Bryant's Legends books will get the juices flowing!

The best thing you, the reader, can do with it is disagree with it, debate it, change it, have fun with it, decide for yourself
Howard Bryant

    Talk about kicking a jockbrarian when he's down.  Not two days after I had to endure yet another Packer playoff failure I picked up Howard Bryant's book Legends: Football  looking to sooth my aching soul and have a little Packer pride affirmation session.  Bryant's 2015 young adult sports book takes a peek at some of the great NFL football dynasties, players, and epic Super Bowls.   As he describes in his forward, "This book is a book not only of football legends--but the legend of pro football."  
   Surely my Packers would be featured.......prominently.
    Imagine my shock discovering that among Bryant's top Super Bowls, the 2 Packer World Championships (SB 31 and 45) in my lifetime were not even featured!!  WHAT. That night I took Legends home to the authority, my 13 year old son.  After hiding the sharp objects, we thrashed Bryant's omissions and the ridiculous bias toward the (his!) New England Patriots.  Navigating  our way through chapters of the past nearly 50 years of NFL history, we debated, reminisced about some stellar players, rehashed key plays that defined history, memorialized good coaches, and argued dynasties.  Packers or Patriots?  Or Dolphins.....or Steelers....or Cowboys.....  It was us against Bryant!
      Nearly 2 hours blew off the clock before I realized this is exactly the purpose Bryant has for his Legends books.  In addition to football, Bryant has titles for Legends in Baseball, and well as a new book for Legends in Basketball.  There's little doubting that sports unite people--they unite teenage friends, neighborhood kids,  fathers and sons, grandfathers and grandsons.  What Bryant has done with his very successful Legends books is set out a series of questions and debate topics for the sports buff!   What better way to get the juices flowing in a competitive teenager!  Let the kids read the history for themselves.  Let them research, think, and draw their own conclusions.  A little inquiry learning in an age where inquiry learning is the rage. 
        As for the books themselves, they are magnificent.  Weighing in at around 300+ pages each, these books look, feel, and smell like an adult book.  The text is young reader friendly, with bite sized chapters  having just enough to chew on for a good argument.  As I've said before, no middle or high school boy wants to feel like a little kid.  Elementary sports books are very one dimensional and as easily telegraphed as a Jay Cutler pass.  Bryant's Legends series is among the growing trend of young adult books that are trying to bridge the gap between child readers and adult readers by having authors talk to teens like young adults.  In no other genre is that more important than in sports, as these young kids are well versed in this subject and dare not be fooled.  The Legends books are an absolute must for upper elementary, middle, and high school libraries.
    And Mr. Bryant, my son and I have a bucket full of reasons why the Packer/Steeler Super Bowl 45 should be included.  We'll give you the benefit of the doubt that out of ridiculous soreness you could not include the beat down our Packers gave your Pats in SB 31 .  As for the dynasty discussion, we VERY grudgingly defer to you.  As the last line in your Legends:  Football preface unarguably says, "In the NFL, it's all about the Super Bowl."  And as the great Packer Architect Ron Wolf also said, if you don't win that game, you're nothing but a fart in the wind.