Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, October 10 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Monday, October 9. Order within 7 hrs 37 mins

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$9.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Monday, October 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Saturday, October 14. Order within 16 hrs 7 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by 2nd Life Books ✅

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$9.99
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Seller Lady Jen

Follow the Author

Chris B. Brown

The Essential Smart Football Paperback – May 10, 2012

by Chris B. Brown (Author)

4.4 773 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$2.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$9.99

$1.25

Kindle
$0.00 Read with Kindle Unlimited to also enjoy access to over 4 million more titles $2.99 to buy
Paperback
$9.99

41 Used from $1.25 10 New from $9.99

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$9.99","priceAmount":9.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"bSLgvOCZs1vfltKBZjw1W1j0fgdI%2Fgxmg57%2Bro1YB0cHCul7elklUDPcG2G1iTpV4XI5wiVkoFfb37RII39Sly2Y32mx58Wxe4ZR4cV5rwqwbCnKcB0UTdJM6UxF8AxxE%2F5OTwjn4hT1xM%2FGBm2ETg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.53","priceAmount":7.53,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"53","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"bSLgvOCZs1vfltKBZjw1W1j0fgdI%2FgxmlY6srRkchESVZPjwljrUx8DRE6Y%2Fa5u1sVFTqzB4fz5vgWnVLmpb2BtKn3v9OpEoVqGcFxJc9cqXookgrWtI1w%2BeFL9DbDniyAUWWljlm3n8%2F%2B4ymzLbTanqJf34gXUXegS1TkWe9QjgM%2F4J%2BOG9nVqCMYM6xNWD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The Essential Smart Football is an examination of football's most important strategies and ideas, through the lens of the game's best coaches, players, and schemes. Brilliantly written and eschewing unnecessary jargon and technicality, it makes a major contribution to our understanding of football to help all of us -- coaches, players, and fans -- appreciate the game we love all the more.

The Essential Smart Football features analysis of football's top strategists and their schemes, including:

Urban Meyer's spread offense
Tom Brady's no-huddle attack
Bill Belichick's hybrid defense
Gus Malzahn's up-tempo offense
Charlie Strong's defensive evolution
Mike Leach's pass-happy "Air Raid"
The most popular scheme for running the ball in the NFL
Nick Saban's school of defense.
The book also includes explorations of modern approaches to the West Coast Offense, evolutions in defensive fronts and coverages, the changing role of the running game in spread and pro-style offenses, and much more.
"Buy this book if you love football."
-- Gregg Rosenthal, Senior Editor, NFL.com
"[Chris Brown] has put together a book that you need to buy if you're a football fan with a pulse."
-- Bill Barnwell, Staff Writer, Grantland
"I'm a better coach after reading this book. A must have in every coach's library!"
-- Dub Maddox, Offensive Coordinator, Jenks High School, Jenks, Oklahoma (12x Oklahoma State champions)
"Accessibly erudite".
-- New York Magazine
"If you're a football geek, this is a mandatory purchase."
-- Doug Farrar, Yahoo! Sports
"Advanced stats are great, but they mean a lot more when you understand where the players are moving on the field and why. Nobody has taught me more about where the players are moving on the field and why than Chris Brown."
-- Aaron Schatz, founder of FootballOutsiders.com, columnist for ESPN.com/ESPN the Magazine
"Must-have new book for any football fan."
-- Dan Shanoff, Quickish.com

Print length

154 pages
Language

English
Publication date

May 10, 2012
Dimensions

5.51 x 0.36 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1470125595
ISBN-13

978-1470125592
See all details

Frequently bought together

$9.99

Get it as soon as Tuesday, Oct 10

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

$9.99

Get it as soon as Tuesday, Oct 10

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look

$17.95

Get it as soon as Tuesday, Oct 10

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Choose items to buy together.

American Football Coaches Association
248
Paperback
87 offers from $1.80
American Football Coaches Association
181
Paperback
56 offers from $3.81
Doug Farrar
157
Paperback
55 offers from $2.49
Bobby Petrino
40
Paperback
6 offers from $30.99
Robert A. Everett Jr.
117
Paperback
3 offers from $19.00
Troy Horne
1,285
Paperback
in Basketball
25 offers from $8.00

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris B. Brown writes and edits Smartfootball.com and is a featured contributor to Grantland/ESPN. He has also contributed to The New York Times, Yahoo! Sports, and Slate. He lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 4.10.2012 edition (May 10, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 154 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1470125595
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1470125592
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.36 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #205,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #84 in Football Coaching (Books)
- #348 in Football (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 773 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Chris B. Brown

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Chris B. Brown is the author of The Essential Smart Football, a contributing writer to Grantland/ESPN, and the editor of SmartFootball.com, which is dedicated to the analysis of football strategy and history. He has also written for The New York Times, SBNation, Deadspin, Yahoo! Sports and Slate. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

