Stars and Steel An Oral History of Pro Feetball in the '70s

It was a time when professional football entered the heart and soul of a nation, an era when the biggest entertainment event in America became one single game in January that turned into a national sports holiday known as the Super Bowl. The 1970s was the decade when professional football grew into the powerful force that changed the American sports scene.In Stars and Steel, sports columnist Thom Loverro examines colorful characters like Kenny "Snake" Stabler, John "Frenchy" Fuqua, Butch and Sundace, otherwise known as the Miami Dolphins running tandem of Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, Duane "the silent man" Thomas, and many other personalities that emerged during this decade of growth. It also looks at legendary teams that became household names, particularly their defensive units, which were given nicknames that football fans today recognize, like Pittsburgh and the Steel Curtain, Minnesota and the Purple People Eaters, Denver and the Orange Crush, Dallas and the Doomsday Defense, and Miami and the No-Name Defense.The NFL came of age in the 1970s, a time viewed by professional football fans as the sport's golden era. Stars and Steel is filled with interviews and vignettes to bring those times to life. Each year is a chapter, with events from those years highlighted by the words and memories of the players involved. It details how Monday Night Football changed the entire landscape of television and how it was the prelude for the next generation of sports coverage that would begin at the end of the 1970s -- ESPN.Loverro, Thom is the author of 'Stars and Steel An Oral History of Pro Feetball in the '70s', published 2006 under ISBN 9780878332762 and ISBN 0878332766.