. Stephen Guinan grew up in Toledo pulling for his hometown football team, and who -- in the innocence of youth-did not realize at the time what a barrier-breaking lost piece of history he was witnessing. We Are the Troopers sheds light on forgotten champions who came together for the love of the game"-- Provided by publisher.

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Documents the photojournalist author's thirty-year friendship with former NFL star Jackie Wallace, describing the losses and addiction that led the three-time Super Bowl star to homelessness on the streets of New Orleans.

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