I was a big Giants fan in the 80's, so it was interesting to read this book. It's a pretty good summary of the season and gives some really good insight into the classic Super Bowl Win versus the Bills - particularly the last-ditch drive by the Bills that fell a field goal short of the mark.

The book is a bit misleading as it purports to be written by Leonard Marshall. It really isn't. It's written by William Bendetson. Marshall is quoted a lot, though.

The book also seems uneven because the chapters seem to alternate betweeen discussing the Giants' season and then going into the plight of a few ex-NFL players and their lack of adequate healthcare, pension, etc. For that the book seems to have an identity crisis.

Still a decent read for fans of the NFL of the late 80's and early 90's.

This is an interesting commentary on the NFL. It demonstrates the flipside of the fame that goes with being an NFL player and the challenges they face after leaving the league. NFL football players, then, no longer are gladiators, but real humans struggling with family life, economics and injuries they suffered while playing football.

Great insights and comments from players and coaches on a vastly underrated team. Backup QB and backup running back winning against formidable teams.

Bendeston makes a good attempt at providing insight into the 1990 New York Giants' Super Bowl run, but he falls short in many areas. I echo other reviewers' perspectives that - although very well-researched - the book is poorly-written and badly-organized. However, my biggest complaint about the book is that the author shows an astonishing lack of basic football knowledge. I was hoping that this book would provide insight into the schemes used in Giants' defensive coordinator Bill Belichick's Super Bowl gameplan, which now sits in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The author's inability to understand even basic football concepts makes this level of analysis impossible.

While Bendetson's "football mistakes" are far too numerous to list here, I will deconstruct one paragraph where this lack of knowledge is most apparent. In this paragraph, Bendetson is describing a play in Super Bowl XXV where Bills QB Jim Kelly throws an incomplete pass intended for RB Thurman Thomas. He writes:

"The Giants played just two defenses in the red zone - either their regular 3-4 or Red Two Dallas, where they double-teamed Thurman Thomas and [WR] Andre Reed. The latter was effective on thrid-and-goal from the 5 with Kelly in the shotgun. Buffalo called a double seam, H-reed, signaling that Reed was on the weak side. Reed, tight end Keith McKellar, and [WR] Al Edwards were all supposed to run seam routes straight up the field to make from for Thomas, who was running a screen."

Bendetson says that the Giants played only a "3-4 or Red Two Dallas" in the red zone. This is an internally inconsistent description because 3-4 is a personnel grouping and formation (it tells who's on the field, not what play the defense is running), while Red Two Dallas is a defensive play. This is an important distinction. To illustrate Bendetson's inconsistency, the Giants' defense could have a defensive play called "3-4 Red Two Dallas" where they used their 3-4 personnel to execute Red Two Dallas (of course, I'm unfamiliar with the 1990 Giants' defensive terminology). Regardless of the specifics, the sentence does not make sense, and it's a good example of Bendetson misunderstanding his research.

Before I get into the specifics of the play, I want to explain two terms that Bendetson misuses in this paragraph: "seam route" and "screen." Throughout the book, he (seemingly) uses "seam route" to describe any route where a receiver gets upfield. In truth, a seam route is a specific route where a receiver runs between two deep defenders in a zone coverage; that is, he runs his route in the "seams" of the zone coverage. More specifically, in the run-and-shoot-inspired K-Gun offense that the Bills ran in 1990, the seam-read is of particular schematic significance (for the football-inclined, here's a great article about the specifics of running the seam-read in the run-and-shoot offense: [...]). Bendetson also describes any short pass caught by a RB as a screen pass. While some short passes are screens, most are not. A screen pass is a short pass designed such that the receivers has blockers in front of him when he catches the pass.

I found a video of the game online (link below), and watched the play that Bendetson describes. The video is grainy but, contrary to what Bendetson says, it looks like Reed is aligned on the strong (right) side of the formation and TE McKellar stays in to pass protect. The Bills are running a slant-shoot combination on each side of the field. This is a basic route combination where the outside receiver runs a slant route (a 45-degree angle towards the middle of the field), and the inside receiver runs a shoot route to the flat (sidelines). On the left side of the field, the inside receiver is RB Thurman Thomas. Though Bendetson says that Reed, McKellar, and Edwards ran "seam routes" and Thomas "ran a screen," I believe this description to be entirely incorrect. There are no seam routes and no screens on this play. In my best estimation, Lofton and Edwards ran slant routes, Thomas and Reed ran flat (or shoot) routes, and McKellar stayed in to block.

In conclusion, while Bendetson may be a committed researcher, his inability to understand football greatly limits his potential. If he were to write another football book, he'd be well-served to learn some basic football concepts. For anyone looking for tactical or strategic insight into football, this book is a major disappointment.

The play that Bendetson describes begins at 3:05 in this video: [...]

I just ordered the wrong book.

Great book and a very dear man!!!!!!! Love it!!!!

Good book about bill parcels and the giants and them winning the Super Bowl. Good read for all kinds of fans

This book provides detail into how the Giants approached the playoffs as well as the diffciult for players to adjust to non-football life.