 The topic of this book initially worried me; like, how much more is there to say about the most important position in sports? We know the names, have watched the games, and the stats are available at the touch of a button. Even Netflix is now synonymous with Quarterback. Enter Seth Wickersham. If you flip to the back of this book, there are pages and pages of sources. So many, that only a writer with a small army could do so much research. But then you start reading it. Wickersham was once a quarterback himself; a boy with a dream that wanted what all of us want, which is to feel what these men feel when there's a minute left on the clock and 80,000 watching your every move. The stories he tells are plentiful, and he never spends too long on one. In a "swipe up video" world, it's a writing style that I thoroughly enjoy. He covers the legends, but also spends great time on men I'd never heard of. From Bob Waterfield to Y.A. Tittle and prep Colin Hurley, all of them bonded by quarterback but worlds apart in personalities. Many writers re-write the facts, often a formality in English 101. At the end of Forrest Gump, the woman on the park bench tells Forrest, "Well, I thought it was a very lovely story, and you tell it so well." Folks, that's the best way to describe this book: the stories are rich in details, and the narratives go so deep. As Steve Young talked, there were times when I thought, this is about as much as I could possibly get without being in this guy's brain. Wickersham didn't write this with an army of researchers. He wrote it after a lifetime of experiences that allowed the stories to just flow naturally. I don't give many 5-star reviews, but this is one. Enjoy it.  Tags:
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