Starred Review.
Taking place against the backdrop of 1991's Operation Desert Storm, Super Bowl XXV was a dramatic event to begin with, but the competing Buffalo Bills and New York Giants upped the ante even more, according to veteran sports writer Lazarus (Chasing Greatness). In this fantastic, accessible new book, Lazarus charts the teams, coaches, and players that made the game so memorable. Though Bills' journeyman quarterback Jim Kelly and the Giants' Jeff Hostetler (who was poised to retire) get the most page time, Lazarus covers the game from all angles and perspectives, giving credit where credit is due and presenting key moments from the previous season. Digressions on the league's preparedness for a terrorist attack (the NFL bought all the available atropine, a drug needed to counteract a sarin nerve gas attack, that wasn't reserved for the military) increase the tension. By the time Lazarus gets to Whitney Houston's stunning performance of the national anthem, readers might as well resign themselves to finishing the book in a single sitting. Even football neophytes will find Lazarus's snapshot of America insightful and rewarding.
This is a wonderful account of a great game and also a look at sport as a diversion from the harsh realities of the real world. An excellent mix of sports reporting and social history.
If I reminisce, I could recount every defensive play and its impact on the final outcome, and from the moment the fighter jets flew over the stadium, until the final kick, all of my emotions and energy were focused on being a Super Bowl champion. My memories of Super Bowl XXV are poignant and vivid, and Adam Lazarus captures the passion of a moment considered one of the greatest games of all time. Readers will be transported back in time and enjoy every minute of it.
A book about Super Bowl XXV would have to be pretty close to flawless to draw the adulation of a Buffalo Bills fan...Lazarus has achieved such perfection.
Scott Norwood's field-goal kick went wide, but Adam Lazarus' detailed recount of Super Bowl XXV sails right between the uprights.
ESPN the Magazine - John Clayton
Adam Lazarus has captured in vivid detail Super Bowl XXV, played in the shadow of the first Iraq War, which made for an uneasy and anxious mood at that time in America. Super Bowl Monday is also a book for the true football fan. It really is well done.
This Super Bowl was one of the best football games I've ever seen-one of the most strategic and surprising. Lazarus gives readers a great view from both sides, and it's well worth the trip back in NFL history.
Sports Illustrated - Peter King
Super Bowl Monday is a choice pick for football fans, highly recommended for sports libraries and as a giftbook for the sports lover in one's life.
Excellent retelling of the most memorable-and heartbreaking-season in Bills history. Unfortunately for Bills fans, the ending is still the same.
Lazarus' approach to the book, the details, the human angles is a winner. I remember covering the game in Buffalo for the AFC title, and I also remember sitting in my Buffalo hotel room and watching the invasion of Iraq on TV. The writers got together and chartered a plane directly from Buffalo to Tampa because there was no two-week break. It was all so surreal, and then they played the game and it became a classic.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Ed Bouchette
All the ingredients are here for a fascinating book: legendary coaches (Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Marv Levy), outrageous characters (Lawrence Taylor), and one of the best football games ever played, all set against the backdrop of a nation that had just gone to war. Adam Lazarus clearly has tremendous passion for this project and has already plunged into the research to bring it to life. This should be a terrific book.
Lazarus not only does a tremendous job of bringing the reader back to 1991, when the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants faced off in Super Bowl XXV, but he also sheds light on numerous players' back stories that set the stage for one of the most exciting Super Bowls in NFL history.
The most interesting and accomplished examination of Super Bowl XXV I have ever read.
...worth reading... .a very dramatic game to chronicle.
Super Bowl Monday goes by quickly, and doesn't suffer from the problem of having most readers know the outcome. Readers will learn why the game developed the way it did, and enjoy the story all over again.
Sports Book Review Center
...[A] good read for football fans, especially those that root for the game’s two combatants. If you’re old enough to remember the game, it will bring you back to another time and if you’re too young, this is your chance to read up on one of the best ever. Now if you’re a Bills fan, sleepless nights surely await you.
...[A] narrative worthy of that classic Bills-Giants game.
New York Post - Mike Vaccaro
Two of my favorite things in life are American history and the Buffalo Bills. With exhaustive research, Lazarus captures the patriotic fervor engulfing the nation in January of 1991 and masterfully documents a Bills season where they came the closest to winning a Super Bowl in franchise history. Worth a read.
That 1990 Giants team epitomized all the virtues of a what a championship team should represent. It was a special group. Lazarus captures so accurately and so well the emotion and the intensity of that moment. We had shown people we could do it with O. J. [Anderson] and [Jeff] Hostetler and an old defensive back coming from another team. And the way he writes about Matt Bahr, too; all those characters that contributed in an unlikely fashion. The way they all contributed to the team was just beautiful and what the NFL is all about. No one person was bigger than the team.
Great reporting of an unforgettable edition of America's sporting classic. And proof that the show must go on not just in spite of global threats, but as a Super Bowl of reasons to overcome them.
Excellent retelling of the most memorable-and heartbreaking-season in Bills history. Unfortunately for Bills fans, the ending is still the same.
Excellent retelling of the most memorable-and heartbreaking-season in Bills history. Unfortunately for Bills fans, the ending is still the same.
Scott Norwood's field-goal kick went wide, but Adam Lazarus' detailed recount of Super Bowl XXV sails right between the uprights.
Scott Norwood's field-goal kick went wide, but Adam Lazarus' detailed recount of Super Bowl XXV sails right between the uprights.
All the ingredients are here for a fascinating book: legendary coaches (Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Marv Levy), outrageous characters (Lawrence Taylor), and one of the best football games ever played, all set against the backdrop of a nation that had just gone to war. Adam Lazarus clearly has tremendous passion for this project and has already plunged into the research to bring it to life. This should be a terrific book.
Scott Norwood's field-goal kick went wide, but Adam Lazarus' detailed recount of Super Bowl XXV sails right between the uprights.
Lazarus' approach to the book, the details, the human angles is a winner. I remember covering the game in Buffalo for the AFC title, and I also remember sitting in my Buffalo hotel room and watching the invasion of Iraq on TV. The writers got together and chartered a plane directly from Buffalo to Tampa because there was no two-week break. It was all so surreal, and then they played the game and it became a classic.
...[A] narrative worthy of that classic Bills-Giants game.
This is a wonderful account of a great game and also a look at sport as a diversion from the harsh realities of the real world. An excellent mix of sports reporting and social history.
This Super Bowl was one of the best football games I've ever seen-one of the most strategic and surprising. Lazarus gives readers a great view from both sides, and it's well worth the trip back in NFL history.
Super Bowl Monday goes by quickly, and doesn't suffer from the problem of having most readers know the outcome. Readers will learn why the game developed the way it did, and enjoy the story all over again. Sports Book Review Center
