Posnanski delivers a game winning book with Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments. This is a must read for any football fan. I enjoyed looking back at football moments, even some I hadn’t known. Posnanski captivates with his sports knowledge and touch of humor.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Probably the BEST football book I’ve ever read. Joe Posnanski is the best sportswriter working (and has the awards to prove it). What makes this book outstanding is he mostly writes about moments we know, but he still manages to unearth details we didn’t know. I’ve been watching football for 45 years, but he still gave interesting g stories I’d never heard before. Loved it.

NetGalley provided me a free e-galley in return for an honest review.

Thank you, Penguin Group Dutton, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Why We Love Football: A History In 100 Moments, by Joe Posnanski.

First, let me get this bias out in the open. When it comes to sports, my obsession is baseball, baseball, baseball. I have baseball on my mind all of the time, regardless of which baseball season it is (regular season, postseason, offseason moves season, spring training). When it comes to football, I am a fan while watching a game, but otherwise, it’s never a priority.

So, when it comes to football books, I have a simple standard. If a football book can interest me as much as a good baseball book does, then it’s definitely at least an A.

I am also a big fan of Posnanski’s work. I am a subscriber to his Substack. I have given both Why We Love Baseball: A History In 50 Moments and Baseball 100 A+’s. I also gave The Machine, about the 1975 Reds, an A. I don’t recall exactly why, but I did give The Soul Of Baseball, which was about Buck O’Neil a B. Maybe eventually I’ll reread that to see if it warrants a higher grade on a reread. The others will definitely warrant rereads sooner than that, in order to give me opportunities to publish reviews here.

There are so many great stories in this book. Because football history is not my strong point, unlike baseball history, many of them were things I read for the first time. Meanwhile, being as old as I am and been a fan of the sport for so long, it brought back plenty of great memories of things that I’ve seen.

I guess I really can’t give 100 great examples of good stories (actually, 101 if I count the story on Dick Butkus before the countdown began). So, this just is the tip of the iceberg: the Philly fans booing Santa, the butt fumble, the chapters on certain individual players like Walter Payton and Lawrence Taylor and the Immaculate Reception. Of course, no Giants or Syracuse fan can leave Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, the Helmet Catch. And, as I long-time Giants fan, I’ve suffered ever since the Miracle at the Meadowlands (No. 27) was the first game I ever attended, as a 7-year old. And, even though we have our four Lombardi trophies, being a Giants fan is an exercise in suffering, just like it for the Browns fans.

Prior to reading this, my scoreboard was 74 baseball books getting an A+ vs. only two football books getting one. Now, that number is three for football. And I have gladly just placed my preorder for the audio version, so I can enjoy it again later this week.

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I finished reading this on September 15, 2024.

I'm admittedly been a fan of Posnanski for many years and have thoroughly enjoyed his writing. He is a master at balancing writing as a fan, while retaining objectivity where needed. He also writes with humility, humor, and grace. Similar to his Baseball1 100, "Why we Love Football," manages to act as both a valuable historical narrative of the NFL, while also reading like a Podcast with your friend. I have ordered this for the library collection, and will be recommending it to all of my sport enthusiast patrons.

There are a couple of references to the joys of repetition in Joe Posnanski's book, "Why We Love Football."

One centers on Jim Brown. He was/is the greatest fullback in the sport's history. Occasionally the Browns would try to get a little cute about their offense. Then the light bulb would go on, and the team would simply hand the ball to Brown and let him run with it a lot. Wash, rinse, repeat. Maybe, that should read - wash, rinse, repeat, win. Brown would lead them into the end zone for the score, and good times would follow.

Then there's the story of the Vince Lombardi and the Power Sweep. Football fans can still picture it in the mind, as Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston lead Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor around the end for a good gainer. Lombardi had specific assignments for that play, and one time at practice at one time he did nothing but go over that one play. It was tough to execute perfectly, but the Packers were really good at it in the 1960s. No wonder they won a lot of games. No wonder it's now called the Lombardi Sweep.

In 2023, Posnanski wrote "Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments." A year later, he has come up with "Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments." The first book went over extremely well. Why wouldn't you want to try something very similar a short time later? Of course, you would. So it's good to see this football version arrives, and it still goes down very smoothly - as most of Posnanski's work does.

There are a couple of differences between the baseball and football version of the same thought. In baseball, the book more or less sticks to the major leagues. But the football side of the coin covers all of the sport. That means that we hear about Stanford-California ("The band is on the field"), among other interesting moments. High school ball isn't completely ignored either. So maybe that's why we go from 50 moments in baseball to 100 moments. There was a lot of ground to cover.

Posnanski's writing style probably works a little better with baseball. He does sentiment and romance well, and there's a lot of that in the history of baseball. Football usually has a little less of those qualities attached to it, perhaps because it has been a major sport for a smaller amount of time. It's a minor point, one that won't get in the way of your enjoyment of the book. Posnanski starts with Aaron Donald (he reveals the reason why later in the book), and races through everything from trick plays to NFL Films, from a rendition of the National Anthem to Appalachian State's amazing win over Michigan.

Once again, Posnanski doesn't get hung up in the order of the selections (although the football list has fewer gimmicks than its baseball counterpart). He simply has fun with the choices. By the way, I never saw the No. 1 choice coming, and I'd bet you won't either.

Posnanski hasn't written a book that's not entertaining yet, and "Why We Love Football" continues that winning streak. If you see his name on the front cover, you'll enjoy it and get your money's worth. That's the type of consistency we can all enjoy.