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9 football books to kick off the 2018 season

Here are excerpts from nine new releases.

5. ‘Guts and Genius: The Story of the Unlikely Coaches Who Came to Dominate the NFL in the 80s,’ by Bob Glauber

  • By Ross Atkin

While some might take issue with calling Bill Parcells, Bill Walsh, and Joe Gibbs “unlikely coaches,” their teams clearly came to dominate the National Football League in the 1980s and early 1990s. Just how they rose to the top of their profession and left their marks on it makes for a 3-in-1 biography of men who led their teams to eight championships and developed assistant coaches who landed head coaching jobs of their own. 

Here’s an excerpt from Guts and Genius:

“Bill Walsh was in his usual seat on the charter flight home from Miami – first class, first row, with an empty seat next to him. 

“ ‘ He’d always have a seat with nobody in it next to him on the plane, so whoever he wished to talk to or wanted to say something to would have a place to sit down and visit with him, which was the case this time,’ [assistant coach] John McVay said. “The 49ers were flying home after a 17-13 loss to the Dolphins on a steamy afternoon at the Orange Bowl, and Walsh was morose. This was his eighth straight loss after a 3-0 start, and self-doubt had consumed him. That the misgivings of Paul Brown had expressed about Walsh’s ability to be a successful NFL head coach were true. After finishing a mind-numbingly difficult 2-14 season in 1979, and after losing to Don Shula, one of the league’s iconic coaches, Walsh thought his career was about to be over. 

“He started to cry.

“Within moments, he was sobbing.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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