Award-winning sportswriter Mike Freeman goes beyond day-to-day newspaper journalism and ESPN highlights to take us deep inside the game and reveal the NFL in ways that will surprise the most avid football fans. He travels to the sidelines and into the locker rooms to interview hundreds of players and coaches on their expertise. Breaking the game down to its essential elements -- coaching, offense, and defense -- Freeman profiles in depth three of today's football elite: Jon Gruden, head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Michael Strahan, defensive end for the New York Giants; and Emmitt Smith, the legendary running back.
Bloody Sundays goes behind the scenes of the "secret society" of gay players who play in fear of their lives and careers, studies how the violence of the game ravages the bodies of players, and takes us into the owners' offices to look at the darker side of the sport.
Part tribute, part exposé, Bloody Sundays is a vivid portrait of professional football that "gives you so much to think about that you might find yourself switching off a game to read" (New York Times Book Review).

Bloody Sundays: Inside the Rough-and-Tumble World of the NFL

Biographies & Memoirs

Freeman, Mike

Historical

It Books

He intimidated people on and off the football field. He was brutal yet brilliant, narcissistic yet magnanimous, relentless yet unyielding. Most of all, he was the greatest football player of all time. He was Jim Brown.
Jim Brown was an astonishing physical specimen with tremendous skills and intelligence. An athlete who played a number of sports at Syracuse University, he ultimately discovered that it was the violence of football that appealed to him most. The idea of physically dominating other men, surviving ferocious battles on the field against opponents who would just as soon call him a nigger as try to gouge out his eyes fueled an astonishing, record-making NFL career that led to the Hall of Fame. He battled his defenses, sometimes his teammates, and often the Cleveland Browns' legendary head coach Paul Brown.
But Jim Brown had ambitions greater than football. He used his athletic brilliance to launch a movie career, becoming Hollywood's first black action hero, culminating in a scandalous love scene with America's sweetheart Raquel Welch. He leveraged his popularity into helping the NFL's black players and becoming a civil rights activist. Never shy about expressing his opinions, Brown would become the subject of FBI investigations and surveillance throughout parts of his life.
Then there were the women. The patient wife who was essentially a single mother and who endured public humiliation. The girlfriends he ran through and the scandalous accusations of violence made by some of them.
A complex and fascinating story, Jim Brown is a towering biography of a living legend.

Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero

Community & Culture

William Morrow

He intimidated people on and off the football field. He was brutal yet brilliant, narcissistic yet magnanimous, relentless yet unyielding. Most of all, he was the greatest football player of all time. He was Jim Brown. Jim Brown was an astonishing physical specimen with tremendous skills and intelligence. An athlete who played a number of sports at Syracuse University, he ultimately discovered that it was the violence of football that appealed to him most. The idea of physically dominating other men, surviving ferocious battles on the field against opponents who would just as soon call him a nigger as try to gouge out his eyes fueled an astonishing, record-making NFL career that led to the Hall of Fame. He battled his defenses, sometimes his teammates, and often the Cleveland Browns' legendary head coach Paul Brown. But Jim Brown had ambitions greater than football. He used his athletic brilliance to launch a movie career, becoming Hollywood's first black action hero, culminating in a scandalous love scene with America's sweetheart Raquel Welch. He leveraged his popularity into helping the NFL's black players and becoming a civil rights activist. Never shy about expressing his opinions, Brown would become the subject of FBI investigations and surveillance throughout parts of his life. Then there were the women. The patient wife who was essentially a single mother and who endured public humiliation. The girlfriends he ran through and the scandalous accusations of violence made by some of them. A complex and fascinating story, Jim Brown is a towering biography of a living legend.

Bowden is the definitive biography of one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, Bobby Bowden, and the first family of football. Journalist Mike Freeman provides an in-depth and insightful look inside the life and mind of the iconic Florida State University coach and family man. Sweeping and emotional, Bowden not only highlights Bobby’s gridiron glory but also chronicles the family members’ very human events, including tragic deaths, criminal indictments, and loss of jobs and fortunes.

