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Gregg Rosenthal
Offseason Low Down
July 20, 2006
Summer Reading List
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This column doesn’t include any great writing. It’s a column about where to find great writing, the resources RotoWorld uses every day for sources. It’s a column I’ve always wanted to write, but never found the perfect time. With the NFL at a standstill on training camp eve, and preview magazines and books flooding the market, it's time.

Also included is my amateur list of favorite football books. When I started this job, I wondered where all the great football writers were. I wondered why baseball books are so popular and football books so hard to find. Are football fans really less interested? It turns out I just needed to know where to look. This list, of websites and books, is a start for those looking for more. If it seems like I’m in love with every source here, it’s because I’m only listing the best of the best. First up are my favorite daily resources.

  • Profootballtalk.com – A former ESPN Insider employee, Mike Florio dishes up the latest news and league scuttlebutt in a hilarious blog-style website that’s updated multiple times every day. He’s nearly as well-connected as the Worldwide Leader, and can say everything Bristol wouldn’t dare. This isn’t mindless sports talk radio type-blather. It’s informed and cutting opinion.

    Florio, a lawyer by trade, specializes in breaking down legal and contractual matters. The coverage during the league’s labor strife was the best of it’s kind. Critics dismiss the site because it doesn’t mind spreading “rumors,” but in reality pftalk is very accurate and has improved dramatically over the last four years. They have broken countless stories recently, including the first Daunte Culpepper trade rumors. Personnel evaluations or roster breakdowns (like some recent fantasy tidbits) are much weaker content, but rare on the site anyway. A 30-40 minute podcast brings the same great sense of humor to an audio format.

  • Profootballreference.com – This is practically the only statistics site you’ll ever need. The site has a great layout and is easy to use. The annual league leaders and historical fantasy ranks for each player is instructive.

  • Profootballreference.com blog - If finding a great football book is tough, finding a good football blog is nearly impossible. Doug Drinen, who runs profootballreference and also works for FootballGuys, has been pounding out daily missives all summer looking at football trends through his database. I really hope he keeps it up because he tackles a lot of the questions I’ve had in a clear-eyed and engaging fashion.

  • Football Outsiders/Pro Football Prospectus – Football Outsiders is to pigskin what Baseball Prospectus is to hardball. Their forward thinking statistics hint at the complex work that NFL teams use, but don’t reveal to the public. Their annual book, Pro Football Prospectus, is a great read beyond the numbers. It’s already the best annual I know on the market. They challenge much of what the lazy analyst accepts as a fact with quality writing. Their work on FoxSports.com is usually a quicker read for fans less inclined to number crunch.

  • John Clayton’s Blog – Often has a few tidbits that you don’t see on television.

  • Dr. Z – Still the most knowledgeable national football writer alive. More on him later.

  • NFL.com’s Pat Kirwan - The former Jets GM is becoming required reading.

  • NFL Network’s Total Access – NFL Network started the season after I began to work at RotoWorld full-time. I haven’t missed many episodes of their nightly news show, hosted by Rich Eisen, since. Of course, there isn’t much going on in the off-season, but it’s a good way to get a feel of the personalities around the league and cure my football fix. Eisen makes a very difficult job look easy. He gets it. The first 20 minutes of the program, usually dominated by news then an “Around the League” segment by Adam Shefter, is the best part. Shefter’s pieces often have scoops that go straight on our site. Pat Kirwan’s segments are also strong.

  • EA Sports NFL Matchup – Ron Jaworksi and Merril Hoge watch a truckload of tape for this show and take their jobs seriously, which is all you can ask. Tivo is a savior with this show because it’s played at odd times.

  • Newspaper Blogs – These are growing in number, but only a few at this point do it the right way. Reiss’ Pieces (by Mike Reiss) of the Boston Globe and Seahawk Insider (by Mike Sando) of the Tacoma News Tribune are outstanding. Some up-and-comers include Mark Curnette’s Bengal blog on Cincinnati Enquirer, which broke the Odell Thurman suspension, and Armando Salguero’s blog on the Miami Herald.

