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6 books to kick off the 2017 football season

Here are excerpts from six new football-themed books.

3. ‘My First Coach: Inspiring Stories of NFL Quarterbacks and Their Dads,’ by Gary Myers

  • By Ross Atkin

There is no parental formula for raising star NFL quarterbacks, which is a central theme of “My First Coach.” The book looks at the differences, as well as some similarities, in the relationships such elite quarterbacks as Tom Brady, Phil Simms, Cam Newton, Eli and Peyton Manning, Jim Harbaugh, and others had with their dads, and how these relationships factored into their sons’ success. One question raised is whether it was better to be overbearing or borderline disinterested. 

Here’s an excerpt from My First Coach:

“[Archie] Manning considers it a bonus that his sons [Peyton,Eli, and Cooper] were great athletes. He just wanted them to be good kids and love one another, be one another’s best friends, take care of one another. He never put pressure on them to be football players, to follow him as a quarterback. He would play ‘Amazing Catches’ with them in the yard, during which he was the quarterback and the boys all wanted Archie to make them stretch out to make an amazing catch. Those were the most intense games he ever played with them.

“ ‘They would start at one end of the yard and take off,’ Archie said. ‘We had a sidewalk that was about a third of the way, so I had to make sure they cleared it. They would cross the sidewalk, I would lay it out in front of them, and they would try to make diving catches. It was up to me to make it an amazing catch instead of a routine catch.’

“Archie’s philosophy was simple, but it’s not easy for many parents to follow.

“ ‘I think you love your kids, just kind of have fun with it, don’t get too serious about athletics,’ he said. 'It’s got to be fun.' ”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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