What do you think?
Rate this book
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Football
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Football, Second Edition, provides new and intermediate football fans with all the information they need to understand and enjoy football. From high school to the NFL, coverage includes the basics of offense and defense, players, rules, strategies and even what to wear! New coverage for this edition includes: the draft - how it works for teams and players including parity, new technology on the field including instant replay, dangerous referee flags and rules changes for college and pro ball, XFL, arena league, expansion teams and NFL Europe, and the changing business and team strategy for professional football today.
- GenresSportsFootballNonfiction
360 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
4 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 13, 2012
Although it one might consider choosing a more up-to-date book given some recent rule changes in the NFL, in its day this book explained everything you needed to know about football, and it presented it so simply that even a 6th-grader could understand it.
January 2, 2012
I love football - college moreso than NFL - and this was a great read. Theismann did a great job covering the basics (though I was a little annoyed the he literally started with what the ball looks like) and got into some more complex things like game strategies, play diagrams, etc.
I considered myself fairly knowledgeable about football, but really learned a lot from this book. It was full of facts (which I love), history, and lore. While the writing left a little to be desired at times, overall it was great. I've impressed my husband with my knowledge of play action, the fact that the safety covers the tight end (though linebackers sometimes do instead), and knowing that the strong side of the offense is where the tight end is lined up, among other things.
A great, accessible read that I'd recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about football.
I considered myself fairly knowledgeable about football, but really learned a lot from this book. It was full of facts (which I love), history, and lore. While the writing left a little to be desired at times, overall it was great. I've impressed my husband with my knowledge of play action, the fact that the safety covers the tight end (though linebackers sometimes do instead), and knowing that the strong side of the offense is where the tight end is lined up, among other things.
A great, accessible read that I'd recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about football.
October 10, 2009
A fair tutorial on the game. Good pictures. But you have to watch a game to really get it.
January 16, 2010
good book while i'm allready an expert on football I still enjoyed it
December 23, 2010
Very useful but I still don't understand a LOT!
October 11, 2013
Another useless, informationless book on football. It is such a complicated game, but there is so little - that I have found - to make it more comprehensible.
May 20, 2014
Taught me so much about football and made me love the sport even more
January 1, 2015
Not bad, good overview for a noob like me. The author is adorable- he knows his stuff, but is clearly a sportsman, not an intellectual. Very much an everyman style.
June 26, 2015
Love the flow of this book. Feels like Joe is in your living room, telling you about the game.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews