When you think of great sports fiction, you rarely think football. Perhaps that's why Staudohar compiled collections of golf and baseball stories before tackling the gridiron. The small-ball sports still win the day, but football holds its own surprisingly well. Included are stories from each decade of the twentieth century, beginning with a 1909 tale of a hard-luck dad who goes to see his son play a college game. Contributions from big names include an Ellery Queen mystery set at the Rose Bowl, a lyrical John Updike portrait of small-town autumn, the ubiquitous Irwin Shaw jewel "The Eighty-Yard Run," and of course, a poem by Grantland Rice. The absolute highlight, though, is lesser-known Herbert Wilner's haunting glimpse into the last days of a terminally ill former star quarterback, "A Quarterback Speaks to His God." Each selection includes notes on the author and an introduction that places the piece within a context of time and place. An excellent collection with something for everyone. --Wes Lukowsky

Ranging through the complete history of football, veteran sports-story anthologist Staudohar (Golf's Best; Baseball's Best) presents a collection of 22 stories that covers the game in all its forms: college and professional, amateur and school-boy. The standouts‘Peter Gent's "Waiting for the Turk," T. Coraghessan Boyle's "56-0," Ben Ames Williams's "Scapegoat" and Samuel W. Taylor's "There Must Be a Losing Coach"‘focus on characters more than the game, which, not unexpectedly, they refuse to take too seriously. The efforts of two celebrated literary authors‘Don DeLillo's "Game Plan" and John Updike's "In Football Season"‘are surprisingly plodding and go nowhere fast, like three plays and a punt. Two selections by Damon Runyon, "Hold 'Em Yale" and "Undertaker Song," stand out from the other entries for their comic brilliance and masterful rendering of dialect. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved