9 football books to kick off the 2018 season

Here are excerpts from nine new releases.

8. ‘How ‘Bout Them Cowboys? Inside the Huddle with the Stars and Legends of America’s Team,’ by Gary Myers

The Dallas Cowboys began their existence in 1960 as an NFL expansion team that was winless with a 0-11-1 record. Things have gotten a lot better since then, and now the Cowboys, though frequently frustrated in their playoff aspirations, remain a much-watched and glamorous franchise owned by flamboyant Jerry Jones and housed in a palatial, Texas-size stadium. In “How ‘Bout Them Cowboys,” author Gary Myers, who's been covering the NFL since 1978 and was the Cowboys beat writer for the Dallas Morning News from 1981 to 1989, taps his access and storehouse of memories to tell the story of “America’s Team.”

Here’s an excerpt from How ‘Bout Them Cowboys?:

“If the Cowboys are establishing a blueprint by turning a football facility into a moneymaking venture, then it will be evident in 2020 when Stan Kroenke opens the headquarters for the Los Angeles Rams in their new stadium and Mark Davis brings the Raiders to Las Vegas. So far, the Cowboys embrace letting the public a bit closer on days other than Sunday with tours of AT&T Stadium (VIP $32, self-guided $22) and the Star ($32.50, but you get special access to the war room and Super Bowl memorabilia). It allows fans who are not among the ninety thousand who attend games a glimpse of the operation.

“ ‘[Team owner] Jerry [Jones] says less than 10 percent of our Cowboys fans ever get the opportunity to go watch a game live at AT&T Stadium or any other stadium,’ Stephen [Jones] said. ‘So your other 90 percent of your fans are experiencing it through television, merchandising.’ ”

8 of 9

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.