Patriot Way: The Road to a Modern Day Dynasty Book

If you are a football fan this is a must read. The title says it all......it probably is the best game ever or at least in the top 5 in modern NFL history. The author, who also wrote Blackhawk Down, captures the excitement of the game and the weeks before the championship. He concentrates on several of the players, their backgrounds and personalities.....Johnny Unitas (a "guy next door" type), Raymond Berry (a driven loner), Frank Gifford (a prima donna), Gino Marchetti (a beast on the field), and Art "Fatso" Donovan (an overweight joker who liked a couple of beers before the game).

This was the first game that ever used the "sudden death" rule and many of the players thought that the game had ended in a tie and headed for the locker room. Obviously someone forgot to tell them that this rule was now in effect! You can feel the excitement and disbelief that gripped the crowd as the teams reassembled to continue play.

The author traces the change in training regimes.....most of the huge linemen packed on food, drank beer, played dirty, and smoked at halftime. But players like Unitas and Berry followed a different route which soon became the training model used today. It was indeed the birth of the modern NFL and pro football came into its own and was no longer considered a bunch of ruffians whose objective was to break the limbs of the opposition.

A terrific book, beautifully written. Highly recommended.