Turn off the TV and read about football

Worried that you're spending too much time watching football? Feeling frustrated about your fantasy team's performance? You need to refocus. Take a break and

read

about football. Here are a few pigskin titles for sale.

Why Football Became
a National Pastime

By Sal Paolantonio

(Triumph Books, $24.95)

ESPN national corrspondent and former Inquirer reporter Sal Paolantonio examines the link between the violent, ritualistic drama of football and the American identity. Television alone doesn't explain football's grip on America, according to Paolantonio. "The answer is in the complex fabric of America itself," he writes. From Manifest Destiny to

Father Knows Best

, American culture provided the perfect matrix for a uniquely American sport.

One High School Team's Homecoming after Katrina

By Jeré Longman

(Public Affairs, $26)

In 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, several communities in Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, banded together to build a new high school, with a football team aptly named the Hurricanes. As the region set out to stitch its life back together, the Hurricanes' success on the football field became one of the threads. New York Times sportswriter Jeré Longman, a former Inquirer sportswriter who grew up in Louisiana, tells the story of the team's quest for a state championship.

Red Grange, an American Football Legend

By Gary Andrew Poole

(Houghton Mifflin, $25)

In the Roaring '20s, Red Grange, the Galloping Ghost of Illinois and the Chicago Bears, defined football the way Babe Ruth defined baseball. The greatest college player of all time (so declared ESPN this year), the Forksville, Sullivan County native also popularized professional football. Biographer Gary Andrew Poole examines the life of the player Damon Runyan described as "three or four men and a horse rolled into one. He is Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Al Jolson, Paavo Nurmi and Man o' War. Put them together and they spell Grange."

How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty

By David Harris

(Random House, $25)

Bill Walsh, equally at home with a playbook and a flow chart, brought cerebral flair to a brutal game. Silver-haired and articulate, he set the standard for NFL coaches at the end of the 20th century as his West Coast offense spread across the land. David Harris, a former contributing editor for the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, tells the coach's story.

The Kevin Everett Story

By Sam Carchidi

(Triumph $15.95 paperback)

Kevin Everett was a third-year tight end with the Buffalo Bills when he was paralyzed making a play in the 2007 season opener against the Denver Broncos. As an ambulance carried him away from the field, his life was in jeopardy and his chances of ever walking again looked as bleak as could be. Inquirer sportswriter Sam Carchidi traces Everett's successful effort to walk again, after a rigorous rehabilitation program and a medical treatment that is still under debate by doctors.