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The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game That Changed the NFL |  | Author: Gary Myers
Creator: Joe Montana
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $5.00
as of 9/7/2010 18:26 PDT details
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Seller: fergiesfinds
Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 411820
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307409082
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332640979461
EAN: 9780307409089
ASIN: 0307409082
Publication Date: September 29, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
How many great catches have there been in the history of the NFL? Hundreds? Thousands? Mention "The Catch,"though, and fans will think of only one: Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, the NFC Championship game, the Dallas Cowboys vs. the San Francisco 49ers, January 10, 1982. It changed the game and The Game. This is the story of the pieces that fell into place to allow it to happen and what it meant to the players, to the fans, and to the future of professional football.
Drama like this couldn't be scripted any better. Dallas was still reigning as America's team. San Francisco was hungry for a ticket to its first Super Bowl. With less than a minute left, the 49ers were one touchdown and extra point away from pulling it off, six yards from the end zone. Too Tall Jones and the Cowboys' celebrated defense were primed to stop Montana and the 49ers. The play came in from head coach Bill Walsh: Sprint Right Option. It almost never worked in practice. But this was game on. It had to work. Montana took the snap and rolled right. With 700 pounds of prime defensive talent bearing down on him, leaning backward, in his last moment of upright balance, Montana sent the ball to the back of the end zone. The primary receiver had slipped and was not in place. But the secondary receiver, Dwight Clark, was streaking toward the corner, leaping higher than he ever had or ever would again. With his arms reaching for the sky, his fingers splayed, he snatched the impossibly high pass, briefly lost control, regained it . . . touchdown!
Franchises, careers, lives, and dynasties all changed in that moment.
Sports journalist Gary Myers was there, and now with fresh revelations from key players, including Montana, Clark, Ronnie Lott, Randy Cross, Tony Dorsett, Drew Pearson, Charlie Waters, and others, he takes fans back to an iconic game and one of the NFL's most breathtaking plays. Myers presents new details on the rise of Montana and the 49ers and the fall of the '80s Cowboys. He reveals what Bill Walsh saw in an overlooked third-round draft pick named Joe Montana and how Walsh accidentally discovered Dwight Clark. He shows how legendary Dallas head coach Tom Landry, who as reputed did put winning first, was not above crying over players whose personal careers had to come second. He celebrates forgotten heroes like journeyman running back Lenvil Elliott, who picked that particular game–and that final drive down the field–to shine. It's all here, from the death threat that spooked Montana during the game to 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo's bad luck when his view of the historic play was literally blocked by a horse's ass.
The Catch is both the ultimate replay of a sports moment for the ages and a penetrating look into the inner dynamics of the NFL.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 49
Average for a 12 year old May 27, 2010
Tracy Foote (New York City)
This book was read by a 12 year old who did not find it interesting enough to complete. I think perhaps it was because he did not know the players and did not have enough interest in historical football. I would recommend this for an older audience.
 More like 4 1/2 stars.... April 22, 2010
Deborah Wiley (Winter Haven, FL)
THE CATCH is one of the most famous plays in NFL history. Joe Montana's pass to Dwight Clark in the waning minutes of the NFC Championship game on January 10, 1982, has been shown in replays repeatedly. Gary Myers takes readers behind the scenes to the stories that surround THE CATCH as he examines the history of two dynasties, the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys.
THE CATCH is a moment that stands out to me in football history. The game between Dallas and San Francisco was the first full football game I'd ever watched and I sat anxiously glued to my television set as I began my now lifelong love of football and the 49ers. THE CATCH immortalizes that moment for me personally, but it is so much more than just the story of Dwight Clark's catch.
Gary Myers provides readers tidbits of insider history, the sort of details that a fan just watching the game might have forgotten. He also brings back the forgotten memories of the trash talking of the game, the horrendous poem recited by Drew Pearson, and the rise and demise of the careers of two of the NFL's most historic coaches, Tom Landry and Bill Walsh. The stories in THE CATCH extend far beyond just those that happened on the field that day, providing a nice context for this memorable moment in football history.
THE CATCH is a book that is easily enjoyed by football fans, but especially 49er and Cowboy fans. I've enjoyed sharing tidbits from the book with my husband, a Cowboy fan, while also appreciating the scope of knowledge Gary Myers demonstrates about both football teams. The format of the book is a bit disjointed and yet once I started reading, I had trouble putting it down. THE CATCH is a fascinating look back at a piece of football history and some of the greatest players and coaches to ever enter the game.
Chock full of great nuggets, but only four stars for fans of other teams March 23, 2010
J. Schneider (Mosinee, WI United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is chock full of background from the era before and after The Catch. Think of it like a bell curve: lots of info from right around that time, plus additional info, just in lesser amounts, from other eras. Myers views The Catch as the culmination of a paradigm shift in the NFL, and does a reasonable job supporting his viewpoint, but the casual fan will mostly just enjoy the detail Myers provides in his discussions
With all that said, I'm not personally a fan of either the Cowboys or the Niners, so sometimes my attention would wander, e.g. after literally dozens of pages on Tom Landry alone: his coaching timeline, personality, and how it all built into who he was and how he coached and what kind of leader he was, how he related to both management and players, etc... as a Vikings fan I would probably eat up that sort of detail about, say, Bud Grant, but I was really getting bored after a while with Landry (and Bill Walsh for that matter as well).
Despite this complaint, the level of detail is great. I'm not sure I agree with Myers on the significance of The Catch, but he certainly does an excellent job arguing his case, and the interesting nuggets he provides here make it a worthwhile read for any NFL fan, and especially Niner and Cowboy fans.
Somewhat interesting but ultimately falls flat March 18, 2010
Mary Jo Sminkey (Raleigh, NC USA)
This book in some ways reminded me of another book I read recently, Strokes of Genius in that the book revolved around a single sports moment (or in the case of Strokes of Genius, a single tennis match) and constantly jumps back and forth from that game to all the events surrounding it. But where that book I found totally compelling and engrossing, this one was quite a bit more dry and just too repetitive. Much of the history just dragged on and on and didn't really give me any true insight into how the game *really* has changed. Many times I found myself lost in terms of whether events being described were before or after the game, it was very convoluted and not easy to follow at all. This definitely is not a book for a casual football fan, as much is assumed that the reader will already know. Ultimately the author's claim that this one game "changed" the NFL just never quite seems to hold up to scrutiny and the constant harping throughout on The Catch becomes almost annoying. There's certainly much in there that is interesting but ultimately, it's not a book I greatly enjoyed.
 HOW TO STRETCH A SHORT STORY INTO A BOOK! February 25, 2010
! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b (TRI STATE AREA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was interested in reading this book until I got about 20 or so pages in. I then discovered that this really isn't worthy of being printed as a book. The story could have been told better in a tenth of the space it takes up in this overblown and repetitive reading. This is for die hard 49er fans who are so drunk they will forget what page they were on! The story is classic NFL, but it's just not the right format.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 49
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