A Good Walkthrough Spoiled: The Best of Mike Tanier at Football Outsiders

by Mike Tanier, Aaron Schatz (Editor)

A parody of Watchmen with Bill Belichick as Dr. Manhattan and Marty Schottenheimer as Nite Owl? A detailed review of Denver kicker Jason Elam's first novel? A revolutionary statistical report showing that teams that kneel on the ball more often are more likely to win the game? What kind of football column features this kind of erudite goofiness next to the story of how Wilber Marshall became the NFL's first Franchise Player and play diagrams that would show the Giants how to beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII?

The Mike Tanier's Walkthrough, a weekly tour through football strategy and history with side trips to the sillier parts of football fandom. Now we've collected the best of Walkthrough and Mike Tanier's other writing for Football Outsiders between 2004 and 2012, all in one place.

A Good Walkthrough Spoiled features 42 of Mike Tanier's best columns from his eight years at Football Outsiders. It also features the All-Time Franchise Quarterback Top Fives from the summer of 2011 and the All-Time Franchise Running Back Top Fives from the summer of 2012, with slightly updated lists for 2014 and brand-new commentary on players such as Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, and Russell Wilson. As an added bonus, we've included Mike's extended feature on the 1987 strike replacement players, "Year of the Scab."

And while this book may come to you from Football Outsiders, no knowledge of advanced football stats is necessary to enjoy all this great analysis, although we snuck in a few numbers when nobody was looking.

This book is not recommended for McNabb Deniers. On second thought, it's specifically recommended for McNabb Deniers. Perhaps it will knock some sense into you.

405 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2014