John Madden's Heroes of Football (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "From the very beginning, football was a rough-and-tumble game..." (more)
Key Phrases: title game, leading rusher, defensive linemen, Super Bowl, San Francisco, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3–6—This title traces the evolution of professional football from its humble beginnings as an Ivy League-college pastime in the 19th century to one of the most popular spectator sports in the United States. In a somewhat dry narrative, Madden focuses on the development of the game, presenting chronological chapters that introduce significant time periods and identify key players and teams. The text emphasizes rules, prominent athletes, and strategies with sidebars and full-color photographs offering additional information. The author's name recognition through video games and his visibility as a sports commentator will be a natural lure for young readers. This clear, well-organized account is appropriate for report writers and is a solid choice for libraries needing to update their sports-history collections.—Michael Giller, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The emphasis in this picture-book-size volume is on pro rather than college football. The book relates how the game changed from a rough-and-tumble league sport centered in small Midwestern cities into the corporate powerhouse that it is today. Along the way, the authors discuss rule and strategy changes and major stars who made the modern game. Lots of photographs and sidebars are included, although many fans will wish for more pictures instead of the sometimes redundant text. Of course, John Madden has become a brand name, but his distinctive voice, heard in his TV color commentary, is apparent only in his brief, somewhat confusing introduction. Most of the text is rather workmanlike, so this is recommended only for libraries needing additional material on the history of the professional sport. A few additional sources, Web sites, and a glossary are appended. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525476989
• ISBN-13: 978-0525476986
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,966 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, great info and better than older Madden books in terms of quality info, March 1, 2007

By	L. Aiello (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Over the years, John Madden covered mostly NFC games for CBS from 1979-94, and then again for FOX from 1994-2002. Then he went on to ABC and now NBC, on a more neutral path, again with Al Michaels. It all added up to what seemed to be too NFC biased. This probably comes from, as most fans know, the network that covers the game will be connected with the visiting team in a case of interconference games. If it's NFC vs. NFC, fine. Here's an interconference example from 1988: Minnesota Vikings at Buffalo Bills. CBS was the network since the NFC team was on the road.
Years of this caught up with Madden, which is funny because he was a Raiders (AFC) guy in the 60s and 70s. For a while, he would certainly talk up the great teams of the 80s and 90s during a broadcast - Giants, Rams, Bears, Skins, Packers, 49ers, Eagles - all from the NFC. Too much bias towards the "home" conference in my opinion. It didn't seem like he was on board or had the respect for a lot of Hall of Famers from the AFC since he didn't cover those games as much. Even his "All-Madden" teams seemed to leave off some great AFC players from that era. Despite the fact that the NFC was on the super bowl winning streak, that shouldn't be the reason to talk up the NFC: Things have changed now with the AFC winning 8/10, and it seems like an even playing field throughout the entire league. The super bowls that John Madden covered in the past seemed like he was going for home network team!!
In this book, he finally gets it right. He gives props to many great players no matter what conference they are/were from. Great photos are scattered throuout. A great source of info for the proper age group. The stories flow with ease and are very informative. The adults who may be reading this book to their kids will smile with a lot of football history and great memories.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, January 9, 2007

By	S. Evans "S. Evans" (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first saw this in a school order form but the price was better on Amazon. My son loves it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Madden's Heroes of Football, January 9, 2008

By	M. Long (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We purchased this for our son-in-law for Christmas. It was passed around like candy among the men. Isn't it wonderful to give a gift that is so well received!