"In the NFL--America's most popular sports league--quarterbacks are kings. The right QB becomes the face of a franchise and marches his team--and millions of fans--on a glorious winning odyssey that can last for a decade or longer. The wrong QB leads his team to losses, infighting, second-guessing, and fan misery. Quarterbacks are drafted straight out of college with indescribable expectations and tantalizing dreams of stardom resting on their shoulders...

"An All-Pro line-up of writers including Red Smith, Frank Deford, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton, Richard Price, Charles Pierce, Michael Lewis, and Roy Blount Jr tackle our most popular pastime. Since football's meteoric rise in the mid-twentieth century, the standout writers on the sport have gone behind and beyond the spectacle to reveal the complexity, the contradictions, and the deeper humanity at the heart of the game. Now, in a landmark collection,...