Book Recommendation: Bringing the Heat

The Reader's Digest (hopefully someone gets that reference) version from the Publisher’s Weekly review on Amazon.com:

“This look at the Philadelphia Eagles covers both the tenure of coach Buddy Ryan, which began in 1986 and ended with his firing in 1991, and the next three years of current coach Rich Kotite's regime. The 1992 season is the focal point, but Bowden, who covered the Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer, deals in depth with the years leading up to that season. Of particular interest are Bowden's profiles of many of the Eagles' colorful characters, including Ryan, owner Norman Braman (who sold the team to Hollywood producer Jeff Lurie in 1994) and players Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner and Randall Cunningham. Bowden pulls no punches, documenting the stormy off-the-field lives of several team members including Joyner and Wes Hopkins, as well as describing the players' dislike of star quarterback Cunningham. Although a bit melodramatic at times, this is as thorough an account of a sports franchise as any fan, even Eagles fanatics, could want.”

Ten Reasons You Should Read This Book:

Bonus reason #1: It's a minor thing, but Bringing the Heat is a great title, epitomizes the style of those Philly defenses and still works. Even today you can use it to describe both football and daily interactions. How many things that were cool from the early 90s have that kind of staying power? For example, consider this.

Bonus reason #2: - Let's just say this book does nothing to dispute the fact that many professional athletes end up broke when their careers are over.

10. Mark Bowden. He is a fantastic writer/author. I haven’t read all of his work, but Killing Pablo (Vince should have bought the rights), Guests of the Ayatolla (great title), and Black Hawk Down (mesmerizing in the movie theater as a side note) speak to his talent. When a real writer completes a sports project it's almost always better than anything from the average sportswriter or hack blogger (damn). While I can't say that I agreed with everything and at times wondered if Bowden had disdain for the entire football enterprise, it's easily a top football book.

9. The Eagles of that era were an underrated video game team. Even to this day that squad doesn’t get the respect it deserves. There’s still a ton of buzz about Bo Jackson from Tecmo Super Bowl, and rightfully so. But I’d take the Eagles against his Raiders any day of the week. The defense, led by Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, and Seth Joyer, is stacked. Strangely Eric Allen is nowhere near as good in the game as he should be and for some strange reason Andre Waters (more on him later) is awful. So while the defense is dominant against the run and has a great pass rush, it's suspect if the QB actually gets rid of the ball.

However, none of that matters as QB Eagles (Randall Cunningham) is light years better than every other quarterback. If you know how to maximize his running and passing potential he’s better than Bo. And the skill guys, especially Keith Jackson, can play.

Three Tecmo Super Bowl points before moving on:

- If you think this game is dead, think again.

- This website is also incredibly researched and informative. An updated format would put it over the edge.

- It's been 18 years and I still don't understand why they didn't call it Super Tecmo Bowl.

8. Seth Joyner. The Eagles organization caught up with him almost four years ago for a nice "Where are They Now" style piece. It's a quick, interesting, although far from in depth read that portrays Joyner in a better light than Bowden's book. While Bringing the Heat definitely acknowledges how dominant he was as a linebacker, Joyner also comes off as extremely unlikeable. Some of that stems from the fact that Joyner was devoted to Buddy Ryan and simply wasn't a Richie Kotite fan. Yet Joyner also despised Cunningham, barely acknowledged the offense (and never in a flattering way) and was a lousy family man at that point and time.

7. Mike Golic and Eric Allen. Bowden featured both of them prominently and after reading about their football days their respective media careers make sense. Every time I see Allen on ESPN he's as smooth as can be and looks like he could still play. Meanwhile, Golic started out somewhat as a court jester. Although I have to admit I'm still surprised by the success of Mike and Mike, and Golic has evolved over time.

6. Fight at the Vet. I'm linking to this article because it should simultaneously annoy Nick and introduce the story of Wes Hopkins' wife meeting his mistress:

"There was the former Philadelphia Eagles safety Wes Hopkins, whose marriage collapsed one blustery afternoon in Veterans Stadium when his wife discovered a second Mrs. Hopkins in the stands."

Imagine a current NFL player's wife beating up his mistress at a game. I can barely believe it happened. You have to read the book.

