1. "Friday Night Lights" by H. G. Bissinger
Yes, it's true, some of your favorite television shows and movies — many, in fact — were based on books! Before the "Friday Night Lights" film and uber-popular series, this nonfiction work followed the high school football team of Odessa, TX, a small town with big dreams, to explore big themes through the lens of its residents. Read it here.
2. "The Dating Playbook" by Farrah Rochon
Taylor's a kick-*ss personal trainer; Jamar is a former NFL-er desperate for a way back in. But the two can't let anyone find out what they're up to. So when they're outed as a couple, things go a little sideways. Will it be a happy ending for all? Read here!
3. "Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City" by Albert Samaha
Albert Samaha, criminal justice reporter for BuzzFeed and a National Association of Black Journalists award winner, writes an evocative narrative nonfiction following a youth football team, the Mo Better Jaguars, from a mostly-Black neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is one of determined kids, unpaid-yet-passionate coaches and one version of the American dream. Read it here.
4. "Fumbled" by Alexa Martin
May we interest you in some football steam? In "Fumbled," the second novel in Alexa Martin's "The Playbook" series, Poppy crosses paths one again with T.K. Moore, her high school sweetheart. The single mother and starting NFL wide receiver have some secrets and unfinished business to deal with, but can romance prevail? Read it here.
5. "Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback" by George Plimpton
In this book of "participatory sports journalism," George Plimpton goes behind the scenes with the Detroit Lions, joining training camp to run a few plays and listen in on the locker room banter. But his sharp observance results in an insightful take on the pressure of NFL football, the relationships built between teammates and traditions that go back decades. Read it here.
6. "Lost Champions: Four Men, Two Teams, and the Breaking of Pro Football’s Color Line" by Gretchen Atwood
Did you know that the NFL integrated a year earlier than the MLB? Before there was Jackie Robinson, there was Kenny Washington, along with three other Black athletes who broke barriers in 1946 with the Los Angeles Rams and the Cleveland Browns. Read it here.
7. "The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family" by Lars Anderson
Lars Anderson is a pro sports writer at this point, and this close look at the Mannings follows the family from patriarch Archie's journey from Ole Miss to the New Orleans Saints to Peyton and Eli's NFL runs. Plus, get to know eldest son Cooper, whose athletic dreams were cut short after a rare diagnosis. Anderson writes about the "first family of professional sports" on a more intimate level — beyond what the ManningCast could ever reveal. Read it here.
8. "When the Men Were Gone" by Marjorie Herrera Lewis
There are lots of historical novels about WWII, including those about the women who were left at home. But in this true story, Tylene Wilson doesn't become a nurse or stay back tending home — she becomes a high school football coach, the first woman to do so in Texas. Read it here!