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The nature of football makes it a game that does not allow for competitive play beyond organized high school, college or professional leagues. Indeed, most football players end their careers after high school. A small percentage goes on to play in college, an infinitesimally small percentage play professionally. Unlike baseball or basketball, a pick up league for middle age former football players is generally not possible. But some former players can continue their careers in one of many semi-professional leagues that exist in countless football-crazy communities across America.

DREAM SEASON: A Professor Joins America's Oldest Semi-Pro Football Team, by Bob Cowser, Jr., is a well-written and engrossing story of one man's return to the game of football with the Watertown, New York, Red and Black semi-pro football team. Cowser is an English professor at St. Lawrence University. In summarizing what the game of football means to him, he quotes Frederick Exley, a Watertown native whose football book, A FAN'S NOTES: A Fictional Memoir, is a cult classic. Exley wrote, "…Football was an island of directness in a world of circumspection. In football a man was asked to go out and do a difficult and brutal job, and he either did it or got out. There was nothing rhetorical or vague about it…. The recompense I gained was the feeling of being alive."

The world of semi-professional football does not exactly conform to the model that most football fans would envision. This is not minor league football, where the players wait for a phone call and try out with a National Football League team. Very few if any of the players are paid for their efforts, and indeed most players purchase their own equipment and often must contribute towards travel expenses and other team costs. Almost all of the players have full-time jobs that on occasion conflict with practices and games. But none of these obstacles can outweigh the motivation for playing: the simple love of the game of football. For Cowser, who had not played organized football since high school, a return to the football field would fill a void in his life. In addition, as a writing professor, Cowser would have the opportunity to write about his experience. "I can't go into a classroom and tell students to write, when I'm not writing," he would observe.

Cowser's experience makes for wonderful reading. DREAM SEASON is written by a man who clearly loves football and whose return to the game is a life-completing experience. Along the way the reader meets engaging and endearing characters, in fellow players, coaches and spouses. All of these people in some way share the bond of football. Cowser's affection for the game of football is catching. Sharing his experiences in the pages of his book is the type of heartwarming event that one does not often experience.

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If the players portrayed in DREAM SEASON represent one end of the football-playing spectrum, the athletes who are the subject of Bill Pennington's THE HEISMAN symbolize the cream of the football crop, combatants whose football careers contribute to the legend of the game. The Heisman Trophy may be the most well-known and recognized award in sports. Think for a moment about any of the countless awards annually given for accomplishment and victory in the sporting world. Now close your eyes and picture the Heisman Trophy. It is a sculpture, unparalleled in American sport, a beauty of graceful motion that captures the spirit of the sport it honors. The Heisman Trophy is an institution, whose history embodies the saga of college football and a changing America over the past decades. Heisman winners have been more than great football players; they have gone on to become war heroes, giants of American business, and high-level politicians.

Pennington traces the birth of the Heisman to the Roaring Twenties, the first great sports era in American history. During that decade our nation's sports fans worshipped athletic heroes such as Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Red Grange and Bobby Jones. Attempting to capitalize on the sports craze sweeping the country, two New York entrepreneurs, James Kennard and Phillip Slinguff, decided to form a sports club in the financial center of post World War I America. They called it the Downtown Athletic Club and its home was to be a thirty-five story athletic and social skyscraper located in the heart of New York City.

In 1930, the Club hired a retired football coach as its director. His name was John Heisman. Ironically he fiercely opposed the concept of the trophy that would ultimately bear his name. But in 1935, the first trophy recognized the outstanding college football player "east of the Mississippi River." His name was Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. Berwanger would become the first player selected in the initial National Football League draft of college players but would decline to play professional football because the salary offered by the Chicago Bears could not compete with the business career he had chosen for himself. Both the NFL and the Heisman award would see substantially better days.

THE HEISMAN introduces the reader to a long list of trophy winners. In addition to many names that may be unfamiliar to football fans, there are stories of men who accomplished far more in life than being outstanding football players. John Heisman regarded football as more than a game. He viewed it as a crucible, exposing the true character worth of the player. From men such as Nile Kinnick, who died as a war hero in World War II, to O.J. Simpson, who became the nation's pariah, the Heisman embodies the good and bad of American sport and life. Football fanatics will find THE HEISMAN to be informative and absorbing.