5. Randall Cunningham. First check out his stats, particularly his rushing numbers from 1986-1992 and his out of nowhere 1998 campaign with the Vikings. Then remember that he played during a time period when the NFC East was absolutely terrifying. Maybe I was younger and more impressionable. And I'm sure people will talk about the Giants' current D-Line in reverential terms in years to come. But the Skins, Eagles, Giants, and Cowboys were loaded back then. Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

Once again I encourage you to read the book to fully grasp how enigmatic he was. His personality, appearance (seemed to permanently pout), flippant approach to film study, and most of all big contract, caused some of his teammates to loathe him. Cunningham's cult of self, successful self promotion and belief that only Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Aresnio Hall, and a select few others walked in his circle, made things even worse. The following clip actually gets at the heart of a lot of it:

Steve Young was sick too.

4. Free agency. This was right on the cusp of free agency with Keith Jackson jetting for the Dolphins mid-season to unofficially kick off the movement. Of course Reggie White left town following the season to officially get the ball rolling. Do you remember how crazy that was? Politicians tried to lure him to their cities and or states and Sports Illustrated ran one of my favorite covers of all time:


Some more points about White:

- Everyone raved about his "monster contract" - $17 million over 4 years. Don't get me wrong I'd take it. But compare that to some of today's deals.

- I caught a show on the NFL network about this year's Hall of Fame inductees that called Bruce Smith the most feared defensive player and best defensive lineman ever. I respect his game. But don't those titles belong to Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White respectively?

- White was 31 when he signed his deal. That's up there for a NFL player.

- Somehow I didn't realize that White played in the USFL. I love "The Memphis Showboats" as a team name. More on the Minister of Defense later.

3. Social Commentary. Bowden takes the book into a lot of interesting directions. A couple stood out to me:

- Some of the players beat pretty ridiculous odds to make it to the NFL. Yes there were some amazing athletes like Allen, Cunningham, White, Herschel Walker, Keith Jackson, and others. But Andre Waters and several other Eagles literally clawed their way into the league and were far from a sure thing. On top of that some of the players came from the lowest levels of poverty.

- The over the top and in many ways unnecessary "Dream Home for Mom" phenomenon. And it was even more interesting when Bowden looked at the conflicts players' moms and wives had. This was particularly true for African Americans who grew up in poverty and married someone from a very different socioeconomic class than their mothers.

2. Jerome Brown and Reggie White. The book opens with Brown's death, which happened right before the '92 season. It shook many of the players, particularly on defense, to their core and seemed to simultaneously inspire and haunt the Eagles throughout the season. Brown was simply a larger than life figure that lived hard and fast and drew people to him. He was a hero in his hometown as well as an unabashed partier, spender, and pursuer of women. Yet 15 years later White's death has to be even more shocking. Consider the fact that White was far less reckless and just seemed like a super hero. I did not see that coming. Meanwhile, the book obviously can't get into his Super Bowl run with the Packers or his infamous speech to the Wisconsin state legislature. Pretty complex guy.

1. Andre Waters. When I recently reread this I somehow forgot that Waters committed suicide in 2006. Like my first reading Waters emerged as my favorite player in the book. Yes, he may have made Rodney Harrison look mild. Just ask Dan Dierdorf. Yet Waters truly was an unlikely NFL starter that beat the odds. On top of that he comes off as a great guy. So when I finally remembered his death it was even more tragic. Furthermore, while I'm in no way qualified to fully understand the research, I'm intrigued by the contention that "the depression that family members recalled Mr. Waters exhibiting in his final years was almost certainly exacerbated, if not caused, by the state of his brain -- and that if he had lived, within 10 or 15 years 'Andre Waters would have been fully incapacitated.'" - Dr. Bennet Omalu

As much as we all love football there are two things we have to eventually face.

- A good chunk of these guys have to be using HGH right? The size, speed, strength, and quickness have risen to outrageous and dangerous levels.

- It truly can be a debilitating game. And despite the stellar efforts of the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund it does not seem like monumental changes have been made yet. And watching last year's Steelers, Ravens and Titans it seemed like a player's death on the field was more of a matter of when than if.