While it was a lean year for sports books (and golf books in particular), former Sports Illustrated editor Kevin Cook provided us with one for the ages, a true instant classic. His new book, “The Last Headbangers,” traces the NFL from the Immaculate Reception, Franco Harris’s miraculous, last-second, shoestring catch and touchdown romp against the Oakland Raiders to Dwight Clark’s “The Catch,” which ended the playoff runs of both Roger Staubach and the Tom Landry-led Dallas Cowboys.
With interviews and insights from the players involved in the plays that built the NFL’s legacy – Bradshaw, Harris, Madden, Landry, Walsh and Montana, Cook puts you in the huddle when Bradshaw calls the last play of the game, makes you feel the bone-jarring crunch of a fourth-quarter Jack Lambert sack, lets you hear the snarling epithets of Hollywood Henderson and Mean Joe Greene, and let’s you feel the sniff of the coke as Raider lineman John Matuzak snorts a line, then screws his wife in the locker room of the Kansas City Chiefs. (It was “make-up” sex . . . after she tried to run him over in her car, and he had to hide in a cemetery.)
Once again, it’s Cook’s inimitable storytelling and remarkable attention to detail that paints a
picture of the formative years of football. It’s an absolute must-read for any football fan.
PAST WINNERS
2012 Steve Elling, CBS Sports.com
2011 Mike Vaccaro, NY Post, The First Fall Classic
2010 Kevin Cook, Titanic Thompson
2009: Dan Jenkins, Jenkins at the Majors
2008: Kevin Cook, Driven
2007: Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, San Francisco Examiner, Game of Shadows
2006: Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports
2005: Robert Thompson, Canadian National Post