773 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Coach R

Always on the Cutting Edge of the Game

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2012

Verified Purchase

Over the last 5 years, Chris Brown's site Smartfootball.com has influenced the way I see (and coach) the game of football more than any other source...and I consult a lot of sources! I read 20+ books a year on football coaching, strategy, and management. Brown stays on top of the game, breaking down the newest strategies and noting why they emerged and where they evolved from. This book contains the best articles from his website all in one book. The best leaders and teachers are great simplifiers and Chris Brown makes the complex seem simple. I'm a high school head football coach and love studying the game. I have a lot of the cornerstone books like Bill Walsh's Finding the Winning Edge, Woody Hayes's Hotline to Victory, "Tiger" Ellison's Run & Shoot, Homer Smith's manuals, and Lou Holtz's The Grass is Greener. I recommend Chris Brown's book and site in the same sentence with those essential texts. All of them will change the way you see the game. The material on Urban Meyer and the Spread Offense traces the roots of the offense and the power of the "true" option as opposed to the "read" option. The chapter on the Patriots's use of "Joker" players like Gronkowski and Hernandez to create uncertainty in the defense with versatile players is essential reading -- it ties into Woody Hayes's idea of building your offense to beat the top 3 teams on your schedule (in this case the Jets, for Belichick). If you run the Spread and haven't read Brown's ideas on "Constraint" plays, you are missing out. The chapter on the No Huddle Offense and how it gives Tom Brady (of all QBs) simpler defensive structures to attack is also outstanding. The bottom line is that this is a fantastic football book from one of the best writers on football today. Buy this book and visit Brown's site and you'll be a better coach. He's as good as it gets.

49 people found this helpful

Helpful

David P Klotz

Too short, but still required reading

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012

Verified Purchase

I came to SmartFootball.com somewhat late to the game, but have been an avid reader since. When I found out that Chris Brown was putting putting out a book of "best of" combined with new material, I was very excited to see the result. I have not been disappointed.

The book will be especially enjoyable to those who are unfamiliar with or new to the site. I had read only two of the older articles, but even there I found new insights after re-reading them. I suspect that even if you are familiar with all of the older content, the book is still going to be a must have based on the new content alone.

My only minor complaint is that I wish some of the articles had been longer, and the older ones expanded on further. Several times I felt like I was getting into the meat of the essay only to find it ending on the next page. Despite that, I would consider this to be required reading for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the strategy of football, at any level.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pretty good stuff, but it's more a pamphlet than a book

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

I'm going to review this book largely based on value - what it cost versus what it delivers. I must have been one of the unlucky customers who bought it before the price was lowered to be more in line with its value and I don't think I got my money's worth. Now that the price is lower, it's a closer match between cost and value, but I think it still needs to cost less to be worth buying. I'd say it's a $3-$4 paperback pamphlet and not much more.

I heard the author on a local sports talk radio show and the way the book was described, I thought it was going to have a lot of information along the lines of why it's usually a bad idea to spike the ball to stop the clock. And, there is one brief mini-chapter on that, but there's not much else in the book along the lines of game management coaching decisions that are not well executed by most coaches. That would have been a better book. This book is a collection of very short chapters with very superficial coverage of a lot of football offensive and defensive schemes. Most of it was interesting, but I didn't come away convinced that the author really knew his material in depth like a coach might. I listen to a lot of sports radio and during football season one local station has a former NFL assistant coach on as a guest to provide commentary and analysis on the games just played. It was a revelation to me to contrast the in depth knowledge that former coach has versus the local media guys. For this book, ex coaches could have probably contributed much more meaningful chapters on these topics than this author, a media guy, did. That would have been a better book also.

So, in my opinion, this is not a great pamphlet, much less a good book. I don't think I got my money's worth on the book. It has a few decent nuggets here and there, but not enough. I'd say it's a two and a half star rounded generously up to a three.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mike Minter

Learn the Process of Solving Problems In Football

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great read for all football coaches who want to learn the why in football. This book shows you how great minds in football has taken something and out of necessity create the next big movement in football. Everything is a reaction to problems you face as a coach and a team. It gives you the process of thinking and how you use that process to build your answers to the problems. This is a simple read and entertaining at the same time! I loved reading how everything we see today in football is built off the history of the game so if you just want to learn the history of the game or learn how the great minds solved problems this book is for you. Enjoy as you come up with the next big thing!

Helpful

John and Tessa

Quick but Information packed read

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am an avid football fan trying to get more into the tactics and plays teams use and why. I am also interested in the evolution of the game and the differences between college and the NFL.

This book is an excellent primer for all football fans, short enough to read in a few days but packed with useful information that made me want to read more. I also really enjoy the accompanying blog over my lunch hour at work. If you are not pretty familiar with formations, schemes, positions and basic football tactics you might find this a little hard to follow. But before reading this my only experience with these was the NFL website, specifically the Playbook videos which break down the previous weeks interesting plays, and I was fine (Also I'm British)!

If my quest for football information tactics were a meal, this is just a starter, but a delicious one!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Tim Lennox

Very technical and in-depth look at play concepts and theory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book is quite technical and can be a little hard to follow in parts if you don't have a football background. Not really one for a novice, think I will revisit in a few years once I have a better knowledge of the game.

Anthony

So fun

Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

This review many type of offense and defense that revolutionize football that we know today. He explains how they were so successful and the magic that brings with . Well explain, but it surface all these concepts not scrutinize them. It was inspiring and very interesting to know those little that you don't necessarily see when you want the game on TV

Christopher Whalen

A history lesson

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

I love American football so this book was great to teach me more about the game. I learned a lot and now have a few extra things to look for when watching games on TV or in person.

Brock F.

Coaches should read this!

Reviewed in Canada on February 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very much enjoyed this book! Many good theories, and they're explained quite well that most people should understand it.
Definitely gets your playbook creativity juices going!

M A Gent

Not bad but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

Not all together original...If you read these sorts of books you will have essentially read many of the chapters before.

It's good but blood, sweat and chalk is better.

See more reviews