A literary Super Bowl season? No, it’s not crazy talk. We all get into the mood for various seasons in various ways, right? For some, it’s a movie. Sometimes its a song. For others, it’s a book. If you’re one of those, this list is for you. We’ve rounded up the best books, both novels and nonfiction, about American high school, college and NFL football to read to get ready for Super Bowl season. Or really, anytime.
what are the best novels and nonfiction books about American football?
Here’s our take on the best books, novels and non-fiction, about American high school, college and NFL football teams and players to read to get ready for Super Bowl season. Or to gain a deeper understanding of the sport and why it has such an intractable, emotional, iconic role on American culture.
The best books, novels and nonfiction, about American high school, college and NFL football. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.
1. The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger.
The Mosquito Bowl is a heartbreaking history about a football game that for too many of the players was their last. The author of the acclaimed Friday Night Lights tells the true story of how a group of elite college football players staged a bowl game on the eve of the bloodiest battle of World War II.
On Christmas Eve 1944, the 4th and 29th Marine regiments were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for the invasion of Okinawa. Because most college football players aspired to join the Marines if they enlisted, their ranks that day included “one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled.” Twenty of the Marines were later drafted or played in the NFL. But that day, their aim was simple: to prove which regiment had the best football team. The game they played at Guadalcanal became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.” Tragically, within months15 of the 65 players were killed in battle at Okinawa.
2. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss.
You may have heard the name and phrase “Jim Thorpe, All American.” Sounds like someone everyone in the nation reveres and respects, no? Path Lit by Lightning is a poignant read that lays bare the reality of this legendary athlete’s life and his experiences as a BIPOC man in America. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he faced obstacles throughout his early life that came to haunt him as an adult despite all of his professional successes.
Thorpe rose to fame as a remarkable athlete who excelled at every sport he tried. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Was an All-American football player and then inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in its inaugural class. Oh, and he also played major league baseball for the then- New York Giants. While he was a phenom on the field, in his personal life he struggled with alcohol, finances and broken marriages. This is a sobering account of both professional sports and one man’s lived experience.
3. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson by Jeff Pearlman.
The Last Folk Hero is a biography written by a sportswriter intent on understanding the elusive truth about who Bo Jackson really was, and what became of him. Jackson was the quarterback of Auburn University’s football team, and a Heisman Trophy winner. He became a superstar in both the NFL and Major League Baseball – and found commercial success with his “Bo Knows” ad campaign for Nike. Jackson became a larger-than-life, mythic figure. This is an attempt to render him as a man in full.
4. The Redshirt: A Novel by Corey Sobel.
The Redshirt is a quietly devastating debut novel about the often toxic environment of college sports, especially football. Miles is hiding the fact that he’s gay and dreaming of playing football at a Division One school. When he’s admitted as a freshman to King College, that rare large Southern school without a strong football team, it’s a dream come true. For a moment, it appears that the future is even brighter when the country’s top high school football recruit accepts an offer to attend King. It’s a welcome shock for everyone in the program. But when this star athlete ends up rooming with Miles, the dark side of college sports and the difficult choices players are forced to make become clear as the two discover who they really are.
5. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback by George Plimpton.
For seeing the sport of football through the fresh eyes of a highly intelligent naif, have a look at Paper Lion. Plimpton was wildly talented and deeply curious writer, especially when it came to sports. This is his breezy account of talking his way into training camp – not as a reporter but as a player – with the Detroit Lions. He practiced with the team, and even got some on-field time in a preseason game. He later penned a sequel, Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited, an affectionate profile of his former Lions teammates Alex Karras and John Gordy.
6. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and described as “The Catch-22 of the Iraq War,” the debut novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a satire that unfolds in Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The work explores the national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. It’s the story of the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad and their experiences on one exhausting stop in their media-intensive “Victory Tour” at one of football’s iconic meccas.
7. The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire by John Eisenberg.
The League is an account of the origin story of the NFL. It may be hard to believe now, with pro football reigning as America’s favorite sport and one of the most lucrative business enterprises in the history of the world. But in the 1920s through the 1940s, the nascent decades of the NFL, its survival was not a given. At the time, college football, baseball, boxing, and horseracing dominated American sports. This is the story of how five team owners – Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall and Bert Bell – competed and collaborated and forged the league we know today.
8. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis.
You’ve seen the movie – now read the book. The Blind Side was one of first books in the modern era to cross over from a narrow sports-oriented audience into a mass readership. The book captured the popular imagination with its feel-good account of Michael Oher, a young Black boy and talented athlete who is living in poverty until an evangelical family takes him in. He blossoms into one of the most valuable players any team can have. The quarterback must be protected at any cost, and Oher becomes incredibly good at guarding the quarterback’s greatest vulnerability: his blind side.
You can also read Michael Oher’s own retelling of his life’s trajectory in his memoir, I Beat the Odds.
9. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger.
We conclude our list of the best books about American football with the O.G. of the genre: Friday Night Lights. Sports Illustrated declared this nonfiction account of life in a Texas town that is completely invested in its high school football team as “the best football book of all time.”
what are the best novels and nonfiction books about American football?
That’s our take on the best books, novels and nonfiction, about American high school, college and NFL football teams and players to read to get ready for Super Bowl season. Or just to be able to join the conversation pre- and post-game. Enjoy!
