1 comments about The Humility of Greatness.

1. As a baby boomer, I just missed the years of "the greatest generation." This book captures the best of what that era produced.

   A man of humble beginnings, without pretense and without pursuit of glory, rose to glorious heights anyway. A football hero, a World War II hero and a man faithful throughout to his country, family and morality, achieved things that most of us can only dream of. This is a great, heart warming and inspirational read!

1 comments about Ray Eliot: The Spirit and Legend of Mr. Illini.

1. I cannot think of wanting to do anything more than watching a University of Illinois f-ball game at Memorial Stadium. Ever since I was young I have never missed a game if it were possible for me to go. My Junior year in high school I picked up this book on Ray Eliot. The book instantly caught my attention because I love the illini and the forward was written by Ray Nitchzke (former u of i and packer great). In Nitchzke's message he said how Ray Eliot was very compassionate, caring and inspirational. He talked about how he believed Ray was the most inspirational coach he had experienced (this coming from the man who was coached by the great Vince Lombardi). I now play college football and I can truthfully say I wish I too could be inspired by Coach Eliot. This book does that and I constantly look to it for guidance. I believe this is the best book I have ever read (despite the Bible). It teaches its readers about more important aspects in football: sportsmanship, desire, courage, love, etc. These values that Ray Eliot instilled in his players were more important than championships. In his 18 years, Eliot's Illini teams won three big ten titles and two Rose Bowls. They also upset the #1 team in america 3 years in a row at one time in the early 1940s. I'll leave this review with a quote from the first page of his book. --"The boy is more important than the game."-- --Ray Eliot--

No comments about Quarterblack: Shattering the NFL Myth.

5 comments about What Color is a Conservative?.

1. Very well writen, and informative. There are statesmen still left in this country, not just politicians.



2. For those you are political junkies and for those who aren't this is a great read. There are some really good stories in this book as well as some really good and thoughtful insights. I bought this as a gift for someone struggling with the issues of color and liberalism. It makes a great converstional book as well. I own this book as well. Strongly recommended.



3. This is overall, a good read. The book gave me a different perspective of J.C. Watts and resulted in more respect for the former Congressman. My only complaint is the numerous football analogies: too many. It became overkill after a while and I was annoyed by his constant references to the game. Other than that, I enjoyed reading the book.



4. Watts, football player turned politician, indicates his obsession with racism and politics by trying to defend political conservatives as non-racist even when it's obvious that these were the same lunatics in both parties that allowed the racism wackiness to spiral out of control in the south back in the 1960s and still does today nationwide albeit more subtely. The only reason rural voters in his area ever kept the guy in office was because he was a corporate conservative who enjoyed the art of bait and switching voters on culture hot button issues such as guns and abortion all the while keeping the economic mess as silent as possible. Sorry Mr. Watts, but good conservatives would never have sucked up to your cultural bait and switch tricks if it weren't for political in-correctness. You know you're just a neoconservative radical and not a honest conservative and you're not fooling most African Americans anyway.



5. I think that this book is a great book but always keep an open mind

1 comments about In His Shadow: Growing Up with Reggie White.

1. Seemed like a truthful account of life with Reggie. I was surprised at some of the things Jeremy revealed about how extreme his father's beliefs had evolved. Jeremy wrote from his heart. The book brought back many memories of the White's as they "passed through" the Philadephia area.

5 comments about Kurt Warner: And the Last Shall Be First.

1. I love books. I love St. Louis. I love sports. However, I could not even finish this book. I got it for 50 cents at the library and was quick to realize why the previous owner was able to part with it. The most enjoyable thing was that the book is so bad that someone wrote tiny notes towards the end about how pointless most of the stories were.



2. I live in St. Louis and love both the Rams and Kurt Warner. I bought this book expecting to find out information on Warner and the magical season, but got rambling ... instead. The book is one chapter after another of people telling stories about themselves, some of which do not even know Warner. I bought the book at a local grocery store that had a huge promotion, selling copies at half-off the list price. Good books do not sell for half-price immediately after being published. It is not worthy of a match to burn it.



3. I'm a big Kurt Warner fan, both as a football player and a peron. However, this book is almost degrading to him. Although everyone quoted speaks highly of Kurt, the author's presentation is extremely poor. It reads like he taped interviews and transcribed them word for word into a book. Very boring.



4. I am a huge Kurt Warner fan. However, this book was terrible. It seemed that it was thrown together so it could get to market quick. I wouldn't want anyone to waste their time with this. I normally don't try to trash items that people put a lot of work into. However, I don't feel there was lot of work put into this project. The book consists of stories/letters from people that new him. Most stories are disjointed at best. Sorry Kurt. Just don't feel this book is worthy of your achievements.



