Football Audiobooks | Sports & Recreation

The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks

In the world of modern football, no position defines a franchise like the quarterback. The QB is the story of a year in the making of those star players and of the most significant year in QB development in sports history. It is also the year five-foot ten-inch Russell Wilson wins the Super Bowl and, for the first time in over sixty years, a sub-six-foot QB, Johnny Manziel, gets drafted in the first round, forcing NFL power brokers to reexamine how they look at the position—and the game. To tell the story of all that goes on to create the perfect quarterback, bestselling author Bruce Feldman gained unique access to "Johnny Football" (that's Johnny Manziel), George Whitfield, and many other players in what has become a specialized and high-stakes business. The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. The stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback's game really are, taking listeners on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.

Bruce Feldman (Author), Corey M. Snow (Narrator)

Audiobook

Herr Guardiola: Das erste Jahr mit Bayern München

Als der katalanische Trainer Pep Guardiola seinen Posten beim FC Bayern antrat, waren die Fußballfans in ganz Deutschland elektrisiert. Guardiolas Verbindung mit dem FC Barcelona war eine beispiellose Erfolgsgeschichte. Er gewann alle bedeutenden nationalen und internationalen Titel, die ein Verein gewinnen kann. Auch der FC Bayern hatte gerade ein Erfolgsjahr hinter sich, in dem er das Triple gewann. Was kOnnen die Fans von dieser Zusammenarbeit erwarten? Was wird Pep Guardiola aus dem FC Bayern machen? Inzwischen ist klar: Pep Guardiolas PersOnlichkeit passt zu Bayern MUnchen, und ihn beeindrucken die Vereinsphilosophie wie der unbedingte Erfolgswille des deutschen Rekordmeisters. Der spanische Journalist und ehemalige Spitzensportler MartI Perarnau, der Pep Guardiola persOnlich kennt und einen exklusiven Zugang zu ihm und den Spielern hat, begleitet die erste Saison von 'Dienstbeginn' 2013 bis zum letzten Spieltag der Saison 2013/14. Er beobachtet das Trainung aus nAchster NAhe und spricht mit Guardiola Uber Vorbereitung, Spiele, Taktik, strategische Entwicklungen, Uber Arger und Freude, Niederlagen und Erfolge. So entsteht das facettenreiche Doppelportrait eines besonderen Trainers und eines besonderen Vereins. 'Herr Guardiola' ist ein Muss fUr alle Fans, die Fußball lieben und den Geheimnissen des Erfolgs auf die Spur kommen wollen.

Marti Perarnau, Martí Perarnau (Author), Matthias Luhn, Matthias Lühn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Parcells: A Football Life

Bill Parcells may be the most iconic football coach of our time. During his decades-long tenure as an NFL coach, he turned failing franchises into contenders. He led the ailing New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories, turned the New England Patriots into an NFL powerhouse, reinvigorated the New York Jets, brought the Dallas Cowboys back to life, and was most recently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Taking readers behind the scenes with one of the most influential and fascinating coaches the NFL has ever known, PARCELLS will take a look back at this coach’s long, storied and influential career, offer a nuanced portrayal of the complex man behind the coach, and examine the inner workings of the NFL.

Bill Parcells, Nunyo Demasio (Author), Jason Culp (Narrator)

Audiobook

Why Football Matters: My Education in the Game

Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men. Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. When Mark Edmundson’s son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player. What does it mean to be a football player? At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he’d be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life.

Mark Edmundson (Author), James Jenner (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Rare Recording of Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne (March 4, 1888 – March 31, 1931) was an American football player and coach, both at the University of Notre Dame. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history. Rockne popularized the forward pass and made Notre Dame a major factor in collegiate football. This recording is a famous pre-game lockerroom pep talk he gave to his players.

