The Pro Football Chronicle: The Complete (Well, Almost) Record of the Best Players, the Silliest...

by Dan Daly and Bob O'Donnell

Here is everything a fan wants to know about football, presented in a decade-by-decade format with newspaper articles, cartoons, photos, charts, and statistics--all providing a comprehensive inside... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0020283008
• ISBN13: 9780020283003
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: MacMillan of Canada
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

The best book on the game's esoterica

If any pro football book deserves to be expanded and updated, it's this jewel of an effort. Daly and O'Donnell have produced a fascinating retrospective of all that makes football what it is, and reveal some little-known bits and pieces that even the most studied fan won't be aware of. A pity it's over a decade out of date . . .There are no canonisations and platitudes here (for instance, the book criticises in detail Vince Lombardi's late-sixties draft choices and suggests he might have handed Phil Bengtson something of a poisoned chalice - an interesting theory, if nothing else), and no tedious top-ten-this or worst-five-that lists for the more mentally challenged. Instead, there are decade-by-decade glimpses of the game which, taken together, produce the best historical, fan-level portrait of the NFL I've ever come across. My only complaint - and it's a small one - is that the book does fall back on the inevitable statistical section and identifies what it believes to be the "greatest" players. There's enough of this junk in other books ("Total Football" leaps to mind); I would have preferred more pages of esoterica and amusing photographs.This is a book really worth searching out for if your idea of a good read is something other than a fawning biography or Officially Licensed propaganda.

Great job O'D!

Great job on the book Mr. O'Donnell. We're very proud to see you represent Wakefield High School. Also, we don't think that you should stop writing. You're a great writer (as you can probably tell by all these wonderful reviews). Keep up the wonderful work. We love you! Best wishes from your favorite girls, Holly, Rahel, and Remela <-- (I wrote it)

Do not miss this book....

quite frankly, this is the most entertaining pro football book I have ever read, and I believe I have read the vast majority of them. It has inside stories that you will not find the details on anywhere. It is funny, historical, and factual. I just wish there was an updated version. I have worn out my original copy I bought 10 years ago and am now on my second copy.

Wow. No, WOW!

Boy oh boy, do whatever you have to do to get a copy of this in your hot little off-season hands. (Today is Feb 13) I've been a fan all my life, so I think I know a few stories, but every single page in this book is a joy ... so much I've never heard of, or have only heard of peripherally ... and ALL told in utterly entertaining fashion. I can't put the book down. I have just one complaint: when are the guys who wrote this going to do an update? When, when, when? I want the first copy.

My favorite sports book ever!

It's funny how you see baseball book after baseball book exploring the past, analyzing the statistics, and uncovering untold stories. Very few football books have ever come out to fill this void, except for this great work. This book is eleven years old, and I still find myself going to it at least several times a football season. Pro Footbal Chronicle profiles forgotten stars such as Big Daddy Lipscomb and Hardy Brown. It tells of the attempt to fix the 1946 NFL Championship and of the saga of Red Grange from college to the pros. It explores the unbreakable records, the big hits, the classic rivalries and....I could go on and on, but I won't. The reason is simply that you should buy it. It is the best sports book ever writen about the greatest sport ever played. I just hope there is an updated version in the works, which would shed some new light on the largely untold story of pro football's roots.