American Kings - by Seth Wickersham (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Pull back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports: the Quarterback, the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshiped.

The New York Times bestselling author of It's Better to be Feared examines football's QB lifecycle: high school, college, the NFL, retirement--and all that comes with it.

Before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals, and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner to high school to college, becoming the ultimate American idol requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of bad breaks, insecurities, jealousy, pressure, and fame.

Wickersham's fresh reporting goes deep into that journey -- and beyond, measuring the distance between what the men who have done it expected and what they found. Through unprecedented access into the lives of dozens of quarterbacks and generational greats such as Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Steve Young, Patrick Mahomes, and others, as well as those striving to be remembered, like Caleb Williams and Arch Manning, Wickersham reveals how this one position has become emblematic of success in American life.

An inside look at the drama, demands, sacrifice and glory that comes with playing quarterback, American Kings is a must-read not just for sports fans but for anyone who wants to understand what the quest for achievement and status tells us about the price of ambition.

Review Quotes

Advance Praise for American Kings

"American Kings is an instant classic -- not just a great sports book but a great cultural history, revealing from every angle what it means to live in a country where "quarterback" is the coolest job title one can possess. Wickersham understands that it's the action and the athletes we crave, and lets the deeper meaning speak for itself. His ability to scan the field and make smart, crisp connections earns him standing with Plimpton and Halberstam among the finest sports chroniclers."
-- Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life, and Ali: A Life

"Seth has written a masterpiece. American Kings is a unicorn of a book. There is the usual incredible reporting on the deep inner workings of the NFL that you've come to expect from Seth. There is the deep and surprising levels of access to everyone from Y.A. Tittle to Caleb Williams, from John Elway to Arch Manning. It just vibrates with the literary universal; the book becomes, by the end, a parable about American ambition, which feels like the exact window we need right now into our national psyche. This will go down as one of the greatest sports books ever, and one of the best books of the year period."
--Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of Pappyland, The Barn, and The Cost of These Dreams

Praise for Wickersham's It's Better to Be Feared, the National Sports Media Association's Book of the Year

"Seth Wickersham has managed to do the impossible: he has pulled off the definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty."
―Bill Simmons, The Ringer

"On my Mount Rushmore of sports books. The writing is fantastic, the reporting better."
―Peter King, NBC Sports

"[A]n honest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written portrayal of perhaps the greatest and probably the most unlikely dynasty in modern professional sports . . . [Wickersham] draws richly detailed portraits of Brady, Belichick, the dynasty's third constant in owner Robert Kraft, and how their personalities and relationships changed through the years . . ."
― Chad Finn, Boston Globe

"Wickersham's fly-on-the-wall accounts are fascinating, but he's at his best when he explains, carefully and evenhandedly, how the business of football works. . . Exemplary sports journalism that examines the front office and dueling egos as much as the gridiron."
― Kirkus Reviews, starred review

About the Author

Seth Wickersham is a senior writer at ESPN and the New York Times bestselling author of It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness. Focusing primarily on longform enterprise and investigative work on the National Football League, Wickersham has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting, and his stories have been anthologized in the Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, and Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists, among others. Released in 2021, It's Better to Be Feared was named Nonfiction Book of the Year by Sports Illustrated and Best Sports Book by the National Sports Media Association. He lives in Connecticut with his family.