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Case Studies in Coaching: Dilemmas and Ethics in Competitive School Sports
by Timothy M BaghurstThe nearly two dozen case studies in this timely book will help future and current coaches of school sports develop successful strategies to avoid or overcome challenges and become more aware of the need to remain professional and consider the implications of their actions. Based on real-life situations, it considers ethical and practical dilemmas from sports in locations across the country.These compelling case studies illustrate everyday scenarios-such as teaching style conflicts, scheduling issues, cheating, confidentiality decisions, and working with over-involved parents-that occur in school coaching and athletics. The cases and thought-provoking discussion questions that follow allow readers to work through the types of dilemmas they will face in their coaching careers and then carefully formulate their responses and decisions. A resource list for each case allows readers to further explore the issues and develop their personal responses to each situation. An accompanying instructor's manual, available upon adoption, includes possible responses to all discussion questions.
Case Studies in Physical Education: Real World Preparation for Teaching
by Sandra A StrootCase Studies in Physical Education, Revised Edition, applies the case study method to the field of physical education, where it is an effective means for future teachers to explore challenging scenarios that they are likely to encounter in their careers. These engaging, reader-friendly case studies provide readers with concrete suggestions for connecting classroom theory with what actually happens in school. Theories and concepts concerning educational philosophy, methodology, curriculum, discipline, and assessment become more meaningful when explored in a case scenario in which the central characters confront situations that develop as a consequence of their or others' pedagogical choices. The cases in this book also promote critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Each case is followed by questions that prompt readers to analyze the situation, formulate a plan of action to address the problem, and anticipate and evaluate the potential consequences of the plan's implementation. In small groups, individually, or as a whole class, readers can explore and debate their strategies for addressing the issues. Readers will learn there is no one right answer to situations that can occur in the education environment. They will develop their communication skills as they learn to articulate and defend a plan of action to address the situation, and they will also learn the importance of collaborating with colleagues as they listen to and learn from the ideas of others. These cases were prepared by 36 experienced physical educators (from the elementary, secondary, and university levels)who collaborated in teams to create cases based on their collective, real-life experiences. As a result, the cases take place in a variety of contexts: in elementary, middle, and high schools; in urban, suburban, rural schools; and in wealthy and needy districts. They present a variety of issues encountered in schools today, including issues related to teaching methods, classroom management, multicultural education, classroom assessment, inclusion, relations with co-workers, marginalization of physical education, and gender equity. As in real life, each case raises a number of related issues that stimulate further discussion or provide opportunities for assignments. This revised edition contains the same proven, effective case studies as in the first edition while incorporating minor updating throughout to reflect changes in technology and society since its original publication.
Casey Stengel: Baseball's Greatest Character
by Marty AppelThe definitive biography of one of baseball's most enduring and influential characters, from New York Times bestselling author and baseball writer Marty Appel.As a player, Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel's contemporaries included Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson . . . and he was the only person in history to wear the uniforms of all four New York teams: the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets. As a legendary manager, he formed indelible, complicated relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Billy Martin. For more than five glorious decades, Stengel was the undisputed, quirky, hilarious, and beloved face of baseball--and along the way he revolutionized the role of manager while winning a spectactular ten pennants and seven World Series Championships. But for a man who spent so much of his life in the limelight--an astounding fifty-five years in professional baseball--Stengel remains an enigma. Acclaimed New York Yankees' historian and bestselling author Marty Appel digs into Casey Stengel's quirks and foibles, unearthing a tremendous trove of baseball stories, perspective, and history. Weaving in never-before-published family documents, Appel creates an intimate portrait of a private man who was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966 and named "Baseball's Greatest Character" by MLB Network's Prime 9. Casey Stengel is a biography that will be treasured by fans of our national pastime.
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest Lawrence ThayerThe Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville baseball team that day, but Casey was up to bat. Will Casey help them win the game?
