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Chris B. Brown
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The Essential Smart Football Kindle Edition

by Chris B. Brown (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 787 ratings
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The Essential Smart Football is an examination of football's most important strategies and ideas, through the lens of the game's best coaches, players, and schemes. Brilliantly written and eschewing unnecessary jargon and technicality, it makes a major contribution to our understanding of football to help all of us -- coaches, players, and fans -- appreciate the game we love all the more.

The Essential Smart Football features analysis of football's top strategists and their schemes, including:

- Urban Meyer's spread offense
- Tom Brady's no-huddle attack
- Bill Belichick's hybrid defense
- Mike Leach's pass-happy "Air Raid" offense
- The most popular scheme for running the ball in the NFL
- Nick Saban's school of defense

The book also includes explorations of modern approaches to the West Coast Offense, evolutions in defensive fronts and coverages, the changing role of the running game in spread and pro-style offenses, and much more.

"Buy this book if you love football."
-- Gregg Rosenthal

"[Chris Brown] has put together a book that you need to buy if you're a football fan with a pulse."
-- Bill Barnwell, Staff Writer, Grantland

"Accessibly erudite".
-- New York Magazine

"If you're a football geek, this is a mandatory purchase."
-- Doug Farrar, Yahoo! Sports

"Advanced stats are great, but they mean a lot more when you understand where the players are moving on the field and why. Nobody has taught me more about where the players are moving on the field and why than Chris Brown."
-- Aaron Schatz, founder of FootballOutsiders.com, columnist for ESPN.com/ESPN the Magazine

"I'm a better coach after reading this book. A must have in every coach's library!"
-- Dub Maddox, Offensive Coordinator, Jenks High School, Jenks, Oklahoma (12x Oklahoma State champions)

"Must-have new book for any football fan."
-- Dan Shanoff, Quickish.com
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  1. Print length
    155 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    May 23, 2012
  5. File size
    1719 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris B. Brown writes and edits Smartfootball.com and is a featured contributor to Grantland/ESPN. He has also contributed to The New York Times, Yahoo! Sports, and Slate. He lives in New York City.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0085XSN26
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (May 23, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 23, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1719 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 155 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 787 ratings

About the author

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Chris B. Brown

Chris B. Brown

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Chris B. Brown is the author of The Essential Smart Football, a contributing writer to Grantland/ESPN, and the editor of SmartFootball.com, which is dedicated to the analysis of football strategy and history. He has also written for The New York Times, SBNation, Deadspin, Yahoo! Sports and Slate. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
787 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Coach R
5.0 out of 5 stars Always on the Cutting Edge of the Game
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2012
Verified Purchase
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.
49 people found this helpful
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David P Klotz
4.0 out of 5 stars Too short, but still required reading
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012
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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.
11 people found this helpful
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Mike Minter
5.0 out of 5 stars Learn the Process of Solving Problems In Football
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2015
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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!
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John and Tessa
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick but Information packed read
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2013
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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!
3 people found this helpful
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brazos49
3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good stuff, but it's more a pamphlet than a book
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2012
Verified Purchase
I'm going to review this book largely based on value - what it cost versus what it delivers. I must have been one of the unlucky customers who bought it before the price was lowered to be more in line with its value and I don't think I got my money's worth. Now that the price is lower, it's a closer match between cost and value, but I think it still needs to cost less to be worth buying. I'd say it's a $3-$4 paperback pamphlet and not much more.

I heard the author on a local sports talk radio show and the way the book was described, I thought it was going to have a lot of information along the lines of why it's usually a bad idea to spike the ball to stop the clock. And, there is one brief mini-chapter on that, but there's not much else in the book along the lines of game management coaching decisions that are not well executed by most coaches. That would have been a better book. This book is a collection of very short chapters with very superficial coverage of a lot of football offensive and defensive schemes. Most of it was interesting, but I didn't come away convinced that the author really knew his material in depth like a coach might. I listen to a lot of sports radio and during football season one local station has a former NFL assistant coach on as a guest to provide commentary and analysis on the games just played. It was a revelation to me to contrast the in depth knowledge that former coach has versus the local media guys. For this book, ex coaches could have probably contributed much more meaningful chapters on these topics than this author, a media guy, did. That would have been a better book also.

So, in my opinion, this is not a great pamphlet, much less a good book. I don't think I got my money's worth on the book. It has a few decent nuggets here and there, but not enough. I'd say it's a two and a half star rounded generously up to a three.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Anthony
5.0 out of 5 stars So fun
Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
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
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Marco Álvarez
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno
Reviewed in Spain on February 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
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.
3 people found this helpful
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Mike
5.0 out of 5 stars Quality Analysis
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2016
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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.
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amazonkunde
5.0 out of 5 stars simply great to read
Reviewed in Germany on January 18, 2016
Verified 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 NFL
by the legacy of one coach influencing a dozen others (see Paul Brown, Don Coryell, Bill Walsh).
2 people found this helpful
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Erchegue
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interresting
Reviewed in France on February 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
Good book to discover some of good football strategies from the last years. Easy to understand and well write. Dont hesitate
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