Knute Rockne (Author), Knute Rockne (Narrator)

Audiobook

What It Takes: Fighting For My Life and My Love of the Game

In 2011, Mark Herzlich became a starting linebacker for a New York Giants team that would win the Super Bowl-just two years after he had been told that he would never play football again. Now Herzlich tells his triumphant story for the first time. As a child, Herzlich found an inspiring and grounding force in football, eventually turning his passion into a first-team All-American spot at Boston College. But after being named the conference's top defensive player his junior season, the budding star was sidelined by a persistent, debilitating pain in his left leg. After months of tests, Herzlich received a shocking diagnosis: He had Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Doctors put his odds of survival as low as fifteen percent-and no one thought he would be able to run, much less play, again. Then Herzlich learned of a radical alternative treatment that would give him the best chance to regain his strength and maybe even play football again. He had a choice to make, one that would allow him the chance to return to the game he loved, but it came at the risk of his life. Herzlich relied on family, friends, faith, and deep wells of determination to help him through treatment, and his drastic plan worked. Not only could he run, but he was stronger than ever physically, and mentally ready to battle his way to a spot on an NFL roster. When he was passed over by all 32 teams in the draft, he dug deeper and continued his training, winning a spot in the Giants' training camp, and eventually, on the team. Mark Herzlich fought a battle against cancer, against statistics, and some days against himself. Told with candor and raw emotion, this is a story for anyone who has ever fought to beat the odds, for anyone who has ever been told that what they are about to attempt is next to impossible. Herzlich's story embodies powerful lessons about what can be achieved through persistence and belief, and he serves as living proof that overcoming the impossible is only the beginning.

Mark Herzlich (Author), Mark Herzlich (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Big Fix

Timed to coincide with the World Cup in Brazil and told in the style of a page-turning thriller, this is the book that will blow the lid off international match fixing in football: a pandemic that has struck at the heart of the 'beautiful game'It began as a series of disparate reports coming in from the corners of the football world: referees, players and managers were deliberately fixing results at the behest of illegal bettors. But as the reports kept coming, bit by bit the scale of the problem began to emerge. These weren't just footballing minnows but major teams and players, playing on the biggest possible stages. The money at stake ran into the billions. And the people pulling the strings were operating for some of the largest, most heinous criminal syndicates in the world.In THE BIG FIX, Brett Forrest uncovers the scarcely believable scale of a threat to the beautiful game that is only just now coming to light.Told in the style of a thriller, Forrest tracks down the criminals who occupy this murky world of billion-dollar transactions, as well as the people tasked with hunting them and saving football's lifeblood.Published on the eve of the World Cup, this shocking expose reveals a criminal enterprise that threatens to rot football to its core.

Brett Forrest (Author), Alexander Cendese (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fußballgefühle

'Als ich elf Jahre alt war, spielten wir Fußball mit allem, was sich treten ließ. An der Bushaltestelle kickten wir mit Quitten aus den Sträuchern neben dem Wartehäuschen. Auf dem Pausenhof kickten wir mit flachgedrückten Kakaotüten. Auf dem Heimweg von der Schule kickten wir mit zusammengedrücktem Butterbrotpapier. Am Nachmittag im Park kickten wir sogar mit einem Ball. Zum Kicken war uns alles recht.' So fing es an für Axel Hacke, der nicht nur Fußballfreund ist, sondern auch viele Jahre Sportreporter war. In diesem Buch spürt er den Gefühlen nach, die in unserem fußballbegeisterten Land fast jeder kennt: der Liebe zum Spiel, der Treue zum Verein, der Wut auf den Gegner, der Sehnsucht nach dem Tor, dem Fußball als Obsession. Axel Hacke saß oft vor dem Fernseher und war in vielen Stadien, er hat mit großen Spielern gesprochen und erinnert sich an legendäre Spiele, ja, er hat selbst Mannschaften aufgestellt wie den 'Albtraum der Radioreporter': Tskitishvili, Ogungbure, Grlic, Mbwando, Younga-Mouhani, Tsoumou-Madza, Schindzielorz, El-Akchaoui, Krzynowek,Djordjevic, Ouedraogo. Und jetzt hat er ein Fußballbuch geschrieben, wie es noch keines gab, fantasievoll, spielerisch, witzig, emotional, kenntnisreich und vielseitig, eine einzigartige Mischung aus Reportage, Essay und Feuilleton: eine Geschichte der Gefühle, die uns mit dem Fußball verbinden.

Axel Hacke (Author), Axel Hacke (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

An enduring story of a true scholar-athlete, The Express is a touching, impeccably researched, deeply personal portrait of Ernie Davis and a vivid look at sport in America at the dawn of the civil rights era. Ernie Davis was an All-American on the gridiron and a man of integrity off the field. A multi-sport high school star in Elmira, New York, Davis went on to Syracuse University, where as a sophomore he led his team to an undefeated season and a national championship in 1959, and earned his nickname: the Elmira Express. Two seasons later, Davis broke the legendary Jim Brown's rushing records and became the first black athlete to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. The number-one pick in the 1962 NFL draft, Davis signed a contract with the Cleveland Browns and appeared to be headed for professional stardom. But Davis never ended up playing in the NFL; he was diagnosed with leukemia during the summer before his rookie season and succumbed to the disease less than a year later. In battling his illness, Davis showed great dignity and courage, inspired the nation, and moved President John F. Kennedy to eulogize him as "an outstanding man of great character who consistently served as an inspiration."

Robert C. Gallagher (Author), Paul Boehmer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football

The gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime football team and their lone championship season For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever—a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan “Danimal” Hampton and “Samurai” Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on television, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the “Super Bowl Shuffle” video the morning after the season’s only loss. Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What’s it like to win? What’s it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended? The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it’s about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.

Rich Cohen (Author), Tom Taylorson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Praxis Kinderfußball - Moderne Trainingsmethoden mit Herz und System

Autor und Sprecher York P. Herpers gibt einen umfassenden Überblick über die Arbeit als Betreuer im Kinderfußball der Altersklassen 4 bis 10 Jahre. Er gliedert ihn in die Bereiche 'Das Wichtigste', 'G-Jugend', 'F-Jugend', 'E-Jugend', 'Übungen' und 'Mein Team'. In jeder Altersklasse geht er auf die sportlichen, organisatorischen und formellen Besonderheiten ein. Er gibt nützliche Tipps zum Umgang mit den Kindern und ihren Eltern, zur einfachen und systematischen Erstellung eines Trainingsplans, zur Aufstellung sowie der Spielvorbereitung. Zudem bietet er Informationen zu den Formalitäten des Ligabetriebs und ein für die Altersklassen F und E geeignetes Trainings-Setup, das für die Ausbildung aller Fertigkeiten geeignet ist. Im Internet findet man zahlreiche Hilfstabellen mit Leistungstests und Trainingsplänen. Dazu kommen Beobachtungsbögen, welche die systematische Erfassung des Leistungsstandes eines Teams ermöglichen. Das Buch ist auch für Eltern geeignet, die sich für moderne Trainingsmethoden und pädagogische Leitlinien im Kinderfußball interessieren.

York P. Herpers (Author), York P. Herpers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football

An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL: "Riveting...An instant classic." -- New York Times Book Review By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff entered a mysterious and private world with its own rituals and language. Equal parts Paper Lion, Moneyball, Friday Night Lights, and The Office, this absorbing, funny, and vivid narrative gets to the heart of a massive and stressful collective endeavor. Here is football in many faces: the polarizing, brilliant, and hilarious head coach; the general manager, whose job is to support (and suppress) the irrepressible coach; the defensive coaches and their in-house rivals, the offensive coaches; and of course the players. Wise safeties, brooding linebackers, high-strung cornerbacks, enthusiastic rookies, and a well-read nose tackle-they make up a strange and complex family. Dawidoff makes an emblematic NFL season come alive for fans and nonfans alike in a book about football that will forever change the way people watch and think about the sport.

Nicholas Dawidoff (Author), David De Vries (Narrator)

Audiobook

Football Audiobooks in Sports & Recreation