Reddit reviews Blood, Sweat & Chalk: The Ultimate Football Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today's Game

If you're starting from scratch, Take Your Eye Off The Ball. It breaks down the various aspects of position play in a fairly detailed but still accessible manner.

For a historical perspective, Blood, Sweat, and Chalk covers the evolution of a number of notable offenses and defenses (mostly offenses).

Not just padding, but a LOT of rule changes. Players were getting crushed because the old strategy was to line up behind the ball carrier and push him forward while the other team pushed him back. That's why the Bush Push from the USC-ND a few years back was so illegal even though it never gets called.

It's really interesting to read about the new plays and strategies they developed after all the rule changes. Think about how crazy it would be to take a popular sport, then re-write the rule book. What if you could make multiple forward passes during one play and from beyond the line of scrimmage? What if they changed the number of yards you needed to get for a first down? You'd have to come up with whole new plays and formations.

The evolution of formations from the 1920s to the 60s to now is pretty wild. Check out this book for a good lesson on that

this will give you a good idea of where you want to start learning about the game. Be warned, the more you learn the more you're going to want to learn. All of these posts are about a specific scenario but I've been coaching for 6 years now and every scenario is different. You might not want to run screen against the blitz if you have the perfect run play for this team, this front, this time of the game. No two plays will ever be the same in the game of football and your script walking into the game is lucky to make it to it's 15 plays. You want to understand the system you've built and the one you're up against. This book will lay out some of the systems in football and the rest is up to you.

Nothing would make me happier than a sub reddit where we would all argue strategy instead of fantasy value or who's better than who. I hope you enjoy this book, it's a great read!

Blood, Sweat, and Chalk is pretty good. It goes over the evolution of offenses from the beginning of football. It talks about who invented what and the lineage of some stuff. The book really explains the offensive schemes well. I thought it was an interesting read.

Another book I recommend to people is Blood, Sweat, and Chalk by Tim Layden. It is a compilation of his personal research into offenses and defenses, some of which were featured in Sports Illustrated articles. If you're interested in the evolution of the game and the why of certain schemes, this is one of the best reads out there. It also makes for terrific off-season reading.

Kirwan's book is an excellent introduction to the finer details of the game, but for broader strokes about scheme and particularly their history and how they came into fashion I have a pair of other recommendations -

Sports Illustrated's Blood, Sweat & Chalk: The Ultimate Football Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today's Game

and

Chris B Brown's The Essential Smart Football, and really everything on his website http://smartfootball.com/

I thoroughly enjoyed both, they were as much entertaining as educational and easy reads. I've been waiting for Brown's new book to come out on the e-readers, and if doesn't soon I'll probably buy a hard copy.

Also a shout out to /r/footballstrategy - there are some smart cats on that sub who are always happy to answer questions

edit: If you're interested in web articles instead also check out Matt Bowen's Football 101 series that he wrote for Bleacher Report (I wish he'd come back, most of his content is behind ESPN's paywall now...), he broke down a lot of broad principles with some nice diagrams http://bleacherreport.com/users/2822152-matt-bowen/archives/newest?rel=nofollow

I would recommend, in order:

Take Your Eye Off the Ball by Pat Kirwan

The Essential Smart Football by Chris Brown

The Art of Smart Football by Chris Brown

Blood, Sweat, and Chalk by Tim Layden

Exactly what I came to say. In one of the early sections of the book you're taught to chart a game; quick notes on formations and results that you can do in short hand between snaps. It's like keeping a score sheet at a baseball game and one of the things coaches do on the sidelines. If you do it yourself you'll very quickly learn to recognize whats about to happen on both sides of the ball and then start to learn where you need to watch to see what is really determining the outcome of the play.

It can get pretty dry and since it's almost entirely focused on the modern game it doesn't give a lot of context to go with it's technicality. If you're stalling out on some parts this might help, it's a more friendly initiation into the technical aspects. It's more a history of the major innovations (reinventions?) on each side of the ball and how each built on the last. It's a pretty good road map for what a scheme is all about and how each individual position has turned into what it is today. It will give you a pretty solid grasp on what be going on on the field so that Take Your Eye off the Ball makes more sense when it tries to tell you how to actually see it in the moment

I loved Blood, Sweat, and Chalk. It goes into the history of things like the Air Raid, the 46 defense, Single Wing, etc.

It is a great read in one sitting or as a coffee table/bathroom book.

I love Blood, Sweat, and Chalk, It is like a history of football formations and strategies. It tells the story, but is almost kind of like a reference book. http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Chalk-Ultimate-Football/dp/1603200614

Playing MAdden is okay, but I find it hard to believe nobody has suggested actually reading a book other than the rule book.
Check these out:
Take your Eye off the Ball

Blood, Sweat, and Chalk

Maybe something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Chalk-Ultimate-Football/dp/1603200614/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479237754&sr=1-5&keywords=football

Really depends what your budget is for a gift - a book is always good, but if you're wanting to spend more maybe you could get him tickets to a game and go with him? Getting him out of the house would probably be a good thing to encourage.

