This book grew on me over time. It wasn’t the quickest read compared to other sports books, but it never felt like a slog either. Wickersham is a strong writer with a clear talent for earning the trust of his subjects. As someone who considers myself fairly knowledgeable about sports, I still learned new things and came away with a deeper appreciation for the craft of quarterbacking.

I was especially struck by Colin Hurley’s ongoing comeback story. The recurring theme of father-son dynamics is both inspiring and, at times, frustrating—since apparently the “Marinovich Project” still has its imitators. While it may not be my favorite football book, I’d still recommend it as a worthwhile read for fans ranging from casual observers to hardcore enthusiasts.

Seth Wickersham's new book American Kings, a biography of the Quarterback, is an overall history of the position of quarterback from footballs early days to the new Qb's starting their careers in the NFL and college. the author jumps from QB to QB.. so many familiar names to names i didnt know anything about. Bob Waterfield and his on again off again relationship and marriage to Hollywood starlet Jane Russell. NFL's first star couple. there are so many familiar names. Elway (who gets a lot of play in this book) Manning (all the Mannings, ending with Arch) Namath, Unitas, Montana ,S. Young, Moon. all these QB's going through all types of issues. All wanting to be "the guy" the Alpha. all going through the struggles to get there then stay there. then there is the new guys Caleb Williams and Colin Hurley, who's overprotective and QB tiger fathering is well stated here. plus all the info and training and pushing themselves to be the man is a lot. its a well written and info packed book. i really enjoyed it.

One of the better sports books I've read in a while, and it has legitimately changed my perception of how quarterbacks succeed and fail. This book makes clear that to become a successful quarterback is much more like becoming a major movie star or politician than it is to even become a successful lineman or wide receiver. It's a combination of physical traits, mental toughness, luck, and some sort of innate drive to be the best at something while ignoring the millions of eyes on you. I especially cringed at the quarterback-industrial complex this book shed a light on: something I was familiar with, kind of, but not in such depth or with so much attention paid to the grifters who promise success, when there is still no proven formula. For every Brock Purdy or Patrick Mahomes a QB coach works with, there are dozens of Colin Hurleys.

Thank you Hyperion Avenue for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Many sports talk pundits have said the "quarterback is the toughest position to play in sports". After careers are done, it is easy to determine all-time greats. In "American Kings" Seth Wickersham, who was an aspiring quarterback himself, addresses the life cycle in the development of a quarterback, starting from Pop Warner, then through high school, college, and for the lucky ones, the NFL. Throughout the life cycle, just as important as developing the skills and an understanding of offenses and defenses a successful quarterback needs to develop the mental toughness, confidence, and belief in themselves, and have the right team behind him to get him through the daily physical and mental grind.

One needs to internalize any weaknesses. In describing John Elway's mentality, Wickersham writes, "You cannot have any doubt when you step on the field, even if deep down, it exists. You must be able to hold those contradictory forces in your head and heart. That’s why great quarterbacks, why Elway, always bounced back from poor games, he says. Because they refuse to acknowledge that the performances were poor in the first place, regardless of what they knew deep down to be true."

Some other insightful quotes:
[Anthony Castonzo, Andrew Luck's left tackle]: “You have to believe that you are God’s gift to the world, or else doubt will start to come in.”
[Andrew Luck]: "To play quarterback, you’re not allowed to worry about anything except the task at hand.”
[Tom Brady]: "To succeed, quarterbacks have to believe that they are “the magic.”
[Jalen Hurts]: "It’s really a process of thrills and growth. And I don’t think it’s about any one result.”

Being a quarterback is a lonely existence since he needs to understand the game like no other player on the team, and no other player experiences the same mental challenges and pressure that he does. As Wickersham states, "It’s easy to lapse into isolation as a quarterback. To feel like no one else understands."

There is always a question of self-doubt, even for the great ones: "Football teams are almost reverse engineered to support their most valuable players, from scheme to psychology, but at some point, quarterbacks are alone with a question: Can I do it? Can I make the throws when it matters most? You won’t know until you do it, and just because you do it once, or twice, or for twelve years, it buys you nothing, it’s no insurance that you’ll come through the next time."

Wickersham provides a "biography" of the quarterback not through a single one, but a host of them - Y. A. Tittle, Bob Waterfield, Warren Moon, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Steve Young, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Tom Brady, Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams, Arch Manning. The stories of their journeys gives the reader a keen understanding of what it takes to become an all-time great and what can get in the way of becoming one. Of course, it's not truly possible to understand unless you are the one experiencing the journey, but Seth Wickersham's "American Kings" does an admirable job of putting one in the shoes of a quarterback - well done!