Casey at the Bat: The story of my life in baseball as told to Harry T. Paxton
by Casey StengelLegendary Baseball manager Casey Stengel recounts his memoirs in his inimitable style.Baseball's clown genius, Casey Stengel (1890-1975) was known as much for his hilarious double-talk as he was for managing the New York Yankees and Mets. Nicknamed “The Old Perfessor,” Stengel hid a fierce competitive drive behind his practical jokes and rambling monologues. His 14-year playing career was overshadowed by his 25-year career managing some of the best and worst teams in history.When Yankees owner George Weiss picked Casey Stengel to take over as manager in 1948, reporters ridiculed his choice. During Stengel's playing days, he was known more for his antics than his baseball acumen. In nine years managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves, his teams had nine losing seasons. But Weiss's choice proved inspired. Stengel became the most popular and influential manager in baseball, a star in New York City and a national celebrity. Along the way, he won more World Series games than any manager in history.
Casi CRACKS 1 - ¡Campeones de rebote! (Casi CRACKS #Volumen 1)
by Laura Tárraga¡SALTA AL CAMPO DE JUEGO Y CONOCE AL EQUIPO DE FÚTBOL MÁS DIVERTIDO! Dicen que en el fútbol no hay rival pequeño, pero ¡eso es porque no conocen a los CASI CRACKS! Cuando los Casi Cracks se clasifican para uno de los torneos más importantes del año, nadie se lo cree del todo. ¿Ha sido suerte o es posible que esté ocurriendo algo más?Con equipos que se quedan dormidos en el campo, balones que parecen tener vida propia y algunos rivales bastante sospechosos, el reto no será solamente llegar a la final... ¡Será resolver el misterio más disparatado de la temporada! ------------------------Fútbol, amistad, deportividad y mucho humor en una serie para primeros lectores que hará que se partan de risa: - Con ilustraciones llenas de acción y de humor en cada página. - Texto sencillo, divertido ¡y fácil de leer! - Para todo tipo de jóvenes lectores: desde aficionados al fútbol hasta fans de las historias de aventuras y de humor.- Para niños y niñas, ¡en los Casi Cracks jugamos todos!
Casi CRACKS 2 - ¡Sin mente de repente! (Casi CRACKS #Volumen 2)
by Laura Tárraga¡SALTA AL TERRENO DE JUEGO Y CONOCE AL EQUIPO DE FÚTBOL MÁS DIVERTIDO! Han invitado a los Casi Cracks a un campamento de fútbol, pero en cuanto llegan... ¡empiezan a pasar cosas raras! Marcos, el rey de la planificación, va muy despistado; Salma, la jugadora más competitiva, pasa de todo, y el pijo de Aarón... ¿¡se ha puesto a cocinar?! Parece que las personalidades de todos los jugadores están patas arriba y es que... Con todo este lío, ¡los Casi Cracks no dan pie con bola! ---------------------- Fútbol, amistad, deportividad y mucho humor en una serie para primeros lectores que hará que se partan de risa:- Con ilustraciones llenas de acción y de humor en cada página. - Texto sencillo, divertido ¡y fácil de leer! - Para todo tipo de jóvenes lectores: desde aficionados al fútbol hasta fans de las historias de aventuras y de humor. - Para niños y niñas, ¡en los Casi Cracks jugamos todos!
Cassius X: The Transformation of Muhammad Ali
by Stuart CosgroveAlthough Muhammad Ali's decision to assume a new name has often been portrayed as a sudden transformation, Cassius Clay's conversion to Islam was a process, not an event. For many months he received guidance from Malcolm X, who had traveled from Harlem to Miami to be his mentor as he studied for his entry into the deeply divided and fratricidal Nation of Islam. The name he assumed over those now-forgotten months was Cassius X. This is the story of Cassius X over twelve months in Miami, a city that was changing faster than America itself, as he trains for the fight that will bring him global fame: his world heavyweight title fight against Sonny Liston in February 1964. Change was happening on every conceivable front, not least in music where two significant coincidences brought Cassius X into contact with the two major forces in sixties music: Beatlemania and the newly emergent soul music. The Beatles famously turned up at Clay's training camp at the 5th Street Gym and Sam Cooke negotiated a recording deal for the flamboyant Cassius X. However, his music career, which included a cover version of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and a brief love affair with the dance-craze queen Dee Dee Sharp, never came close to echoing his career as a championship fighter. Politically, the Warren Commission, the FBI's "Informant 88," and the philosophical differences between Martin Luther King Jr. and the emergent black power movements were all at work. Cassius X's experiences came to pre-empt and predict the major cultural and ideological shifts that would unfold in the decade ahead.
