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Football 2016: a sideline full of 10 new books

Those who like to huddle over a good football read have quite a roster to choose from this fall. 

1. ’The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family,’ by Lars Anderson

  • By Ross Atkin

If you think football fans are “Manning-ed out,” think again. Peyton Manning may have ridden off into the NFL sunset last season by taking the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl title, but he continues to cast a long commercial shadow. And, of course, younger brother Eli is still looking to win a third Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants. Naturally then, interest in the first family of football remains high. Plumbing the depths of this interest is Lars Anderson’s well researched “The Mannings,” which not only sheds light on the careers of Peyton and Eli, but takes a close look at the family patriarch, Archie, whose college career at Ole Miss and NFL career with the New Orleans Saints set the stage and the bar for his talented sons.

Here’s an excerpt from The Mannings:

“When Peyton was a teenager, he’d come home from school and review tapes of his own plays and the plays of other quarterbacks he admired. If he could find tapes of upcoming opponents, he’d study them over and over too. Archie saw his middle child holed up hour after hour, day after day. He wanted Peyton to have a social life, so he implored his son to enjoy his teenage years. ‘Get a girlfriend,’ he said. ‘Go to a movie. You need to get out more.’ 

“Peyton’s reply was always the same: ‘Daddy, I’ve got to watch more film.’ That was the only movie that interested Peyton.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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