Bowden: How Bobby Bowden Forged a Football Dynasty

Sports & Outdoors

Biographies

The definitive biography of Bobby Bowden, one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and his enduring legacy
He is a giant among coaches, a Hall of Famer, and arguably the greatest Division I college football coach in history. Following a tumultuous but successful tenure at West Virginia University, Bowden accepted the head coaching post at Florida State University, a failing program in danger of being terminated. What Bowden accomplished at FSU is nothing short of miraculous: twenty-one bowl wins and two national championships. A brilliant tactician, he helped usher the pro-passing game into college football. An unrivaled recruiter, he produced thirty-one consensus all-Americans over the course of his tenure. Along the way he had to deal with devastating family tragedies, scandals, and the rise and fall of his own three sons' coaching careers. 
Based on six years of research and interviews, Bowden by award-winning journalist and author Mike Freeman examines the remarkable life of Bobby Bowden and a stellar career that spanned six decades. It is the story of the making of a legend; a towering biography of a man who has left his indelible mark on the game of college football.

BOWDEN

Leaders & Notable People

HarperEnt

“[Freeman is] an excellent storyteller.” —Sports Illustrated
The 1972 Miami Dolphins, under the expert leadership of legendary coach Don Shula, remain to this day the only team in the National Football League ever to enjoy a perfect season with no defeats and no ties. Now, 40 years after sports history was made, acclaimed sports writer Mike Freeman celebrates the Dolphins’ singular achievement in Undefeated. A riveting story filled with heartbreaking injuries, miraculous finishes, and tested relationships—featuring a roster of gridiron greats, including Bob Griese, Earl Morrall, Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield, Mercury Morris, Nick Buoniconti and others—Undefeated follows a underdog team on its remarkable run: 14 regular season victories, 2 postseason wins, and a Super Bowl championship. It is a book no football fan will want to miss.

Undefeated: Inside the 1972 Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season

History

Americas

Undefeated: Inside the Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season

“[Freeman is] an excellent storyteller.”—Sports IllustratedThe 1972 Miami Dolphins, under the expert leadership of legendary coach Don Shula, remain to this day the only team in the National Football League ever to enjoy a perfect season with no defeats and no ties. Now, 40 years after sports history was made, acclaimed sports writer Mike Freeman celebrates the Dolphins’ singular achievement in Undefeated. A riveting story filled with heartbreaking injuries, miraculous finishes, and tested relationships—featuring a roster of gridiron greats, including Bob Griese, Earl Morrall, Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield, Mercury Morris, Nick Buoniconti and others—Undefeated follows a underdog team on its remarkable run: 14 regular season victories, 2 postseason wins, and a Super Bowl championship. It is a book no football fan will want to miss. 

Undefeated

Harper Large Print

The first in-depth biography of one of the most talented and infamous legends to play in the National Football League—the life and times of pro football’s first bad boy, famed Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler.
Ken "The Snake" Stabler was the embodiment of the original Men in Black—the freewheeling, hard-hitting Oakland Raiders. The league’s first swashbuckling pass thrower, the mythical southpaw Southerner famous for come-from-behind drives late in the game, Stabler led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship in 1977. In an era dominated by gentleman quarterbacks like Roger Staubach and Bob Griese, this 1974 NFL MVP, four-time Pro-bowler, and Super Bowl champion was an iconoclast who partied as hard as he played and lived life unapologetically on his own—not the NFL’s—terms.
Though Stabler’s legacy is larger-than-life, there has never before been an exclusive account of him, until now. Snake goes deep under the surface of Stabler’s persona to reveal a man who, despite his penchant for partying and debauchery, was committed to winning and being the best player he could be. From his college days playing for Bear Bryant at Alabama to his years with the Raiders under coach John Madden, his broadcasting career to his death in 2015 and the revelation that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as C.T.E., Snake probes the myriad facets of Stabler’s life on and off the field to tell his complete story, and explores how his legacy and the culture and times that pivotally shaped it, continues to impact football today.

Snake: The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler

Dey Street Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Freeman, Mike. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Freeman, Mike

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Freeman, Mike. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bloody Sundays: Inside the Rough-and-Tumble World of the NFL

Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero

Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero

Bowden: How Bobby Bowden Forged a Football Dynasty

BOWDEN

Undefeated: Inside the 1972 Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season

Undefeated: Inside the Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season

Undefeated

Snake: The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler

Snake: The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler