American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback
American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback
American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback
Description
Description
Pull back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports. The New York Times bestselling author of It's Better to be Feared examines football's QB lifecycle: high school, college, the NFL, retirement--and all that comes with it. "An instant classic--not just a great sports book but a great cultural history."
--Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life The quarterback: the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized, and worshipped. Still, long before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals, and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner, from high school to college, from the NFL to the Hall of Fame, becoming the country's ultimate idol requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of bad breaks, insecurities, jealousy, pressure, and fame. Long known as the outsider's guide into this elite world, Seth Wickersham's fresh reporting goes deep into the quarterback journey, measuring the distance between what the men who have traveled it expected and what they found at the end of the road. Through unprecedented access into the lives of dozens of quarterbacks and generational greats such as Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Steve Young, and others, as well as those figures striving to be remembered, like Caleb Williams and Arch Manning, Wickersham reveals how this one position has become emblematic of success in American life. As an inside look into a uniquely American job and a uniquely American obsession with football, American Kings is a must-read for sports fans and anyone who wants to understand what the price of ambition tells us about the quest for achievement and status.
--Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life The quarterback: the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized, and worshipped. Still, long before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals, and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner, from high school to college, from the NFL to the Hall of Fame, becoming the country's ultimate idol requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of bad breaks, insecurities, jealousy, pressure, and fame. Long known as the outsider's guide into this elite world, Seth Wickersham's fresh reporting goes deep into the quarterback journey, measuring the distance between what the men who have traveled it expected and what they found at the end of the road. Through unprecedented access into the lives of dozens of quarterbacks and generational greats such as Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Steve Young, and others, as well as those figures striving to be remembered, like Caleb Williams and Arch Manning, Wickersham reveals how this one position has become emblematic of success in American life. As an inside look into a uniquely American job and a uniquely American obsession with football, American Kings is a must-read for sports fans and anyone who wants to understand what the price of ambition tells us about the quest for achievement and status.
About the Author
About the Author
Seth Wickersham is a senior writer at ESPN and the New York Times bestselling author of It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness. Focusing primarily on longform enterprise and investigative work on the National Football League, Wickersham has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting, and his stories have been anthologized in the Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, and Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists, among others. Released in 2021, It's Better to Be Feared was named Nonfiction Book of the Year by Sports Illustrated and Best Sports Book by the National Sports Media Association. He lives in Connecticut with his family.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Advance Praise for American Kings
"A must-buy for not only every serious football fan but also every actual quarterback, from high school to the Hall of Fame."
--New York Times / The Athletic "American Kings is an instant classic -- not just a great sports book but a great cultural history, revealing from every angle what it means to live in a country where "quarterback" is the coolest job title one can possess. Wickersham understands that it's the action and the athletes we crave, and lets the deeper meaning speak for itself. His ability to scan the field and make smart, crisp connections earns him standing with Plimpton and Halberstam among the finest sports chroniclers."
-- Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life, and Ali: A Life "[A] unicorn of a book. There is the usual incredible reporting on the deep inner workings of the NFL that you've come to expect from Seth. There is the deep and surprising levels of access to everyone from Y.A. Tittle to Caleb Williams, from John Elway to Arch Manning.... [T]he book becomes, by the end, a parable about American ambition, which feels like the exact window we need right now into our national psyche. This will go down as one of the greatest sports books ever, and one of the best books of the year period."
--Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of Pappyland, The Barn, and The Cost of These Dreams "Catnip for sports fans"
--Garden & Gun "Seth Wickersham's new work is subtitled A Biography of the Quarterback, and, yessir, it's not about a single quarterback, it's about all of them. It's about anybody who has ever played, aspired to play, or been obsessed with the quarterback position. It's about anybody who ever wanted to be king. ... Like a spiral into the future, we have this wonderful book. When it comes out, read it, folks. I urge you. It's not just about football. It's about a kingdom of its own."
-- Rick Telander, National Sports Media Association Hall of Famer "No writer has ever gotten the quarterbacks who've become part of of our culture and part of our lives to reveal the nature and cost of their preeminence the way Seth has in the pages of his book... a book written in words that spiral."
-- Tom Junod, two-time National Magazine Award winner and author of In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man Praise for Wickersham's It's Better to Be Feared, the National Sports Media Association's Book of the Year "The definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty."
―Bill Simmons, The Ringer "On my Mount Rushmore of sports books. The writing is fantastic, the reporting better."
―Peter King, NBC Sports
"[A]n honest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written portrayal of perhaps the greatest and probably the most unlikely dynasty in modern professional sports . . . ."
― Chad Finn, Boston Globe
"A must-buy for not only every serious football fan but also every actual quarterback, from high school to the Hall of Fame."
--New York Times / The Athletic "American Kings is an instant classic -- not just a great sports book but a great cultural history, revealing from every angle what it means to live in a country where "quarterback" is the coolest job title one can possess. Wickersham understands that it's the action and the athletes we crave, and lets the deeper meaning speak for itself. His ability to scan the field and make smart, crisp connections earns him standing with Plimpton and Halberstam among the finest sports chroniclers."
-- Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life, and Ali: A Life "[A] unicorn of a book. There is the usual incredible reporting on the deep inner workings of the NFL that you've come to expect from Seth. There is the deep and surprising levels of access to everyone from Y.A. Tittle to Caleb Williams, from John Elway to Arch Manning.... [T]he book becomes, by the end, a parable about American ambition, which feels like the exact window we need right now into our national psyche. This will go down as one of the greatest sports books ever, and one of the best books of the year period."
--Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of Pappyland, The Barn, and The Cost of These Dreams "Catnip for sports fans"
--Garden & Gun "Seth Wickersham's new work is subtitled A Biography of the Quarterback, and, yessir, it's not about a single quarterback, it's about all of them. It's about anybody who has ever played, aspired to play, or been obsessed with the quarterback position. It's about anybody who ever wanted to be king. ... Like a spiral into the future, we have this wonderful book. When it comes out, read it, folks. I urge you. It's not just about football. It's about a kingdom of its own."
-- Rick Telander, National Sports Media Association Hall of Famer "No writer has ever gotten the quarterbacks who've become part of of our culture and part of our lives to reveal the nature and cost of their preeminence the way Seth has in the pages of his book... a book written in words that spiral."
-- Tom Junod, two-time National Magazine Award winner and author of In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man Praise for Wickersham's It's Better to Be Feared, the National Sports Media Association's Book of the Year "The definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty."
―Bill Simmons, The Ringer "On my Mount Rushmore of sports books. The writing is fantastic, the reporting better."
―Peter King, NBC Sports
"[A]n honest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written portrayal of perhaps the greatest and probably the most unlikely dynasty in modern professional sports . . . ."
― Chad Finn, Boston Globe
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Hyperion Avenue
Pub date:
2025-09-09
Length:
416 pages
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