Ice Bowl '67: The Packers, the Cowboys, and the Game That Changed the NFL by Chuck Carlson

Title: Ice Bowl '67: The Packers, the Cowboys, and the Game That Changed the NFL

Author: Chuck Carlson

Genre: Sports

Professional football fans in general and Green Bay Packer fans in particular are well-versed with the NFL Championship game played on New Year's Eve in 1967. Accurately known as the Ice Bowl, the temperature in Green Bay that day was minus 15 degrees, with a wind chill that stood at -45 at kickoff and dipped to -65 by game's end. The conditions made for a legendary game that pitted not only players from the Green Bay Packers against the Dallas Cowboys, but players vs the elements.

Author Chuck Carlson does a good job of reviewing the scenarios leading up to the game, including the legendary coaches Tom Landry vs Vince Lombardi. This would be Lombardi's last hurrah - succumbing to cancer two and a half years later after coaching the Washington Redskins in 1969. For the Packers, the game would prove to be an end of an era, with the team having to endure thirty years of futility before winning a Super Bowl in 1997.The Cowboys, despite the loss, would move on to greater success over the next few decades - taking on the moniker of "America's Team."

Carlson breaks the book up into sections covering the game from the view of coaches, players and fans. The book concludes with the impact on both teams and how the ice bowl grew to almost mythical status among fans. In a nice addition, the author covers the current status of key players from the game.

The Ice Bowl '67 is an easy read that provides a nice overview of one of the most important football games in NFL history. 

- Mike

Check out Ice Bowl '67: The Packers, the Cowboys, and the Game That Changed the NFL @ the library.

Slow Getting Up by Nate Jackson

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be on a professional football team? Maybe not a starter like Aaron Rodgers or Clay Matthews, but that guy who sits on the bench and gets paid to play? Did you ever wonder how hard can it be? If that thought has ever crossed your mind, then Slow Getting Up by Nate Jackson is the book for you.

Like the sub-title implies, this is a story of NFL survival. He may not have been a star, and unless you were in Denver while he was playing you might not know who he is, he was out there, some weeks getting into some games, and earning a world of hurt.

For Nate Jackson, football was just a part of life, and he would do anything to be able to keep playing. When he was cut from the Cal Poly team, he transferred to a Division III school. His coaches there saw professional talent, and before he knew it, the 49ers were calling him. Sure he was un-drafted, traded to Denver and barely made the practice squad, but he was a professional athlete.

Slow Getting Up it is the perfect book a the football fanatic or just a fan of the game. Nate Jackson gives a behind the scenes tour of a NFL football team in this memoir, and after reading it you'll be happy you just have to watch the game from the comfort of your living room.

Check out Slow Getting Up @ the library!

Like a Rose by Rick Telander

Rick Telander is a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, who has written for Sports Illustrated, and has penned a number of sports-related books, most memorably Heaven Is A Playground – named one of Sports Illustrated’s top 100 sports books of all time. Like A Rose finds the author reflecting on his short stint as a prospective defensive back in the 1971 training camp of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs. Subtitled, “Life Lessons from a Training Camp with Hank Stram and the Kansas City Chiefs,” the author cleverly juxtaposes his experiences playing football at the high school, college, and (albeit briefly) professional levels, with that of his own son’s passion for the game and the inherent dangers of the sport. Telander is at times conflicted between his love of football, the life lessons he took from the experience, and the increasingly publicized concerns about head injuries that his son faces while playing the sport. In between, Telander weaves an interesting story about finding a 15 cent spiral notebook diary he kept during his training camp with the Chiefs, and reflects on how the experience influenced the husband, father, and writer he became. Particularly poignant is Telander’s reconnection with his high school football coach and the author’s search for reasons why he became the star quarterback of his suburban Chicago school over thirty years prior. Throughout the book Telander throws out thoughtful gems of wisdom relating to the sport of football and lasting lessons it can teach. Perhaps most thought provoking is the idea that the game of football itself cannot exist without the very real potential for injury. Telander writes, “The possibility of injury – even severe injury – on any play was the very key to the game. If you couldn’t get hurt, if you didn’t stand the chance of hurting someone else….why play at all?” After his teenage son Zack is knocked unconscious during a game, Telander is left questioning the game he loves, “His eyes are closed and he is not moving. I look at his little boy’s face through his big man’s armor, and I feel as though I am looking at all my sins, all my stupidity, all my ignorance.” In the end, the author concludes that he cannot hold back his son’s passion for the game anymore than his own father could, and that for Telander the sport of football remains a teaching tool. Telander writes, “Football teaches you that life is hard, but it can be immensely rewarding….even thrilling.” Like A Rose is a short, easy read that will pleasantly surprise in the wealth of insight contained within.

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Pat has goals.  To work on being a kinder person, to get fit and stay buff, to read the great American classic works of literature that he didn't get around to when he was supposed to be reading them in high school, to keep his anger under control, and to get Nikki back.  Actually, all of his goals are really about getting Nikki back and ending apart time.

When Pat's mother comes and gets him from the neural health facility in Baltimore where he's been for... well, he doesn't actually know how long, but awhile, he knows the end of apart time has to be close.  He's out of the bad place and living at home in Philadelphia, where his mom has bought him pretty much a complete gym-in-a-basement, complete with the Stomach Master 6000.  He's got a new therapist, Dr. Patel, and even though his dad's not talking to him (unless it's specifically related to Eagles football), he's building a relationship with his brother and (who got him his old seat back at the Eagles home games) and hanging out with his best bud Ronnie again, even if Ronnie's wife Veronica is not exactly his favorite person.  Sure, his mom claims that all his and Nikki's wedding photos were stolen by a burgler (they were in very expensive frames), and all signs point to him having been in the bad place way longer than a couple of months, but he's pulling it together for Nikki.

So when Veronica's sister Tiffany is invited to dinner one night, Pat is confused.  Tiffany is angry, volatile, uncomfortably direct, swears like a sailor and is more than a little odd.  She's also in therapy, because her husband died a few years ago, and she's also living at home, because she got fired from her job.  Pat is a married man, so even though everyone seems to be encouraging him to cheat on Nikki with Tiffany, which is confusing, he knows he can't date her.  But he does decide to be her friend - after all, it's the kind thing to do.

This is the story of how friendship, love, raisin bran, a deep hatred of Kenny G., modern dance and serious Eagles football fandom all come together to heal two people who need each other.  Quirky, fun, heartbreaking and hilarious, Matthew Quick's first novel is fabulous.  Whether you saw the movie and loved it, want to read the book before you see the movie, or (like me!) are a huge fan of author Matthew Quick (check out our reviews of Sorta Like a Rock Star and this year's Milwaukee County Teen Book Award nominee Boy21!), you've got to add The Silver Linings Playbook to your reading list!  It's the perfect way to kick-start your weekend and ignore the fact that it's snowing... again.