The Blind Side

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Jose Baez with George Willis

"When renowned defense attorney Jose Baez received a request for representation from Aaron Hernandez, the disgraced Patriots tight end was already serving a life sentence for murder. Defending him in a second, double-murder trial seemed like a lost cause--but Baez accepted the challenge, and their partnership culminated in a dramatic courtroom victory, a race to contest his first conviction, and ultimately a tragedy, when Hernandez took his own life days after his acquittal. This riveting, closely-observed account of Hernandez's life and final year is the only book based on countless intimate conversations with Hernandez, and told from the perspective of a true insider. Written with the support of Hernandez's fiancée, Unnecessary Roughness takes readers inside the high-profile trial, offering a dramatic retelling of the race to obtain key evidence that would exonerate Hernandez, and later play a critical role in appealing his first conviction. With revelations about his client's personal life that weren't shared at trial, and an exploration of stunning the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy diagnosis revealed by his autopsy, Jose Baez's Unnecessary Roughness is a startling courtroom drama and an unexpected portrait of a fallen father, fiancé, and teammate."--Jacket.

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Rich Wolfe

"Take This Job and Love It! Jim Harbaugh is packed with wonderful stories from Jim Harbaugh's friends, teammates, and colleagues celebrating an amazing life and career in football. At the press conference announcing his return to the University of Michigan Jim Harbaugh opened his speech saying: "Throughout my life, I have dreamed of coaching at the University of Michigan, now I have the honor to live it." Based on the reception he received that day and since, it can be safely said that Wolverine fans could not be more pleased to see their former QB and now head coach living his dream."-- From Amazon.com.

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Jeff Pearlman

They were America's Team—the high-priced, high-glamour, high-flying Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s, who won three Super Bowls and made as many headlines off the field as on it. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, and Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the Cowboys rank among the greatest of all NFL dynasties.In similar fashion to his New York Times bestseller The Bad Guys Won!, about the 1986 New York Mets, in Boys Will Be Boys, award-winning writer Jeff Pearlman chronicles the outrageous antics and dazzling talent of a team fueled by ego, sex, drugs—and unrivaled greatness. Rising from the ashes of a 1–15 season in 1989 to capture three Super Bowl trophies in four years, the Dallas Cowboys were guided by a swashbuckling, skirt-chasing, power-hungry owner, Jerry Jones, and his two eccentric, hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Together the three built a juggernaut that America loved and loathed.But for a team that was so dominant on Sundays, the Cowboys were often a dysfunctional circus the rest of the week. Irvin, nicknamed "The Playmaker," battled dual addictions to drugs and women. Charles Haley, the defensive colossus, presided over the team's infamous "White House," where the parties lasted late into the night and a steady stream of long-legged groupies came and went. And then there were Smith and Sanders, whose Texas-sized egos were eclipsed only by their record-breaking on-field perfomances.With an unforgettable cast of characters and a narrative as hard-hitting and fast-paced as the team itself, Boys Will Be Boys immortalizes the most beloved—and despised—dynasty in NFL history.

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Ron Knapp

Profiles the personal life and football career of the man who succeeded Joe Montana as quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.