I've been anxious for the start of football season (what does one even do from February to September?), and a friend trying to get into football recently asked why some have declared quarterback to be the most difficult position in all of sports. So when I saw this title up for grabs, I requested it immediately. I was expecting a history of the position, possibly how it developed with the invention and legalization of the forward pass, maybe a look into the history of quarterback as a "white" position and the struggle for Black men to break into the role.

I won't say I was disappointed, per se, because Wickersham (an ex-quarterback himself) obviously showed a lot of passion and care in his research for this book and it was full to the brim with details and stories and quotes from interviews. We got stories tying in everyone from Y.A. Tittle to Patrick Mahomes. However, this book unfortunately read to me like draft notes waiting to be organized into a more cohesive manner.

Since I received this file as an ARC, I'm not sure if the formatting will be different in the final copy, but the chapter organization was pretty minimal. We were constantly hopping between quarterbacks and their stories with no real conclusion leaving the reader disoriented for a majority of the read. It was difficult, at least for me, to discern any central thesis tied to each story or chapter, though the overall thesis appeared to be "being a quarterback takes a lot of passion and dedication, and is the toll worth it?"

Overall, I don't *not* recommend this book, especially if you're interested in a more human look at the mythic quarterbacks of your youth, but don't go into it the way I did expecting a more analytical/historical analysis of the position overall.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

(review on my Instagram to come 9/4)

Many thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

As a lifelong football fan, I really wanted to like this one more than I did. While there are lots of interesting stories about the personal struggles and triumphs of some of the NFL's most revered players, the pacing feels like (to use a football metaphor) a team gets into the red zone and then immediately punts the ball. Wickersham sets up interesting little cliffhangers of stories, but he is juggling so many different threads that by the time you get back to it, you aren't even sure who he is talking about.

Form aside, the content is great and a peek behind the curtain across the decades. I liked that it didn't focus too sharply on any single era, and I'm sure there are thousands and thousands more stories that could have been told.

A good read to get ready for football season, but not an all-timer for me.

Lots of great stories and anecdotes of the life of a quarterback. Easy read for fans and non fans alike.

I read a advance copy of this book thanks to NetGalley.

I can think of dozens of quarterbacks who could have been mentioned in this book.

But that's the point. I can think of dozens of quarterbacks beyond the dozens of quarterbacks that are already profiled or otherwise mentioned or referred to in this book. It's the ultimate focal point in American sports. We scrutinize the starter, sometimes unfairly prop up the back-up and keep tabs on the third and fourth stringers just in case we need them to come in. We know them all.

Wickersham, a self-professed failed quarterback (he might not have used "failed"; perhaps, "as-yet-undiscovered?") brings us back to the start of the quarterback revolution, sharing stories of Bob Waterfield, Y.A. Tittle and others, then carries us forward all the way to today's prospects, Arch Manning, Colin Hurley and more. Nobody is missed, from Marino to Montana to Brady. His narrative, an exercise in Kurt Vonnegut's "unstuck in time" Slaughterhouse Five story jumping, shows us the parallels in the lives of quarterbacks through time. The same pressures, the same microscopes have been on them since the first true star arrived. Some have pushed the envelope - Joe Namath predicting Super Bowl victory for instance - and brought the position to new heights, but the expectation of greatness has always been there, on every team, in every city, every year.

Quarterback development has become an industry. Wickersham walks us through the days and mental stresses of today's young "can't miss" quarterbacks. He examines race through the story of Warren Moon, bucking the system, through John Elway and Eli Manning, and ends with a somewhat sad chapter on the inevitable end for all quarterbacks, when the cheers are gone, and the last memorabilia is sold at auction posthumously.

It turns out quarterbacks are human after all.

I became a fan of Seth Wickersham’s sports writing after reading his definitive book on the New England Patriots dynasty, It’s Better to Be Feared. My attention span wasn’t the best during the COVID times, but I simply could not put that book down when it came out in 2021. I’ll bet I read all 528 pages in two or three sittings. So, of course, I was excited when Wickersham announced American Kings, an in-depth exploration into the world of the quarterback. The book is the result of years of interviews Wickersham conducted specifically for this book, as well as decades of talking with and befriending historical icons and up-and-comers.