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If professional football has indeed become our national pastime, one event and one man greatly contributed to that ascendancy. On December 28, 1958, the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime. Millions watched the game on television. Professional football transformed from a game based upon local game receipts to a national game based upon television ratings. The architect of that transformation was a man who, shortly after the Colts victory, would become the Commissioner of the National Football League. His name was Pete Rozelle.

AMERICA'S GAME: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation, by Michael MacCambridge, is indeed an epic and a sweeping tale of the rise of professional football from the post World War II era to Super Bowl XXXVIII, a game perhaps best remembered for the wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson.

MacCambridge's attention to detail and history is extraordinary. While this book is nearly 500 pages in length, it is so well written and perceptive that no portion of the book seems unsuitable for a history of the National Football League. The Colts-Giants contest is covered in the preface of the book, but great attention is then placed on the post World War II era when the All-American Football Conference challenged the supremacy of the NFL. The competition from the All-American Conference led to two important changes in professional football. The first was westward expansion, with football actually taking the lead over baseball in mining the riches of California as a sports venue. The second was the easy acceptance of the African-American athlete in professional football and the accompanying rise in the talent pool for the sport.

Along the way, contributing to many important decisions was Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who assumed the leadership position at the tender age of 33. He implemented changes in traditional sports marketing that made the NFL what it is today. Television revenue was divided equally among all of the teams, regardless of local market size. Rozelle created NFL properties bringing a consistent standard of excellence to fan paraphernalia and again consistent revenue to all franchises. Finally, Rozelle created NFL Films, resulting in movies that solidified the myth of the game of football on a weekly basis. Ask yourself when you last viewed a film of any baseball or basketball game. The football legend spread through the recognizable narration of John Facenda has made football more than a game to most American sports fans.

Chronicles such as AMERICA'S GAME often suffer from too much attention to detail and ponderous writing. MacCambridge has neither of these faults. This is the one book that every professional football fan should read. Put it on your holiday shopping list; it will make a great gift.

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In the current NFL season the New England Patriots give substantial indication of becoming the first dynasty of the 21st century. PATRIOT REIGN: Bill Belichick, the Coaches, and the Players Who Built a Champion, by Michael Holley, therefore is a timely book about that team. Holley, easily recognizable to television fans of ESPN's "Around the Horn" or Fox Sports's "I, Max," was a sports columnist for the Boston Globe when he sought behind-the-scenes access to the Patriots and their coaching staff. Belichick's reputation is that of an extremely private and indeed even secretive coach. He surprised Holley by granting his request and even extended for an additional year Holley's access to the team when the first year of the project found the Patriots having a disappointing season.

Those fans who truly love the X's and O's of football will love PATRIOT REIGN. It is more than a diary of two football seasons. There are insights into strategy, coaching decisions, the NFL draft and the often-difficult decision of releasing and trading players. Building a championship team in the NFL is a daunting and difficult task, but Holley shows how it can be done in an entertaining and enjoyable book.

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Students of history who enjoy reading about the lives of famous military leaders may find an apt comparison in the careers of National Football League coaches. The comparison between war and football is one that tends to be overused, but there is an equivalency in strategy, tactics and preparation that cannot be denied.

WINNING THE NFL WAY: Leadership Lessons from Football's Top Head Coaches, by Bob LaMonte, is an anecdotal compilation from five of the league's most successful coaches. The five coaches --- Mike Holmgren, John Gruden, John Fox, Andy Reid and Mike Sherman --- all share LaMonte as an agent. Perhaps this explains their willingness to share their thoughts on coaching with the author. Nevertheless, they have been candid and offer many important insights for not only coaching but for other endeavors as well. Successful football coaches would not only make great military leaders; their philosophies and work ethic would have equal application to the business and teaching worlds. WINNING THE NFL WAY is one of those easy reads for a vacation or airplane trip that, although not complex, can offer some insightful observations.

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