Big Play: Barra on Football (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Football wasn't invented, it evolved, and so football historians have never been able to give an entirely satisfactory answer to the question, "What was the..." (more)
Key Phrases: first pro football player, changed football, pro football history, Notre Dame, Super Bowl, Michigan State (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I love how Allen Barra writes about football, which is like no one else in our business." -- Peter King, Sports Illustrated

"We need Allen Barra to reflect, examine, and give us his singular point of view." -- Steve Sabol, NFL Films

Product Description

In a follow-up to his CLEARING THE BASES - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s book of the year for 2002-syndicated columnist Allen Barra turns his eye from America’s pastime to America’s passion. In this collection of essays, Barra delves into the gridiron’s all-time greats, some of the sport’s enduring controversies, and suggests new ways to think about the game that holds our attention from August through January, every year.

Barra turns his aggressively intelligent writing to the Heisman Trophy and its controversies and demonstrates why the Bowl Championship Series has not and cannot work. He explains how the infamous tie game between Notre Dame and Michigan State in 1966 changed football forever. He compares the careers of Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi, George Allen and Don Shula, Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas, and Joe Montana and Steve Young, probing beyond the myths that surround each man and creating a new context to understand their achievements. He explains how Notre Dame embraced a destiny in pads, beyond the Gipper mystique and Rockne speeches. No other writer challenges a sport’s myths, untrue truisms, and legends the way Barra does in these essays.

The achievement of a writer who manages a balance between establishment insider and outspoken iconoclast, Big Play explores issues and controversies that fire up pigskin fans. Blending statistical commentary with insight and biting commentary with genuine fandom, Barra provides readers with another dose of his passionate, opinionated, and unique analysis of football.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (October 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574888692
• ISBN-13: 978-1574888690
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,845,572 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Columns from one of America's Better Sports Writers, December 6, 2004

By	George McAdams (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Big Play: Barra on Football (Hardcover)

I've had the pleasure of knowing Allen Barra since 1970 or so when we wrote for the UAB (University of Alabama in Birmingham) student newspaper. A very imaginative writer, he could write 15 inches of column on anything and everything, and while he wrote mostly about entertainment items back then, sports was always something that intrigued him.

Over the years, I occasionally read his articles in INSIDE SPORTS and other publications, then in the early 1990's, I picked-up a Village Voice because of the blurb on the cover "Barra on Tyson," and we've renewed our friendship. But, please don't think that this review is merely the writing of an appreciative friend.

From the early 1990's, I've read his works in a variety of publications and webzines, such as Slate.com., and the New York times: sometimes agreeing with him, sometimes not, but always enjoying his way of cutting through the bull. Allen sometimes has a way of over-analyzing situations that drives some folks nuts, but he actually developed, with the assistance of an economics professor at the UAB whose name I forget, a great way of using statistics to compare two players from different era.

With regards to this collection of articles, I cannot tell you if these 38 articles, covering 20+ years of writings, are the cream of the crop, because there are some I've read that aren't included that were terrific, too. However, I will tell you that these are written by someone who knows how to write about sports in a way that tries to place it in perspective to the society that we live in. Usually when a writer tries to do that, they end up in a fourth and inches situation and then get caught behind the line of scrimage, and the ball is turned over. In BIG PLAY, though, Allen gets the first down everytime and succeeds on such a scale that I am truly puzzled why he has not won a Pulitzer Prize.

This is an excellent book for anyone who loves football and appreciates great writing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on Pro and College Football, December 29, 2004

By	L. Rogers (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Play: Barra on Football (Hardcover)

Big Play has the best writing on college football Ive read since Dan Jenkins' classic Saturday's America, and the best stuff on pro football since Tex Maule was at his peak in Sports Illustrated. A great book, particularly the Bart Starr-Johnny Unitas comparison.