BOOK REVIEW: An insightful read for real football fans …

There are multiple sports internationally that are more popular than American football, but few can compete with the financial success of the National Football League (NFL) and the popularity of the game in the U.S.

At the center of football’s draw is the quarterback, and making it as a quarterback in the NFL is a boy’s dream only few will ever realize. Bruce Feldman has written a book, “The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks” (published by Crown Archetype) that takes you behind the scenes in the NFL and reveals what it really takes to become a professional quarterback.

Feldman writes, “Everything in football, of course, operates through the quarterback, now more than ever in a game that went warp speed in the twentieth century, long after it lapped baseball in popularity and meaning in American society. Therefore, there is no position in all of sports that is quite like the quarterback. Not even close. Quarterback is not only sports’ most complex position but the most important to a team’s success, too. It’s also the hardest to evaluate.”

Over the past decade, a major change that has impacted football is the rise of a nearly $6 billon quarterback coaching industry. And not just for professional QBs. Now, parents of boys as young as eight years old are seeking out quarterback gurus to coach their sons. Steve Clarkson was a pioneer in the QB coaching industry, and is quoted by Feldman as saying …

“… They started to see these younger kids, and then the question became, ‘How young is too young?’ Well, the market has really changed, and I saw this six or seven years ago. When I first started, I usually didn’t get kids till they were sophomores and juniors in high school. But now, with all of these camps and combines and things like that, for the most part, if a kid is not good enough by his junior year, it’s already too late for him. And if he is good enough by his junior year, they already spend so much time traveling on that circuit, they really don’t have time to train as much. So your work is really done by that point.”

But that’s just in the initial budding development of a potential QB. Feldman introduces readers to QB experts such as Trent Dilfer and his role in the Elite 11, George Whitfield who is known as the “QB whisperer,” quarterback coaching pioneer Steve Clarkson, the “mad scientist” Tom House, and others who not only work with the best of high school athletes, but delves into their work developing college level and professional QBs as well. In fact, the book offers (as touted by the publisher) “unprecedented insight into Heisman trophy winning phenom Johnny Manziel” and an “all-access look at the making of the next superstars in football’s most important position …”

Feldman shares the behind-the-scenes making of QBs by detailing a recent year in football. If you’re a real fan of the game and have an interest in knowing what makes a quarterback successful or not, you’ll find yourself absorbed by the stories and personalities detailed in this book. It’s a fun and insightful read for football fans interested in knowing more about the inner workings of the dominant position of their favorite sport.

Scotty

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”