That is a hell of a thing to go through, and I don't meant to do that "OH, you're depressed? Have you tried having fun?" thing... But I'm sure you get the idea. Sometimes it is helpful to do things with family/friends even if you won't exactly be footloose and fancy free, it's a step in the right direction.

For football history from an X's and O's perspective one of my favorites is Blood, Sweat and Chalk.

Read the book Blood, Sweat and Chalk. This is a must read for any fan no or old

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Chalk-Ultimate-Football/dp/1603200614

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Chalk-Ultimate-Football/dp/1603200614

Blood Sweat and Chalk. Best book I've ever read, and it's exactly the subject matter you're asking about.

Websites (Most are not active):

• Inside the Pylon - Videos may not load embedded, but you can copy the url. Pretty good look at base plays, position responsibilities, and other terms you run into.
  
• Breakdown Sports another place for looking at the above, less available though covered deeply. See article on Cover 1 for example.
  
• Football Study Hall More on the statistics side of football (old stomping ground of Bill Connelly), a bit more all over the place.
  
• Dan Casey's Twitter If you want to see clips of fun and interesting plays past and present, he's a good'un.
  
• Playbooks - Historic coaches' playbooks. You can get a pretty good understanding of things like read progression and play goals from these, as well as what the purpose of each player on the field for each play by reading through some of these.
  
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  Books: These are the books most people recommend starting from.
  
  

1. David Seigerman's Take Your Eye Off the Ball This is a really good book for understanding the game holistically. From positions to managing a season to how you can pay attention to a play, a drive, and a game.
   
2. Chris B. Brown's The Essential Smart Football and The Art of Smart Football (read in order of printing) Fantastic book set for anyone ready to dive a deeper into how the game has and could develop. Seeing everyone raving about the wildcat is always a chuckle though.
   

• Tim Layden's Blood, Sweat & Chalk. Definitely worth the the purchase. Would recommend the above first, but this is a great go for the stories behind the plays. How they came to be and why.

No he didn't invent the triple option. That's as old as football itself. The Zone-Read, running the option off the defensive end out of a shot gun formation, was "invented" by RichRod.

When he was a coach in something like D3, there was a blown play where his QB missed the hand off. Typically, the QB is instructed to follow the RB on that sort of thing, but instead took off the other way. Rich Rod asked why he went off the other end and the guy said something like, "the end followed the HB, so I went the other way". A light went off in RichRod's head and he used it to stampede through the coaching ranks.

Source

edit: added source

• "The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football." Best book on big time college football I've ever read. Goes inside/behind the lines, and gives you different angles and perspectives on scandals. There's four chapters dedicated to the story of Mike Leach ranging from TTU to WSU. One about how Nick Saban got to Bama, and others about sexual assault, paper classes, improper benefits, and all the other politics and behind the scenes damage control stuff we never see. It's also euphoric, because it gives the inside story of players' or coaches' experiences in big moments we all know of.
  
  
• "Missoula, Rape and the Justice System in a College Town." The scope is college football at the University of Montana. This can be a difficult read, especially if you or anyone you care about has had an experience with rape or sexual assault (graphic and chilling), but it is really good, and is a harsh reality check that most don't really get from sports-prioritized media on the topic (Victim perspective and stories).
  
  
• On the more X's and O's side, there is "Blood, Sweat, and Chalk." Ignore the wildcat chapter though. The history of that chapter is extremely weak and inaccurate.
  

First, look on YouTube for basic info. You can find videos about positions and plays and even schemes like the spread pretty easily.

Second, I recommend looking up some film breakdowns. Bill Belichick does them weekly (I think it's weekly) on a local Boston channel, but you can find some of them on YouTube by searching for Belichick Breakdown.

Third, try to find some guides for how to watch football and how to breakdown a game. Articles like this can provide you with a greater understanding of what everyone is doing during a play.

Fourth, do some reading.

I highly recommend Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look to help you while watching the game, but be sure to get the paperback version so you get all the diagrams. It will teach you the progression of the reads, the route running, the blocking and everything that happens on defense as well.

To help you cut through some of the jargon announcers use, I recomment Blood, Sweat and Chalk: The Ultimate Football Playbook.

If you want to learn more about strategies, try The Essential Smart Football.

To learn more about evaluating players, Football Scouting Methods is a must read. It will take you to the football of another era, but with the foundation from all the other info I've provided you will be able to start putting the pyramid together and learn how the game became what it was today.

This is a very good book. Also, Blood, Sweat, and Chalk by Tim Layden gives a good history and explanation of football innovations through the years.

If you like Football, read "Blood, Sweat, and Chalk." It's a great book with the history of various formations, how they're used, why they're used, their strengths and weaknesses, all kinds of good stuff.

http://smile.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Chalk-Ultimate-Football/dp/1603200614?ie=UTF8&sa-no-redirect=1