Collision of Wills
Johnny Unitas, Don Shula, and the Rise of the Modern NFL
-
- 24,99 €
-
- 24,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
In their seven years together, quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, kings of the fabled Baltimore Colts of the 1960s, created one of the most successful franchises in sports. Unitas and Shula had a higher winning percentage than Lombardi’s Packers, but together they never won the championship. Baltimore lost the big game to the Browns in 1964 and to Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III—both in stunning upsets. The Colts’ near misses in the Shula era were among the most confounding losses any sports franchise ever suffered. Rarely had a team in any league performed so well, over such an extended period, only to come up empty.
The two men had a complex relationship stretching back to their time as young teammates competing for their professional lives. Their personal conflict mirrored their tumultuous times. As they elevated the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league’s winningest coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas, and how their secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were as memorable as their victories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Gilden expertly captures the heady days of the Baltimore Colts in an entertaining profile of Johnny Unitas and Don Shula, who were part of one of the NFL's most exciting and winningest teams of the 1950s and '60s. When Unitas came to Baltimore in 1956, the town celebrated him for his blue-collar qualities: he had worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh after the Steelers cut him the previous year. The young quarterback worked tirelessly on the field and off watching game films with his young daughter on his knee and he quickly became the team's best play caller and an outstanding field general. Shula was a brusque, all-business coach who tolerated no opposition to his calls or to his approach to the game. He and Unitas often clashed fiercely, but, as coach and quarterback, they led the team through several championships and to one of the most memorable games in football history: Super Bowl III in 1969 against the New York Jets (although the Jets came out victorious). Gilden's detailed book captures the excitement of the Unitas-led Colts drives and provides a glimpse into one of pro football's greatest player-coach relationships.
