Baltimore Beatdown was lucky and honored enough to get an advance copy of 'Monday Morning Quarterback: A Fully Caffeinated Guide to Everything You Wanted to Know About the NFL' by Peter King.
Sports Illustrated's award-winning writer updates his 20 most memorable columns including conversations with Brett Favre and Peyton Manning along with reflections on his trip to Afghanistan, odes to his "coffeeness" and the debut of his Top 100 Players of All-Time.
After reading the book during the Baltimore Ravens Bye week, I can tell you that any football fan, regardless of their allegiance to any team, will love just sitting and reading this book. It's such an easy read, as if King were just sitting in front of you telling his stories and experiences from his many years inside the NFL.
(More on "Book Review: Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback" after the 'Jump')
A little more about Peter King from the good people at SI Books, who sent me this advance copy, that became available to the public on October 13, 2009:
Peter King, the 2009 Dick McCann Memorial Award winner - bestowed annually by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for long and distinguished reporting on professional football - has captured the respect and love of readers by delivering hard-hitting wit, wisdom and insight for more than 20 years at Sports Illustrated. Widely regarded as the top football journalist in the country, King's Monday Morning Quarterback (MMQB) is one of the most read web columns in sports.
Now back to the review: King uses little icons in the borders of the pages that correspond to specific things he's referring to. For instance, there is an icon that is called "Factoids That May Only Interest Me" about such things as family news about his two daughters and another called "Airports" with notes about the little things he's noticed about airports from all the traveling he's done. His "Ten Things" Lists include what he'd change as Commisioner of Pro Football, Top Coaching Hires, Best Draft Picks, Hall of Fame Snubs, Sports Illustrated Covers, Cliches I Hate, NFL's Best/Worst, and Top 100 Players of Today and All Time. The last two are my favorites and some of the names will certainly stir debate in you as it did in me. In the Top 100 Players of All Time, our own Johnny Unitas was only number eleven and the next Baltimore player was.....Gino Marchetti (#21)!? Interestingly, the Ravens' Ray Lewis came in at #29 of All Time. Both Unitas and Lewis were noteworthy enough to warrent sidebar columns as why they were included at their specific slots. Equally surprising is that while Ray was #29 of all time, he was not even on the list of King's Top 100 Players of Today, although the Ravens were represented with Ed Reed at #11, Terrell Suggs #18 and Haloti Ngata #26 (Ngata had a sidebar column with King stating that "if I had any guts, Haloti Ngata would be in the top 15.").
You really should stop by you local bookstore and pick up a copy of "Monday Morning Quarterback," and either sit down and read it cover-to-cover, or put it next to the "throne" and read a chapter or two at every "sitting." You'll love the stories, opinions and experiences this great writer has accumulated over his illustrious career and his unprecedented access behind the scenes to understand the inner goings-on's of the NFL. Enjoy it!