Bringing the Heat [Paperback]

Mark Bowden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

Bringing the Heat is the story of one team's season-long campaign for the NFL championship, told through the personal stories of the men on the field and the coaches, managers, and owner on the sidelines. The team is the 1992 Philadelphia Eagles, a group of players assembled in the iconoclastic image of their former head coach Buddy Ryan. They are known throughout the league for their ferocious defense and for the otherworldly talents of their quarterback Randall Cunningham.
Award-winning journalist Mark Bowden gets deep inside the world of professional football in a way no writer has ever done before, with an insightful and hilarious portrait of one of the most exciting teams ever to play the game. He spares none of the game's ugliness - the greed, the racism, and the often sadistic violence - while capturing the beauty of athleticism at its highest level, the courage of men who face each play knowing that one bad hit can end a career, and above all the exultant glory of victory that inspires their struggle to be the best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This look at the Philadelphia Eagles covers both the tenure of coach Buddy Ryan, which began in 1986 and ended with his firing in 1991, and the next three years of current coach Rich Kotite's regime. The 1992 season is the focal point, but Bowden, who covered the Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer, deals in depth with the years leading up to that season. Of particular interest are Bowden's profiles of many of the Eagles' colorful characters, including Ryan, owner Norman Braman (who sold the team to Hollywood producer Jeff Lurie in 1994) and players Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner and Randall Cunningham. Bowden pulls no punches, documenting the stormy off-the-field lives of several team members including Joyner and Wes Hopkins, as well as describing the players' dislike of star quarterback Cunningham. Although a bit melodramatic at times, this is as thorough an account of a sports franchise as any fan, even Eagles fanatics, could want. Photos not seen by PW (Oct).
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Bowden, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, records the tempestuous 1992 season of professional football's Philadelphia Eagles as they fight for a spot in the playoffs. He presents vivid portraits of coaches Buddy Ryan and Richie Kotite, owner Norman Braman, and key players. Bowden assesses the achievements and problems of star quarterback Randall Cunningham, defensive players Reggie White and Seth Joyner, and others, as injuries, money, sexual relations, and egos affect their careers. As Ken Delinger (For the Glory: College Football Dreams and Realities Inside Paterno's Program, LJ 8/94) has done for college football, Bowden turns a searching eye on professional football. For most sports shelves.
Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp. Medical Lib., Tucson
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1 Reprint edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137720
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137722
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Bowden is the bestselling author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, as well as The Best Game Ever, Bringing the Heat, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah. He reported at The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and other magazines. He lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Supremely detailed account of a failed Eagles season, April 27, 2006

By 

T. Murphy "readitall" (Philly, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bringing the Heat (Paperback)

If you've read the title of this review, you're probably wondering which of the Philadelphia Eagles' disappointing seasons I'm referring to, as there have been MANY since the teams' last championship in 1960. This book details the 1992 season, one of the most highly anticipated ever for this team. On offense, All-Pro QB Randall Cunningham was returning from injury, RB Herschel Walker had been signed to lead the rushing attack, and WR Fred Barnett was about to enter the finest season of his young career. On defense, the team was coping with the death of Jerome Brown, and the returning stars (Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Eric Allen) were expected to repeat their tremendous performance from 1991. To the delight of ravenous Eagles fans, it started out beautifully, with a 4-0 record and a trashing of the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. The following week brought a loss at Kansas City, and from there on, the regular season did not play out as hoped. Still, the team made the playoffs and finally shook the monkey from its back, beating New Orleans on the road in the Wildcard game. After 3 playoff losses under Buddy Ryan in recent memory, this looked to be the turning point. The team had promised to win the Super Bowl in Jerome's memory, and was off to a good start. However, the following week brought a crushing loss to the hated Cowboys, where both the offense and defense were lifeless. The off-season brought many changes and spelled the end for Buddy's Boys, who clung to his attitudes even after his firing and replacement with Richie Kotite.

Author Mark Bowden followed the team for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1990-92, and had a front-row seat for all the theatrics. He does an excellent job diving into the specifics on players and coaches, devoting the first half of the book to character profiles and a great illustration of Jerome's final days. The narrative on the 1992 regular season kicks in thereafter, with excellent views on how attitudes and expectations swung wildly throughout. Hardcore fans of the team will recall the anguish they experienced as hopes faded.

Absolutely a must-read for Buddy or Kotite-era Eagles fans, and highly recommended for fans in other cities where the NFL is king.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Game Day, November 10, 2000

By 

Tom Herrington (Somerset, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bringing The Heat (Hardcover)

Mark Bowden provides his readers with a glimpse into the chess match that is played out on any given Sunday in the NFL. Bowden lets us into the lives of the very elite athletes who have the ability to reach the ultimate level of pro sports; their endless preparation from grade school through college and onto the pros. Weekly film study, practice, game planning and analysis of opponents tendencies is religiously embraced by those in the "pigskin temple" just to gain the extra step needed to obtain victory. After you read this book you will never watch a pro football game the same again. A must read for Eagles fans.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Gridiron Epic, December 31, 2000

By 

ALEX SOWDEN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bringing the Heat (Paperback)

Bringing The Heat is a gridiron epic: a robust 500-page chronicle of the Philadelphia Eagles' tumultuous 1992 season that lifts the lid on the pressure cooker environment of an NFL team desperate for a final shot at the Super Bowl, even as its internal conflicts surpass those unfolding upon the field. Haunted by the death of talismanic defensive tackle Jerome Brown, the team struggles to heal the locker-room rift between its league-leading defense and a misfiring offense led by talented but erratic quarterback Randall Cunningham. It must also contend with the expectations of a team owner and a sports-mad metropolis desperate for a championship to dispel its citywide inferiority complex. Former Philadelphia Enquirer reporter Bowden compares gridiron football to a religion in the devotion it demands from coaches and players, and explores the disconcerting consequences such dedication brings. These include the unpredictable effects upon young black males as they are thrust - sometimes from abject poverty - into a world of wealth but also unrelenting media scrutiny. His attention as well to the saddening regularity of players' marital infidelities portray familial breakdown to be, for some, an inevitable feature of a pro football career. Panoramic in its perspective (the advent of free agency that threatens to dismantle the talented Eagles), intimately personal in its detail (the venomous rage of linebacker Seth Joyner: the extravagant idiosyncrasies of Cunningham), Bringing The Heat is both an absorbing and colorful character-driven tale and a serious and incisive social commentary upon the phenomenon of professional sports in America.