Written for every sports fan who follows the NFL, this account goes behind the scenes to peek into the private world of the players, coaches, and decision makers—all while eavesdropping on their personal conversations. From locker rooms to the sidelines and inside huddles, the book includes stories about Terry Bradshaw, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Don Shula, Lawrence Taylor, Johnny Unitas, and Bill Walsh, among others, allowing readers to relive the highlights and the celebrations. "It's hard to think of a sport with more outrageous characters than football, and you'll be glad to see how many explode forth in the following pages." --Pat Summerall, from the foreword "I wanted to be the best player I could possibly be. And, yes, I had to sacrifice. The first 10 years, I didn't take a vacation because I was so focused in on doing my job." --Jerry Rice "He had extremely high expectations of most guys. There was not much you could do that would satisfy him." --Phil Simms on Bill Parcells "The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes. By that standard, Otto Graham was the best of all time." --Paul Brown "Then Madden Said to Summerall..." offers even fans who know the league inside and out the chance to learn something new about the game and its history. Get the true story behind Emmitt Smith's pursuit of Walter Payton's all-time rushing record, the rise and fall of Lawrence Taylor, Frank Gifford's memories of "The Greatest Game Ever Played," and everything else that makes football the nation's most popular game. Here is your chance to go inside the huddle, head into the locker room, or grab a seat on the sideline. This is your exclusive pass to get on the team plane or have beakfast at the team hotel. Go behind the scenes and peek into the private world of the players, coaches, and decision makers and eavesdrop on their conversations. Matthew Shepatin is a journalist whose stories on American culture, entertainment, and sports have appeared in Black Book , Esquire , the Los Angeles Times , New York magazine, Playboy , Radar , Slate , and the Village Voice . He is the author of Then Madden Said to Summerall: The Best NFL Stories Ever Told and is a contributing writer on The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything  and The Mad Dog Hall of Fame: The Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports .  Pat Summerall is a former NFL player and a television sportscaster for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. He has work with John Madden many times on CBS and Fox NFL telecasts. "Then Madden Said to Summerall ..." The Best NFL Stories Ever Told By Matthew Shepatin Triumph Books Copyright © 2009 Matthew Shepatin All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-265-7 Contents Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1. The Gunslingers, 2. The Gridiron Generals, 3. The Big Gamers, 4. The Playmakers, 5. The Punishers: Defense, 6. The Punishers: Offense, Sources, About the author, Photo Gallery, CHAPTER 1 The Gunslingers What does it mean to be a gunslinger? Back in the early days of the NFL, throw over six passes a game, and you'd probably qualify. Consider trigger-happy Arnie Herber of the Green Bay Packers, whose league-high 37 completions and nine touchdowns in 1932 would have made him a fantasy league stud in those times. Imagine a quarterback today making first-team All-Pro with numbers like that, but Herber did, while also completing just 37 percent of his passes and throwing as many interceptions as touchdowns. Enter "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh, who, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, sent a jolt of electricity through the league, posting passing numbers that, back then, were ridiculous. In the first three games of the 1947 season, Baugh completed 47 passes, 10 more than Herber's 1932 league-high total for a full season. The gunslinger legacy born with Baugh would bloom madly over the next 50 years, as NFL football evolved from a grind-it-out ground war to a game featuring enough wild and complex passing schemes to implode the mind of a first-time Madden '09 player. Over the game's many eras, gunslingers have come and gone, each with their own throwing style, their own flair for the dramatic. Sammy Baugh was Buffalo Bill — the flashy, tobacco-chewing sharpshooter. Bobby Layne was Sam Houston — the brash, swaggering Texan. Brett Favre was Billy the Kid — the irrepressible grin, the reckless streak. But all these quarterbacks share one thing in common: a knack for thrilling you with every shot they took. Sammy Baugh Over his 16 seasons with the Washington Redskins, Sammy Baugh lit up the scoreboard, throwing for a the-unheard-of 21,886 yards and 187 touchdowns while leading the league in passing six times — a record he still shares with Steve Young. Spectators watched with amazement as Baugh scattered the field with pinpoint passes, even from inside the 20-yard line, a virtual no-fly zone in those days. But Baugh wasn't just a cannon-armed quarterback, he also wowed