Any Given Sunday

“Pat Toomay has mixed fact and fiction to produce a story that will make every armchair quarterback laugh and wince—and worry at his exposition of “the game’s” most insidious reality: the prospect — on any given Sunday—of a fix.” —John Seigenthaler, USA Today “Toomay, for many years a lineman with the Cowboys and the Raiders, gives a sinister turn to the old saw that ‘on any given Sunday, one team can beat another’. . . . He writes knowledgeably about football: its strategy, the pain, the respect and hatred between the men in the trenches.” —Publishers Weekly

17th September 2020 will mark the centenary of the National Football League. It will reach that landmark as a behemoth, an all-encompassing conglomerate that is the most lucrative sports league in the world - and also the dominant pop culture entity in the United States. The NFL is also making considerable gains worldwide. The International Series has been heading to London since 2007 with incredible sell-outs at the four games in 2019 at Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadiums. This may lead some to believe the league has always been a roaring success story. History contradicts that reputation, for the NFL of today is a by-product of the humblest beginnings. It is a rocky road filled with genius detours and wrong turns; with heroes and villains; and, most importantly, with thousands of games. Any Given Sunday will detail some of the biggest of those, beginning with the first contest ever played in 1920 and working through to multiple key fixtures from last season. Each chapter will be complemented by countless interviews with some of the game's true legends, from Hall of Fame players and coaches to owners and executives; first-hand accounts from games, including multiple Super Bowls; and, finally, full access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NFL Films' extensive archives, including pieces not available to the public. Any Given Sunday takes readers from the boardrooms to the field, into the locker-room and inside the journeys of legends, providing a full snapshot of the NFL's epic first century.

Bert Bell, a native of Philadelphia, has been called the most powerful executive figure in the history of professional football. He was responsible for helping to transform the game from a circus sideshow into what has become the most popular spectator sport in America. In On Any Given Sunday, the first biography of this important sports figure, historian Robert Lyons recounts the remarkable story of how de Benneville “Bert” Bell rejected the gentility of a high society lifestyle in favor of the tougher gridiron, and rose to become the founder of the Philadelphia Eagles and Commissioner of the National Football League. Bell, who arguably saved the league from bankruptcy by conceiving the idea for the annual player draft, later made the historic decision to introduce “sudden death” overtime—a move that propelled professional football into the national consciousness. He coined the phrase “on any given sunday” and negotiated the league’s first national TV contract. Lyons also describes in fascinating detail Bell’s relationships with leading figures ranging from such Philadelphia icons as Walter Annenberg and John B. Kelly to national celebrities and U.S. Presidents. He also provides insight into Bell’s colorful personal life—including his hell-raising early years and his secret marriage to Frances Upton, a golden name in show business. On Any Given Sunday is being published on the 50th anniversary of Bell’s death.

An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface. Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone's scripts for Scarface, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award-winning film, Midnight Express. Chasing the Light is a true insider's look at Hollywood's years of upheaval in the 1970s and '80s.

Sean Collins is happy working at the family pub and sharing a house with the woman of his dreams. He and Lauren are equals in every way, including in bed, where they burn the sheets. Life is good. Even if he must hide a couple of secrets to keep it that way. Lauren is madly in love with Sean. They share everything-almost. She can't deny sensing...something. A certain feeling when she, Sean and their friend Chad are all together. But she doesn't press. How can she when she's not being completely forthright herself? Chad is feeling pretty miserable, and renting a room in Sean and Lauren's home has only made it worse. In a house filled with secrets, Chad's are doozies. When an opportunity arises to explore their deep desires, the trio plunges into a sex-filled, emotionally charged ménage. Long-buried feelings are revealed, changing their lives irrevocably. Whether for better or worse, only Sean, Chad and Lauren can decide.

An authoritative 100-year history of America's National Football League from its founding. The NFL has become the most lucrative sports league in the world, yet it has not always been a roaring success story. It is a rocky road filled with detours and wrong turns; with heroes and villains; and, most importantly, with thousands of games. Any Given Sunday recounts twenty of the biggest of those, starting with the first contest ever played in 1920 and working through to key fixtures in the recent past. Each chapter is complemented by interviews with some of the game's true stars; first-hand accounts from games, including multiple Super Bowls; and, finally, full access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Matthew Sherry, founder of Gridiron, the UK's only NFL magazine, takes readers from the boardroom to the field, into the locker-room and inside the journeys of legends, providing a full snapshot of the NFL's epic first century.

On any given Sunday the Christian approaches Christ who is present in Word and Meal. The songs, movements, and prayers that surround this Word and Meal are called the Divine Service. It is God's (divine) service to us and our proclamation of Christ' s life, death, and resurrection to ourselves and anybody that enters the church on that Sunday. One way to appreciate the traditional divine service is to see the life of Christ on display. The major events in the life of Christ are hinted at or explicitly mentioned in the classic order of service. We rightly plead for God' s mercy when we enter his presence. God' s answer is Christ. Traditionally Christians have sung the Christmas song "Gloria to God in the highest" after pleading, “ Lord, have mercy!” With this reminder of Christ' s birth we begin the story of Christ. Soon we wave our palm branches and sing “ Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday. We cry the Good Friday prayer, “ Lamb of God” . We eat with our resurrected Lord as did the Emmaus disciples, and we receive a blessing as we enter the same crazy world the disciples did after Jesus blessed them as he ascended into heaven. This volume aims to teach the Divine Service to both the lifelong worshipper who was never taught why the church does the things the church does on Sunday mornings and the curious observer of this ancient tradition. It is divided into two parts. Part One: A Story of the Divine Service is a story of a young married couple encountering Christ' s forgiveness at a church service and finding the ability to forgive each other. Part Two: The Life of Christ in Poetry and Prose explains the life of Christ as told in the classic Divine Service. It is the hope that this book helps teach this beautiful but under-appreciated jewel of our Christian heritage.

Stone himself serves as guide to this no-holds-barred retrospective—an extremely candid and comprehensive monograph of the renowned and controversial writer, director, and cinematic historian in interview form. Over the course of five years, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone (Midnight Express, Scarface, Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Snowden) and New York Times bestselling author Matt Zoller Seitz (The Wes Anderson Collection) discussed, debated, and deconstructed the arc of Stone's outspoken, controversial life and career with extraordinary candor. This book collects those conversations for the first time, including anecdotes about Stone's childhood, Vietnam, his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and his continual struggle to reinvent himself as an artist. Their dialogue is illustrated by hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and documents from Stone's personal archive, dating back to Stone's birth: personal snapshots, private correspondence, annotated script pages and storyboards, behind-the-scenes photography, and production files from all of his films to date—through 2016's Snowden, and including Stone's epic Showtime mini-series Untold HIstory of the United States. Critical commentary from Seitz on each of Stone's films is joined by original essays from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani; writer, editor, and educator Kiese Laymon; writer and actor Jim Beaver; and film critics Walter Chaw, Michael Guarnieri, Kim Morgan, and Alissa Wilkinson. At once a complex analysis of a master director’s vision and a painfully honest critical biography in widescreen technicolor, The Oliver Stone Experience is as daring, intense, and provocative as Stone’s films—it's an Oliver Stone movie about Oliver Stone, in the form of a book. Both this book and Stone’s highly anticipated film, Snowden, will be released in September 2016 to coincide with Stone’s seventieth birthday (September 15, 1946). Also available from Matt Zoller Seitz: Mad Men Carousel, The Wes Anderson Collection: Bad Dads, The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Wes Anderson Collection.