George Allen S Guide To Special Teams

This book shows coaches of American football the plays, strategies, and drills they need to produce first-rate, special teams. This fully illustrated book reveals everything coaches need to know about kick-offs, kick returns, punts, punt returns, extra points, and gadget plays for every special teams situation.

"Complete Guide to Special Teams is the authoritative resource on the kicking game for coaches and players"--Page 4 of cover.

The biography of George Allen, one of the greatest and most memorable coaches in NFL history and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

How did legendary football coach George Allen (1918-1990) consistently build winning teams at both the college and professional levels? This first full-length biography examines his applied philosophy of coaching through comprehensive coverage of his tenures at the collegiate level. His stormy relationships with team owners are detailed, along with his historic divorce from the Chicago Bears. The two most important plays of Allen's career are analyzed. Appendices provide a list of Allen's NFL trades, his key draft picks, a statistical breakdown of his NFL offenses and a comparison with other top coaches of his era.

In October 1960, Omaha Central and Creighton Prep met for what many Nebraskans consider the greatest high school football game ever played. Future NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers scored seventy points while leading Central's powerful offense through its first four games. Prep's strong defense, on the other hand, allowed only twenty points all season. Legendary coaches patrolled both sidelines, and Prep was aiming for its third straight state championship. The stage was set for a Friday-night showdown. Fifteen thousand fans packed into Omaha's Municipal Stadium to watch the early season championship clash. Stubborn defenses ensured parity. Back and forth the teams battled, mired around the 50-yard line, punt after punt soaring into the sky. With no overtime to settle things and the defenses holding fast, the game ended in a scoreless tie. When both teams won their remaining games, they shared the state title that year. Scoreless retells the details of this legendary game, the buildup to it, and the story behind the teams and their renowned coaches and players. It is the tale of one of the most remarkable football games in Nebraska high school sports history.

The first fifty years of America’s most popular spectator sport have been strangely neglected by historians claiming to tell the “complete story” of pro football. Well, here are the early stories that “complete story” has left out. What about the awful secret carried around by Sid Luckman, the Bears’ Hall of Fame quarterback whose father was a mobster and a murderer? Or Steve Hamas, who briefly played in the NFL then turned to boxing and beat Max Schmeling, conqueror of Joe Louis? Or the two one-armed players who suited up for NFL teams in 1945? Or Steelers owner Art Rooney postponing a game in 1938 because of injuries? These are just a few of the little-known facts Dan Daly unearths in recounting the untold history of pro football in its first half century. These decades were also full of ideas and experimentation, such as the invention of the modern T formation that revolutionized offense, unlimited player substitution, and soccer-style kicking, as well as the emergence of televised pro football as prime-time entertainment. Relying on obscure sources, original interviews, old game films and statistical databases, Daly’s extensive research and engaging stories bring the NFL’s formative years—and pro football’s folk roots—to life.

The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Understanding Football, Second Edition, provides new and intermediate football fans with all the information they need to understand and enjoy football. From high school to the NFL, coverage includes the basics of offense and defense, players, rules, strategies and even what to wear! New coverage for this edition includes: the draft—how it works for teams and players including parity, new technology on the field including instant replay, dangerous referee flags and rules changes for college and pro ball, XFL, arena league, expansion teams and NFL Europe, and the changing business and team strategy for professional football today.

During his nearly 30 years at Sports Illustrated, Paul Zimmerman—known to readers as “Dr. Z”—rose to fame as one of the top writers in football history. The follow up to Zimmerman’s 1971 classic The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football, The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football builds on the timeless insights of his original work. Filled with personal anecdotes from Zimmerman’s years covering football, this book offers a fascinating insight into the sport that will appeal to any fan that wants a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game. More than a generation later, Zimmerman’s work is as applicable today as when the updated edition came out in the late 1980s. This widely-acclaimed guide covers: Positions Tactics Football scouting Broadcasting Minor leagues Time strategies Great players and top moments