The Essential Smart Football

Over the last 5 years, Chris Brown's site Smartfootball.com has influenced the way I see (and coach) the game of football more than any other source...and I consult a lot of sources! I read 20+ books a year on football coaching, strategy, and management. Brown stays on top of the game, breaking down the newest strategies and noting why they emerged and where they evolved from. This book contains the best articles from his website all in one book. The best leaders and teachers are great simplifiers and Chris Brown makes the complex seem simple. I'm a high school head football coach and love studying the game. I have a lot of the cornerstone books like Bill Walsh's Finding the Winning Edge, Woody Hayes's Hotline to Victory, "Tiger" Ellison's Run & Shoot, Homer Smith's manuals, and Lou Holtz's The Grass is Greener. I recommend Chris Brown's book and site in the same sentence with those essential texts. All of them will change the way you see the game. The material on Urban Meyer and the Spread Offense traces the roots of the offense and the power of the "true" option as opposed to the "read" option. The chapter on the Patriots's use of "Joker" players like Gronkowski and Hernandez to create uncertainty in the defense with versatile players is essential reading -- it ties into Woody Hayes's idea of building your offense to beat the top 3 teams on your schedule (in this case the Jets, for Belichick). If you run the Spread and haven't read Brown's ideas on "Constraint" plays, you are missing out. The chapter on the No Huddle Offense and how it gives Tom Brady (of all QBs) simpler defensive structures to attack is also outstanding. The bottom line is that this is a fantastic football book from one of the best writers on football today. Buy this book and visit Brown's site and you'll be a better coach. He's as good as it gets.

I came to SmartFootball.com somewhat late to the game, but have been an avid reader since. When I found out that Chris Brown was putting putting out a book of "best of" combined with new material, I was very excited to see the result. I have not been disappointed.The book will be especially enjoyable to those who are unfamiliar with or new to the site. I had read only two of the older articles, but even there I found new insights after re-reading them. I suspect that even if you are familiar with all of the older content, the book is still going to be a must have based on the new content alone.My only minor complaint is that I wish some of the articles had been longer, and the older ones expanded on further. Several times I felt like I was getting into the meat of the essay only to find it ending on the next page. Despite that, I would consider this to be required reading for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the strategy of football, at any level.

Great read for all football coaches who want to learn the why in football. This book shows you how great minds in football has taken something and out of necessity create the next big movement in football. Everything is a reaction to problems you face as a coach and a team. It gives you the process of thinking and how you use that process to build your answers to the problems. This is a simple read and entertaining at the same time! I loved reading how everything we see today in football is built off the history of the game so if you just want to learn the history of the game or learn how the great minds solved problems this book is for you. Enjoy as you come up with the next big thing!

I am an avid football fan trying to get more into the tactics and plays teams use and why. I am also interested in the evolution of the game and the differences between college and the NFL.This book is an excellent primer for all football fans, short enough to read in a few days but packed with useful information that made me want to read more. I also really enjoy the accompanying blog over my lunch hour at work. If you are not pretty familiar with formations, schemes, positions and basic football tactics you might find this a little hard to follow. But before reading this my only experience with these was the NFL website, specifically the Playbook videos which break down the previous weeks interesting plays, and I was fine (Also I'm British)!If my quest for football information tactics were a meal, this is just a starter, but a delicious one!

This review many type of offense and defense that revolutionize football that we know today. He explains how they were so successful and the magic that brings with . Well explain, but it surface all these concepts not scrutinize them. It was inspiring and very interesting to know those little that you don't necessarily see when you want the game on TV

Libro centrado en aspectos tácticos sobre el football profesional y universitario de la época moderna. Desde las complejas defensas de Bill Belichick pasando por los sistemas ofensivos de Steve Spurrier, esta recolección de artículos te gustará a poco que te interese el deporte y sus entresijos.

This guy is a class act, this is up there with Take Your Eye Off The Ball, and his own follow up book, for anyone who wants to know more about the game they are watching. Essential purchase.

for examples, see smartfootball.com. Some of the essays can be found there.Interesting for those who want to understand the deeper tactical concepts of the game.Most fascinating is the way, new tactical ideas evolve and spread from college throughout the NFLby the legacy of one coach influencing a dozen others (see Paul Brown, Don Coryell, Bill Walsh).

Good book to discover some of good football strategies from the last years. Easy to understand and well write. Dont hesitate