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In the world of modern football, with NFL teams worth more than a billion dollars, no position defines a franchise like the quarterback. The QB is the story of a year in the making of those star players, and of the most significant year in QB development in sport’s history… with the meteoric rise of various quarterback gurus finally coming to light. George Whitfield, profiled in the New Yorker and called the “Quarterback Whisperer,” gets a regular spot on ESPN’s College GameDay, Trent Dilfer, former Super Bowl quarterback, starts his own qb business, Steve Clarkson, another qb maker, gets profiled on 60 minutes, among many others. It is also the year 5’10” Russell Wilson wins the Super Bowl and for the first time in over 60 years a sub-6-foot QB, Johnny Manziel, gets drafted in the first round, forcing NFL power brokers to re-examine how they look at the position—and the game.
To tell the story of all that goes on to create the perfect quarterback, bestselling author Bruce Feldman gained unique access to "Johnny Football" (that's Johnny Manziel), George Whitfield and many other players in what has become a specialized and high-stakes business. In the past decade the boom of the private quarterback-coach business, with its pageant-world-for-boys vibe, has changed the position and the game. The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel’s portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics. His guru is a man who has come to be known for making QBs—George Whitfield, unparalleled in the business. And then there is Trent Dilfer, the quarterback who never could get to the superstar level, despite winning the Super Bowl. He is the Salieri to Manziel's Mozart. There is the computer/brain analysis company trying to quantify how playmakers think, the biomechanics expert who saved Drew Brees’s career, and many more fascinating behind-the-scenes looks into this world. Never before has the game so relied on the development of the quarterback. In The QB, the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback’s game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
November 4, 2014 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780553418460
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780553418460
- File size: 2428 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 1, 2014
Welcome to the weird world of boutique preprofessional quarterback training, which starts in some instances as early as age eight. It's a niche field geared mostly to families in higher income brackets but attracts some middle-class participants as well, who envision the expensive private tutoring as an investment toward a future college scholarship. In these lively pages, Feldman (Cane Mutiny) describes the personalities, jargon, and techniques of several of the most prominent teachers: George Whitfield, the "Quarterback Whisperer"; Steve Clarkson, the expert self-marketer; and former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer, who manages the annual Elite 11 quarterback competition that is produced by ESPN and Nike. A great deal of focus is also given to Johnny Manziel, the leading quarterback phenomenon while the book was being researched in 2013. Along the way there are tales of stars including Aaron Rodgers, busts such as Jimmy Clausen, and many yet-unknown fledglings. The book is very well written and offers an in-depth view of this strange and somewhat creepy field. VERDICT A fast-paced read that will be of interest to both football fans and students of American culture and society.--John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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November 15, 2014
Feldman, Fox Sports football commentator, tackles the evolving nature of football quarterbacking in the era of social media, which have contributed to the emergence of such personalities as Johnny Football Manziel. This book is intended primarily for the subspecies of fan interested in the recruitment and draft processes, but as such it is compelling reading. The focus is on former pro quarterback and TV analyst Trent Dilfer, his associates (including Quarterback Whisperer George Whitfield), the quarterback training and evaluation machine Elite 11, and an abundance of other competing private coaches and camps. It painstakingly covers the complex mechanical and statistical (and cognitive and psychological) criteria used to evaluate young quarterbacks, the degree to which QB candidates like Johnny Football possess more subjective, in Dilfer's term, dude qualities. Quarterback being the most critical position in team sports, Feldman's highly informed and cogently explained anatomy of this sophisticated process may appeal to a (somewhat) broader audience than the draft-day geeks who cheer and boo executive decisions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
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