Seven Football Books To Get You In The Mood For The Super Bowl

It’s getting down to the line. The playoff games have been played and we’re all anxious for the big one. We’ve got you covered with seven popular football books to keep you in the sporting mood.

1. North Dallas Forty

Interested in the tale of the aging player unsure of when to quit? (Maybe because you’re feeling insecure about Peyton’s future? Don’t worry, we all are.)

Try North Dallas Forty, one of the best pro football novels of all time. Gent’s classic novel explores eight days in the life of Phil Elliot, an aging receiver getting his fill of sex, drugs, and football before his legs give out and his glory days are over.

2. I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots

Want to be inspired by football’s power to change lives?

Read I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots, a historic novel about a single mother’s dream to give her twin sons a better life through American pro football.

3. The Franchise

Upset that Ndamukong Suh got away with stomping on Aaron Rodgers leg?

Try The Franchise, a book about a fictional Texas team trying to become a major football franchise using bribery, intimidation, and a sinister five-year-plan. Follow rookie quarterback Taylor Rusk as he tries to get a piece of the action.

4. The Suicide Squad

Wishing that Andrew Luck’s beard would go missing?

Try The Suicide Squad, in which an entire quarterback goes missing. Sports agent Dave Bolt searches for the missing star and investigates a potentially related murder while immersed in the shady world of sports gambling.

5. All-American

In the mood for some old-fashioned high school football rivalry?

Read All-American, a story of high school football rivals who must overcome their differences both on and off the field—a la Friday Night Lights and Remember the Titans. Ronny is so overcome with guilt after severely injuring an opposing player that he transfers to the rival school.

6. About Three Bricks Shy of a Load

Want to remember the bygone great franchises of the ’70s?

Try About Three Bricks Shy of a Load. In this book, Roy Blount Jr. chronicles the glory days of the 1970s Steelers: their decade of domination, the Steel Curtain, six Super Bowl wins, and the players who made it all possible. The only nonfiction book on our list, it’s one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Sports Books of All Time.

7. A Touch of Death

How about a down-on-his-luck former football hero who’s desperate for cash?

Try A Touch of Death, in which a broke former football star gets involved with two very dangerous women while trying to score $120,000 in embezzled cash.