Cast Catch Release: One woman’s search for peace and purpose by the water
by Marina Gibson'A very revealing book about life, salmon and angling. Marina's writing is as exquisite as her casting.' - PAUL WHITEHOUSE'A unique and very enjoyable story, filled with simple joys and more complex challenges.' - TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of How to Read a Tree___________An inspiring true story about the healing power of water from one of the world's best known female anglersIn her early twenties, drifting and directionless, Marina Gibson fled the city for the countryside, and picked up a fishing rod for the first time in years. She was returning to a childhood pursuit and a passion passed on by her mother.Fishing overtook Marina's life as she grew enraptured by the quiet magic of angling. Whiling away hours by a Highland river or a local chalk stream, with only the ritual of casting and the music of the water for company, Marina found an escape from a failing marriage and a connection to a tradition of female anglers stretching back generations.Alongside the twists and turns of her own story, Marina traces the epic migratory journey of the Atlantic salmon and its fight for survival against the odds. Cast Catch Release is a love letter to the water, and what it means to find peace and purpose in the great outdoors.
Cast, Catch, Release: Finding Serenity and Purpose through Fly Fishing
by Marina GibsonFor readers of H Is for Hawk and Wild, a lyrical memoir and passionate ode to the art of fly fishing and how it can shape a life—by renowned female angler and conservationist Marina Gibson.As her twenty-first birthday approached, Marina Gibson received a unique gift suggestion from her parents, who offered her a choice between fishing rods or jewelry. In an unconventional decision, she opted for fishing rods. Her intention was to rekindle a childhood passion and carry on a family tradition initiated by her mother, who had dedicated years to pursuing salmon in the rivers of the Scottish Highlands. As fishing overtook Marina&’s life and evolved into a full-time career, she became enraptured by the silent mysteries of the river and the quiet magic of angling. The complexity of fly fishing and the rituals of casting provided her refuge from a failing marriage, giving her a reliable source of comfort that benefited both her mind and soul. It also revealed the barriers that exist for women trying to make it in a tradition-bound and male-dominated world. Tracing the epic, migratory journey of the Atlantic salmon alongside the ups and downs of her personal story, Cast, Catch, Release brings to life the joys of fishing, the spirited quest of the angler, and how these two paths meet on lakes and riverbanks around the world. A love letter to this exhilarating yet serene sport, Gibson shows what it means to find peace and purpose amidst the majesty of the great outdoors.
Cast-Iron Camping Cookbook: Easy Skillet Recipes for Outdoor Cooking
by Pauline Reynolds-NuttallStarry nights, sizzling skillets—the cast iron cookbook for camping is hereThere's nothing better after a day of hiking and exploring than a hot meal at your campsite. The 75 fast, easy, and creative recipes in this cast iron cookbook will make your camp kitchen the place to be. With one-skillet meals designed for fast prep, simple cooking, and quick cleanup, you'll always have something delicious for everyone—and more time to enjoy the outdoors.Inside this cast iron cookbook, you'll find:Fuel up—A guide to cooking with different heat sources means you'll be ready for tasty meals on charcoal, a campfire, or a gas stove.Skillet smarts—Learn how to properly care for your cast iron so you can make or carry on the tradition of passing down the skillet for generations.Family-friendly cooking—Help your kids develop skillet skills through fun, easy, and yummy recipes everyone can help out with.Sizzle up a tradition of great meals at your campsite with this cast iron cookbook.
Cast-Iron Cooking For Dummies
by Antwon BrinsonBecome a cast-iron chef, thanks to this friendly Dummies guide Cast-Iron Cooking For Dummies will teach you everything you need to know to start using the classic cookware that chefs have loved for thousands of years. You’ll learn how to pick the right cast iron tools for your needs, maintain your cookware, and cook foods to perfection. This book is also packed with healthy, diverse, and delicious recipes for meat, fish, stir-fry, and beyond. Cast-iron cookware is versatile, hardy, economical, and great at retaining heat. Well-seasoned cast iron can reduce the need for cooking oil and even makes food taste better. This easy-to-use guide comes complete with color photos and a guide to the best brands. Select the right cast-iron cookware for your daily needs Learn to properly season and maintain your cast-iron Master cooking techniques using versatile, professional cookware Find great recipes that will taste even better when you cook them with cast-ironThis book is an excellent choice for home cooks, beginners, semi-pro cooks, professional cooks, campers, and outdoor cooks—basically anyone looking to cook with cast-iron!
Casting Quiet Waters
by Jake MacdonaldIn Casting Quiet Waters, some of North America's most respected literary writers take us on a fishing trip and use that as an opportunity to explore issues of the human condition. A little more than five centuries ago an odd English nun named Dame Juliana Berners ("The Prioress of St. Albans") wrote the first book about fishing. Her obscure but legendary tome, a Treatysse of Fyshynge wyth an Angle, is as much a work of philosophy as a how-to manual, and in it she prescribes fishing as "a cure for domestic calamatie." This anthology responds to her advice. A dozen of North America's top writers embark on individual fishing trips and see if limpid water and the silence of wild places will help them reflect on their own lives and calamities. The exploratory process of writing is not so different from the process of trawling the unknown invisible world beneath the surface of a river or lake. The angler and writer both toss lines, chase shadows, and spend countless hours pondering what might have been if they'd handled that last opportunity with more gentleness and skill.
Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection
by George BlackThirty-five million Americans–one in eight–like to go fishing. Fly fishers have always considered themselves the aristocracy of the sport, and a small number of those devotees, a few thousand at most, insist upon using one device in the pursuit of their obsession: a handcrafted split-bamboo fly rod. Meeting this demand for perfection are the inheritors of a splendid art, one that reveres tradition while flouting obvious economic sense and reaches back through time to touch the hands of such figures as Theodore Roosevelt and Henry David Thoreau. InCasting a Spell, George Black introduces readers to rapt artisans and the ultimate talismans of their uncompromising fascination: handmade bamboo fly rods. But this narrative is more than a story of obscure objects of desire. It opens a new vista onto a century and a half of modern American cultural history. With bold strokes and deft touches, Black explains how the ingenuity of craftsmen created a singular implement of leisure–and how geopolitics, economics, technology, and outrageous twists of fortune have all come to focus on the exquisitely crafted bamboo rod. We discover that the pastime of fly-fishing intersects with a mind-boggling variety of cultural trends, including conspicuous consumption, environmentalism, industrialization, and even cold war diplomacy. Black takes us around the world, from the hidden trout streams of western Maine to a remote valley in Guangdong Province, China, where grows the singular species of bamboo known as tea stick–the very stuff of a superior fly rod. He introduces us to the men who created the tools and techniques for crafting exceptional rods and those who continue to carry the torch in the pursuit of the sublime. Never far from the surface are such overarching themes as the tension between mass production and individual excellence, and the evolving ways American society has defined, experienced, and expressed its relationship to the land. Fly-fishing may seem a rarefied pursuit, and making fly rods might be a quixotic occupation, but this rich, fascinating narrative exposes the soul of an authentic part of America, and the great significance of little things. George Black’s latest expedition into a hidden corner of our culture is an utterly enchanting, illuminating, and enlightening experience. From the Hardcover edition.
Casting into the Light: Tales of a Fishing Life
by Janet MessineoTales of a champion surfcaster: the education of a young woman hell-bent on following her dream and learning the mysterious and profound sport, and art, of surfcasting, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Janet Messineo knew from the get-go that she wanted to become a great fisherman. She knew she was as capable as any man of catching and landing a huge fish. It took years—and many terrifying nights alone on the beach in complete darkness, in search of a huge creature to pull out of the sea—for her to prove to herself and to the male-dominated fishing community that she could make her dream real. Messineo writes of the object of her obsession: striped bass and how it can take a lifetime to become a proficient striped bass fisherman; of stripers as nocturnal feeders, hard-fighting, clever fish that under the cover of darkness trap bait against jetties or between fields of large boulders near shorelines, or, once hooked, rub their mouths against the rocks to cut the line. She writes of growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire, the granddaughter of textile mill workers, tagging along with her father and brother as they cast off of jetties; of going to art school, feeling from a young age the need to escape, and finding herself, one summer, on the Vineyard. She describes the series of jobs that supported her fishing—waitressing at the Black Dog, Helios, and the Home Port, among other restaurants. She writes of her education in patience and the technique to land a fish; learning the equipment—hooks, sinkers, her first squid jig; buying her first one-ounce Rebel lure. She re-creates the thrill of fishing at night, of being buffeted by the island’s harsh winds and torrential rains; the terror of hooking something mysterious in the darkness that might pull her into water over her head. She gives us a rich portrait of island life and writes of its history and of Chappaquiddick’s (it belonged to the Wampanoags, who originally called it Cheppiaquidne—“separate island”); of the Martha’s Vineyard Derby: its beginning in 1946 as a way to bring tourism to the island during the offseason, and the Derby’s growing into one of the largest tournaments in the world. Messineo describes her dream of becoming a marine taxidermist, of learning the craft and perfecting the art of it. She writes of the men she’s fished with and the women who forged the path for others (among them, Lorraine “Tootie” Johnson, who fished Vineyard waters for more than sixty years, and Lori VanDerlaske, who won the Derby shore division in 1995). And she writes of her life commingled with fishing—her marriage to a singer, poet, activist; their adopting a son with Asperger’s; and her teaching him to fish. She writes of the transformative power of fishing that helped her to shake off drugs and alcohol, and of her profound respect for fish as a magnificent animal. With eighteen of the author’s favorite fish recipes, Casting into the Light is a book about following one’s dreams and about the quiet reckoning with self in the long hours of darkness at the water’s edge, with the sounds of the ocean, the night air, and the jet-black sky.