  • Newspaper Links – RotoWorld’s news page is ultimately an aggregator that collects the best of all daily links throughout the contrary. Through all those hours of newspaper reading, there inevitably are favorite writers I look forward to the most. Among the best…

    Michael Felger – Boston Herald
    Sean Jansen – St. Paul Pioneer Press
    Mike Sando – Tacoma News Tribune
    Ed Bouchette – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Mike Preston – Baltimore Sun
    Rick Gosselin – Dallas Morning News
    Mike O’Hara – Detroit News
    Armando Salguero – Miami Herald

    I know I’m missing way too many writers here.

    Summer Reading List

  • The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Football by Paul Zimmerman - People know him as Sports Illustrated’s “Dr. Z” but he’s also the author of the best football book I’ve ever read. The original version (1971) of this book is also fantastic, but I like the updated version (1984) more. The more you read about football, the more you understand how much the game continues to evolve. I’ve never learned more reading a book about football than from Zimmerman. He nails the players, the strategy, and the history. It’s an entertaining and exceedingly well-written way to understand the game. It’s a crime this book is out of print and I’m not alone wishing Zimmerman would write one more version.

  • When Pride Still Mattered: A life of Vince Lombardi – by David Maraniss – The title is meant to be ironic, but I’m not sure anyone takes it that way. This complex biography of Vince Lombardi paints a complete and fascinating portrait of the man and the NFL in it’s infancy. His single-minded climb to the NFL summit was a long one few foresaw. A lot of the same issues that we think only plagues today’s athlete (scandal, cheating, greed) was very much alive in Lombardi’s day.

  • The Education of a Coach – by David Halberstam – Combing Halberstam and Belichick’s intelligence was bound to create a classic. Belichick is often painted as a cold, inflexible man, but a different picture emerges here. He is all about challenging assumptions and easy answers.

  • NFL Record and Fact Book - The official statistics annual and probably the best. I like it mostly because it has uniform numbers.

  • The Hidden Game of Football– by Pete Palmer, Bob Carroll, and John Thorn – The forefathers to what Football Outsiders is doing now. Written almost 20 years before Moneyball, Palmer and company take on a lot of the sacred cows of accepted football strategy.

  • Paper Lion by George Plimpton – Participatory journalism before it was cool. Plimpton becomes a Detroit Lion last-string quarterback for a few weeks, getting access and rich stories that today’s media would never be privy too. It’s a funny and realistic look at the inside of an NFL team, including a few unforgettable characters. You’ll never watch Webster the same way again.

  • Patriot Reign – by Michael Holley – This is a lively first-person account of the 2000-2001 Patriots with excellent first-person accounts of team meetings. Just hearing the Patriots coaches destroying some of their own players and reading about Belichick’s feud with ESPN’s Tom Jackson makes it fast, fun reading.

  • Inside the Helmet by Peter King – Like Zimmerman, King looks at each position’s peculiarities, but King does it mostly through player profiles.

  • Scientific Football 2006 by KC Joyner - The first edition of this book included a lot of great commentary on individual players and overall teams. I’m less interested Joyner’s numbers, but the analysis and individual player commentary behind them is strong. Few people watch more tape than Joyner.

  • Part of the reason I wanted to write this column is I know there is so many great resources and books I must be missing. Let me know which ones you are passionate about that I didn’t include here. Thanks for reading.



     

    Gregg Rosenthal is the Managing Editor of Rotoworld.com and has directed its football content since 2003. He co-hosts the NBC Fantasy Fix and covers the NFL for NBCSports.com and Profootballtalk.com. Gregg was named the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year in 2007, but did not repeat in '08. He's out for vengeance now on Twitter.
    Contact Gregg Rosenthal
     
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