5. I think that this book is one of best Kurt Warner Biographys of many. I would requst this book to a person that likes sports. Also I would say that you would have to would have to know some things about the sport of football. There is alot of terms that only the people that like sports would know about. There is some things that this book doesn't cover. If you want to know more about Kurt Warner look at some of the other books that Amozon carries.

2 comments about 101 Fun Facts about Kurt Warner.

1. Wow! It was interesting and exciting with lots of neat facts. Amazing to throw 5 TD passes in one game. Did not know that you could play 2 sports at a time in HighSchool.

   Clinton Miller 8yrs. old Champaign, Il.




2. When my son and his friend sat down to this book, I couldn't tear it away from them! They kept looking at the vivid pictures and reading over and over the text. They were really transfixed. I can't say how quiet the house was for about a half of an hour. They loved it!

No comments about Da Coach: Men Are from Mars Real Men Are from Pittsburg.

1 comments about Roar of Silence.

1. If you know someone that is having a hard time adjusting to adverse circumstances get them to read this book. I have a newly adopted son that was having a hard time adjusting to his new family situation. He is not handicapped physically or mentally but the system he was in handicapped him emotionally giving him an entitlement mentality. I read the book in one sitting and then gave it to my son to read. For the last two years I have been trying to find a way to help him see that with hard work and dedication he can become anything that he wants to be. With him being a huge football fan, this book was just the ticket to help show him that he is not the only one that has had it tough. Not only will you enjoy the message of this book, so will your family and friends that need to know someone else has beat the odds and made it, inspite of and because of their difficulties and handi-caps.

2 comments about 3rd Down and Forever: Joe Don Looney and the Rise and Fall of an American Hero.

1. In contrast to the reviewer who wrote "Still Searching for the Real Joe Don", I found Clark's treatment sympathetic to the values which guided Looney's travels & travails. Yet, to the author's credit, this end was accomplished without the wholesale denigration of the larger society's beliefs as embodied by Looney's parents, Bud Wilkinson and the U.S. Government. In walking this fine line Clark allows the reader to draw his own conclusion as to the worth or viability of bucking the system. I suspect the previous reviewer knew Looney personally. It is likely that no biograper could give a satisfactory account of the many traits and nuances which coalesce in an individual psyche, when that individual was our own colleague. I believe criticism is due Publisher's Weekly for smugly labeling Looney's life a "seemingly unworthy topic". In fact, Looney is a fascinating, legendary character whose life can be appreciated on multiple levels: 1) As pure, unscripted entertainment--no Hollywood production could match Looney's emotional turbulence, humorous pranks & quips, gridiron exploits, drug involvement and esoteric philosophy--which leads me to ask in amazement why his life hasn't already been made into a movie 2) As a sociological study in the conflict of individual expression with the ethos of consumption in post-war Texas suburbia during the "era of plenty" 3) Looney can be identified as the prototype of the modern football athlete with his emphasis on nutrition and seminal status as a weightlifter 4) Last but not least, Looney's experience is a tale of soul-searching which led him to discard the excess of inherited baggage in the pursuit of a happiness that was custom tailored to his own needs. In conclusion, Clark's rendering of the last few years of Looney's life suggests that Joe Don was a comparatively happy man. I would have been curious to see, had Looney lived longer, whether he could have orchestrated a more complete reconciliation with his parents and daughter. That finale would have proved Joe Don's nirvanna. At this late date, I am suprised that "3rd Down and Forever" has failed to garner greater recognition as it appears to me to have broad appeal.



2. Oh, yeah, J. Brent, you are some smooth talker; it's a pity, however, with all your smooth talk you missed out on what Joe Don was all about; even a cursory look at the video Larry Merchant aired after Joe's death would have showed you more of the man than your predone perspective on him -- he had truly declared peace with the world; he left the gridiron to find what mattered -- and your and everyone else's criteria of what constitutes a "successful life" just doesn't cut it; Joe was after a first-hand recognition of God inside himself; and I think he found it; the pity is that you didn't; you wrote a sports book and a book of a man who, in Kipling's phrase, "went too native." Joe did nothing of the kind; he threw off the expectations of parents and coaches; he left behind the failure of traditional Western notions of the heroic; he quit the tired Sunday go to meeting gestures; and he found, in Eliot's words, a "tremor of bliss." The shame of what you've done lies in your unwillingness or inability to see that; hell, I think you should try writing the damn book all over again. Talk to more people -- sit down with yourself and get a taste of the transcendent peace Joe grew into.