Casting with Lefty Kreh
by Lefty Kreh• Like taking a private lesson with the best teacher in the business • Over 40 casts covered in step-by-step detail with thousands of full-color photographs Casting should be nearly effortless. If you understand fly-casting mechanics and how to adapt them to various fishing conditions, your casting will greatly improve. That has been Lefty's philosophy since he began teaching fly casting over fifty years ago. Lefty shows how to get rid of a tailing loop, throw a slack-line cast, and roll cast better, as well as casts for tight quarters, in wind, casting with weighted flies and lines, and distance casts. A section on the physical movements explains how to prevent injuries to the rotator cuff and elbow. Whether you fish salt water or streams, heavy rods or light, you'll learn everything from small changes in movements that greatly improve your casting to totally new takes on traditional casts from this book. Lefty is the master, and this book captures his lifetime of wisdom on the subject of casting.
Catalonia's Human Towers: Castells, Cultural Politics, and the Struggle toward the Heights
by Mariann VacziThe building of human towers (castells) is a centuries-old traditional sport where hundreds of men, women, and children gather in Catalan squares to create breathtaking edifices through a feat of collective athleticism. The result is a great spectacle of effort and overcoming, tension and release.Catalonia's Human Towers is an ethnographic look at the thriving castells practice—a symbol of Catalan cultural heritage and identity amid debates around national autonomy and secession from Spain. While the main function of building castells is to grow community through a low-cost, intergenerational, and inclusive leisure activity, Mariann Vaczi reveals how this unique sport also provides a social base, image, and vocabulary for the independence movement.Highlighting the intersection of folklore, performance, and sport, Catalonia's Human Towers captures the subtle processes by which the body becomes politicized and ideology becomes embodied, with all the desires, risks and precarities of collective constructions.
Catastrophic Injuries in Sports and Recreation
by Charles H. TatorCatastrophic Injuries in Sport and Recreation is an essential reference guide to safe participation in a wide variety of sports and recreational activities. A masterful achievement of methodology, it is the first complete epidemiological study and analysis of all catastrophic injuries in all sports and recreational activities that occurred within a large defined geographical area with a large population: ten million people within the province of Ontario between 1986 and 1995. Concentrating on injuries that resulted in death or long term disability, the contributors identify both the personal risk factors for participants and the societal risk factors that are important causes for these kinds of injuries. Providing detailed analysis of 2154 case studies, the contributors demonstrate what went wrong in each event, and show how each injury could have been prevented. Recommending specific prevention strategies for a wide range of injuries, Catastrophic Injuries in Sport and Recreation is a practical medical reference for athletes and doctors alike.
Catch & Release (Carolrhoda Ya Ser.)
by Blythe WoolstonI should have died quick. But I didn't. I'm a miracle of modern medicine, only the medicine doesn't get much credit, I notice. People say I'm lucky, or I'm blessed, and then they turn away. I'm not the only miracle. There's Odd too. Polly Furnas had The Plan for the future. Get married to Bridger Morgan, for one. College, career, babies. Etc. All the important choices were made. It was all happily-ever-after as a diamond-ring commercial. But The Plan did not include a lethal drug-resistant infection. It did not include “some more reconstruction and scar revision in the future." And it certainly did not include Odd Estes, a trip to Portland in an ancient Cadillac to "tear Bridger a new one," fly fishing, marshmallows, Crisco, or a loaded gun. But plans change. Stories get revised and new choices must be made. Polly and Odd have choices. Surviving or not. Catch or release.
