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7 football books for midseason reading: Brady, Manning, Montana, and more

Here are seven new interesting football titles.

2. ‘Montana: The Biography of Football’s Joe Cool,’ by Keith Dunnavant

  • By Ross Atkin

In the discussion about the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Joe Montana is on seemingly everyone’s short list. After all, he guided the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl titles in less than 10 seasons in the 1980s, plus he was often at his best when the Niners needed to come from behind to win. In this biography, the author examines what made Montana, a late bloomer, the perfect field general to direct San Francisco’s innovative ball-control passing attack known as the West Coast Offense. 

Here’s an excerpt from Montana:

“The offense created by [49er head coach Bill] Walsh was a kind of science, and in time, Montana’s multilayered understanding of the scheme empowered him to solve every conceivable problem posed by NFL defenses. But it took a player like Montana to prove it as more than a theory. It took Montana to use the science to create a kind of art: Gliding out of trouble and making perfect throws, just one step ahead of disaster … buying time for his receivers to get open … releasing the ball with a swiftness that left defenders grabbing for air … delivering time after time in clutch situations, when the situation appeared especially hopeless.

“ ‘What Joe had was a poise, instinct, spontaneity, and intuitiveness that no one else had,’ Walsh once explained.

“Walsh and Montana were not simply building a powerful offense. They were challenging the very nature of offensive football, which included reinventing what a successful quarterback could look like.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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