The publicity surrounding AMERICAN KINGS started several months ago. In Chicago, home of my beloved Bears, ESPN suggested that Caleb Williams, who had been the first player selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, was so concerned about playing for the franchise “where quarterbacks go to die” that he and his father considered ways to avoid that possibility and subvert the draft itself. Based in part on this small nugget of promotional material, I knew the book would be on my late-summer reading list.

Seth Wickersham reports that the Heisman-winning quarterback did not bypass the draft. He signed with the Bears and is now beginning his second season with the team. Williams is just one character in this exceptional saga detailing football history, where the quarterback has evolved into an integral part of the sport.

"I cannot think of a better book to kick off this football season or to put on your holiday list. AMERICAN KINGS is a sports classic on ambition, achievement and failure for every football fan in America."

Millions of dollars and infinite amounts of time are invested in that one position. But for every player scouted and highly coveted by NFL teams, there are still many who don’t become star players. Since 2000, 69 quarterbacks have been drafted in the first round; 37 of them have been failures. On the other hand, a number of players who are deemed to be undeserving of major investment eventually find themselves wearing Super Bowl rings and enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame. No one can explain how or why that happens.

Wickersham makes it clear that the quarterback is the most worshipped position in all of sports. At first, it began as a method for placing an additional blocker in the backfield for running plays. In the early days, there were only two ways to advance the ball: running and kicking. Later, changes in the football itself and the rules of the game would allow for the ball to be thrown down the field. Enter the quarterback and modern football coaches who revolutionized how the game would be played.

Wickersham has assembled for readers a wide cast of quarterbacks. They range from the great pioneers of the position --- from Benny Friedman, who modernized professional quarterbacking, and Bob Waterfield, whose Hollywood life helped glamorize the game, to such legends as Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath.

The book then moves to the era of quarterback development, including the NFL quarterback class of the 1983 draft, where six quarterbacks --- three of whom would be inducted into the Hall of Fame --- were selected in the first round. Ironically, the final quarterback picked in that round, Dan Marino, still holds many NFL records. But he never won a Super Bowl, which tarnishes his career accomplishments. As Wickersham observes, “time erodes records but championships last forever.”

I cannot think of a better book to kick off this football season or to put on your holiday list. AMERICAN KINGS is a sports classic on ambition, achievement and failure for every football fan in America.