Catch 22: My Battles, in Hockey and Life
by Scott Morrison Rick VaiveWas one of the most unheralded captains of the Toronto Maple Leafs also one of the greatest players in the history of hockey's most popular team? In telling his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles, Rick Vaive finally sets the record straight.In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82. He did it three years in a row (only two others have scored 50 since) before being unceremoniously stripped of his captaincy and traded out of town, and he did it for a promising team that was nonetheless largely stuck at the bottom of the standings. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as Gilmour, Sundin and Clark? You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media...Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. He'd know. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.
Catch Rider
by Jennifer H. LyneTough-as-nails fourteen-year-old Sid may not have expensive boots like the privileged teen riders in Virginia, but she knows her way around horses. Working with her Uncle Wayne since childhood, she's learned to evaluate horses, break and train them, care for them . . . and ride like a professional. Amid turmoil at home, she dreams of becoming a catch rider--a show rider who can ride anything with hooves. In this salty, suspenseful teen novel, an unexpected opportunity to ride a top-notch horse in an equitation show takes the small-town girl all the way to Madison Square Garden.
Catch Soccer's Beat (Jake Maddox Graphic Novels)
by Jake MaddoxBianca is thrilled when her parents announce that her abuelo is coming to live with them. Bianca and Abuelo share a love of soccer, and she can't wait to share her love of drumming with her grandfather too. But when Abuelo arrives, he has his own ideas about how Bianca should practice and play. Those ideas translate into trouble on the field. Can Bianca find the beat in her feet before it costs her team the tournament?
Catch That Pass!
by Matthew F ChristopherEveryone knows Jim will be the star linebacker on the team if he can only conquer his fear of being tackled, but it takes a boy in a wheelchair to teach him that kind of courage.
Catch Them Being Good
by Charles Salzberg Colleen Hacker Tony DiciccoThis guide to coaching female athletes of all ages shows how to build a team and provides invaluable advice on the differences between coaching males and females. The authors include exercises that foster teamwork and develop essential skills. They also answer parents' most common questions, such as how to tell if the coach is doing a good job and what to do if a child wants to quit. Filled with stories about the Olympic and World Cup championship teams, this useful handbook is infused throughout with DiCicco's philosophy that at every level playing soccer (or any sport) is about "playing hard, playing fair, playing to win, and having fun."
Catch This!: Going Deep with the NFL's Sharpest Weapon
by Stephen Singular Terrell OwensIn a sport full of players who are larger than life, Terrell Owens towers above the crowd. It isn't just that he holds the NFL record for catches in a single game (twenty) or that he's the most feared wide receiver in the game. It's also his penchant for unique self-expression -- spiking the ball on the midfield Texas lone star in front of a hostile Dallas Cowboy crowd, pulling a Sharpie from his sock to sign a game ball after a touchdown, and dancing with a cheerleader's pom-poms after another TD. Never politically correct and always controversial and colorful on and off the field, Terrell Owens has transformed himself into "TO," the outrageous gridiron personality who has rocked the entire NFL and the sports landscape. But Owens is more than touchdowns, dancing, and celebrations. In this wickedly insightful book, he's full of sharp-eyed observations on the contentious, demanding, insane phenomenon that is pro football. In Catch This! Owens takes readers back to his hardscrabble childhood in rural Alabama, where he was raised by a stern grandmother and loving mother. By the time he won an athletic scholarship for football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the once small, bullied boy had transformed himself into a very large man with a super body and an iron will to succeed. He takes us behind his apprenticeship to -- and eventual eclipsing of -- the legendary 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice. He pulls no punches when it comes to his extremely public fight with San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci -- a relationship so sour that they didn't speak at all during the crucial final weeks of the 2001 season. And, finally, he lets loose on the free agent scandal that shook the NFL in 2004 -- and reveals the truth behind the NFL's attempt to deny him free agency, his fraudulent trade to the Baltimore Ravens, and his ultimate happy landing with the Philadelphia Eagles. For those who think they know both Terrell Owens and TO, catch this story.