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Title details for The Lions Finally Roar by Bill Morris - Available

The Lions Finally Roar

The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions and the Road to Redemption in the N.F.L

by Bill Morris
ebook
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The epic and tumultuous story of the Lions, the Ford family, the city of Detroit—and how all three have come together on the cusp of a new era.
On Nov. 22, 1963, William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, made a successful bid to buy the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for the unheard-of sum of $6 million. As Ford and his entourage settled down to a celebratory luncheon, their waitress delivered the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas.

"Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford's ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America's most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility. Readers meet the hell-raising quarterback Bobby Layne, who is said to have put a curse on the team after he was traded to Pittsburgh; the rock-solid linebacker and future coach Joe Schmidt; the stars Charlie Sanders, Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and, most spectacularly, Barry Sanders, the greatest running back in the history of the game, who grew so disgusted with losing and mismanagement that he walked away when he was on the threshold of shattering the NFL's all-time rushing record.

But the tide is finally turning. The Lions Finally Roar culminates with the team's recent turnaround and playoff run under the stewardship of Bill Ford's daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. Hamp hired savvy general manager Brad Holmes and charismatic coach Dan Campbell—and has stood behind them as they methodically returned the team to the ranks of the league's elite and, at long last, have made the Lions roar.

Deeply researched and briskly written, The Lions Finally Roar is about much more than football. It explores the American class system, the linked histories of Detroit and its auto and music industries, the city's changing racial dynamics, the rising power of television, and how all of it played into the NFL's transformation from a fall sport into the multi-billion dollar, year-round entertainment behemoth that is a cornerstone of American popular culture.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 3, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781639367191

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781639367191
      • File size: 28992 KB

  • Accessibility

    The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

    Ways Of Reading

    • No information about appearance modifiability is available.

    • Not all of the content will be readable as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.

    Conformance

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  • Languages

    • English

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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