"The Super Bowl," By Julian May

"Always On The Run," By Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Dave Anderson

"Garo Yepremian's Tales From the Dolphins," By Garo Yepremian

"The Dallas Cowboys," By James Rothaus

"Ten Super Sundays- The Thrilling Story of the Super Bowl," By Rick Smith

"The $1 League,: The Rise and Fall of the USFL," By Jim Byrne

"Rozelle: Czar of the NFL," By Jeff Davis

"Throw the Long Bomb," By Jack Laflin

"The Pro Quarterbacks," By Milton Shapiro

"The Official Encyclopedia of Football," By Roger Treat

"The Running Backs," By Murrary Olderman

"Black Knight: Al Davis and His Raiders," by Ira Simmons

"Cosell," By Howard Cosell

 

"I Never Played the Game," By Howard Cosell

"Like it Is," By Howard Cosell

 

"There You Have It : The Life, Legacy, and Legend of Howard Cosell"

The Great NFL Fun Book- Where the Football Love Started

The 1970s kids NFL Bible

As I said in an earlier post about the magic of Scholastic book fairs and the NFL, my love for the game began in school. Why is that besides it was just a magical time where there was no Internet, social media, 4K streaming, etc? I credit (and blame) the ones who marketed the game and figured out that in order for the NFL and pro football (take notes CFL Commissioner) to prosper, you needed to feed gridiron crack to the kids, and for kids, Scholastic book fairs were academic crack fairs where kids discovered what truly interested them. I am not saying sports books are bad, because without them I never would have paid attention to geography, poetry (thank you Steve Sabol and John Facenda) or taken such an avid interest in reading.   Among the best books of that late 70s era besides All-Pro Football Stars was The Great NFL Fun Book I & II, which if you had them, I don't need to remind you of just how awesome it was a ten year old to read and get lost in.  They just don't make books for child sports fans like this these days.  Don't believe me? Give it a read here for free courtesy of the Internet Archive....

Something for Joey

The golden age of football movies was clearly the 1970s, and while I am sure others would say otherwise, how can you argue against "Brian's Song," "Heaven Can Wait," "North Dallas Forty," "The Longest Yard," "Semi Tough," and heck even "Gus: The Field Goal Kicking Mule."  There was a magic and simplicity to all these movies that, when you watch them now, make you remember just how much you miss that polyester era when Howard Cosell ruled Monday night and the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to always be playing the late afternoon game. However, occasionally you would see the perennial NFC West champs, the Los Angeles Rams, on which team John Cappelletti played and whose younger brother died tragically of leukemia, the story of which was made into both a book and a tearjerker TV movie called "Something For Joey."  Though I missed it when it was on TV when I was a kid, apparently, it was a popular TV movie here in Japan, and is readily available on YouTube, the free stream of which is available here for your viewing pleasure.

The Magic of Scholastic Book Fairs and the NFL

For most of us older pro football fans, our love of the game began in the classroom. Specifically, during those Scholastic book fairs of the 1960s, 1970s (my era), 1980s and 1990s. These were are formative years of fandom where the printed word and physical books truly mattered.  The All-Pro Football Stars books of the late 1970s are what helped to fuel my fandom, and couple that with Sports Illustrated, and weekly appointment viewing of The NFL Today, NFL Films' This Week in Pro Football, and of course Monday Night Football, a life long nearly 50 year fan was born. Fortunately the fine folks at the Internet Archive appear to now be able to once again offer digital lending of old out of print titles, including many of which are those treasured Scholastic sports titles that introduced us to the wide world sports. Now, if said titles are not able to be read at the Internet Archive, you most definitely SHOULD NOT use an anonymous Tor browser and VPN to mask your IP address and download these old Scholastic sports titles from the many shadow libraries that are on the Internet.

English for American Football, in Japan and Around the World

Available in 2026 at
www.sportsenglish.org

 For over 100 episodes Gridiron Japan Radio brought the world an insight into American football in Japan for the English speaking world. It was in many ways a true fancast that illuminated the fact that outside of North America, Japan has the highest level of competition from flag to high school tackle, college and the club levels that make up the X League, the highest level of club and professional football in Japan. Thanks to the internet, the sport in Japan is being discovered by many thanks to YouTube, which to often provides inaccurate information.

In response to the efforts of Gridiron Japan to educate the public, we were lucky to catch the eye of one particular author. This year, John Kowalski, has authored the forthcoming book, English for American Football, in which he presents the story of the gridiron game in Japan. We do hope Mr. Kowalski will be a guest to discuss the history of the gridiron game in Japan in a future episode.  The history of which is unknown to many, but with the help of podcasts like Gridiron Japan, helped to educate many around the world.