As the title gives away, Wickersham views the quarterback as holding a unique kind of gilded celebrity and status in America. QB is a difficult and almost mystical position in sports. He is a field general, coach, press secretary, homecoming king, snake-oil salesman, egomaniac, and lunatic.

To try and understand what makes a quarterback great, Wickersham interviews decades’ worth of QBs and their families, from Y.A. Tittle to Arch Manning. He identifies several categories of things that quarterbacks seem to have in common: quick processing, leadership, extreme confidence, selfishness, total focus, and obsession.

As you can see from the list, these aren’t all qualities that are widely considered to be healthy or even desirable in “real” life. Perhaps that is why so many quarterbacks struggle in the “real” world and after retirement. When the thing that defines you is gone, and what made you successful is now poisonous, what do you do?

Wickersham does not sugarcoat the cost of becoming an icon. Specifically, he highlights the cost of football to the families of QB Bob Waterfield and actress Jane Russell. Waterfield and Russell were one of the first L.A. “it” couples that combined sports and Hollywood. Waterfield had a drinking problem, leading his children to ask his parents NOT to get back together when they considered remarriage. Wickersham also talks to Joe Namath, John Elway, and others who developed drinking problems and struggled with marriage. And Tom Brady, whose life has changed considerably since Wickersham’s 2021 book.

And what about those who never make icon status? He talks about how rough it is on QBs like Matt Ryan, who was good but never quite great. And the pressures on thousands of young players who are going through the QB-industrial-complex of personal coaches, camps, Elite 11, etc. This kind of attention “is a breeding ground for entitled young men who expect the world to revolve around them.” Wickersham observes. A long-time Elite 11 veteran puts it more bluntly: The complex is creating a collection of “little a**holes.”

After looking at decades of quarterbacks, Wickersham and I were both unable to figure out what makes some exit the game gracefully. Some have religion, some have family, some have new careers. But plenty of quarterbacks have those things and fail. So what’s the difference? I don’t know.

This book was enjoyable, but I do wish it were a little longer. It’s about 100 pages shorter than Wickersham’s previous book, and I think going a little deeper on existing subjects or adding a couple of new topics would have made this the read of the year for me. Still, I recommend this book for any football fan, or anyone interested in the relationship of obsession and greatness (think Whiplash).

I received a digital copy of Quarterback from Hyperion Avenue for review consideration via NetGalley. This review and the opinions in it are my own. Also, I never played quarterback.

Author Seth Wickersham takes a deep dive into the lives of professional, college, and even high school quarterbacks. There are a high number of familiar names for football fans to sort through in this book. Men like Steve Young, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Caleb Williams, Arch Manning, and John Elway, just to name a few. Wickersham exposes the stress, celebrity, and internal pressure to win, with all of the pluses and minuses of being a player in the limelight.
The book is well written and has many interesting anecdotes that should provide plenty of new information on these men.
The only negatives that I can address with the book were the constant jumping around from QB to QB from paragraph to paragraph, and the author's decision to include too much of his personal experiences as a quarterback.
Other than those minor criticisms, the book is a fine look into the world of football's most important player. While maybe not a great selection for those unfamiliar with the aforementioned names, true fans of the sport should delight in the book.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Hyperion Avenue for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up American Kings not as a sports fan wanting to know about specific quarterbacks, but just out of interest in the cultural phenomenon of The Quarterback. I think this book delivers both. Using the stories of specific quarterbacks Seth Wickersham examines the position of quarterback and why it has become an American institution. Each quarterback's story is divided up to focus on specific aspects of the job, and at times I had a bit of trouble seeing the logic of the book's organization, or remembering what had been happening in a given person's story, but overall, football fan or not, it was an enjoyable read. I received an ARC from Publisher's Weekly's Grab a Galley Giveaway.

I would like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. I have followed football for most of my life. I grew up in Pittsburgh , PA and was luck y enough to be there for the days of Chuck Knoll, Terry Bradshaw and the Steel Curtain. I have stayed a fan , both of the Steelers and of football for my 71 years. I was very excited to get this book, as it seemed like a fascinating topic- the Quarterback. There is a lot of information in this book. The author talks about players even before my time ( Y A Tittle, Bob Waterfield), people I remember well, Warren Moon, John Elway, and men who I may well be hearing more about, Caleb Williams, Arch Manning and Colin Hurley. As I said, a lot of information, and I feel completely overwhelmed by the structure, or more to the point, lack of same. Stories are started, not ended, and then picked up again with no rhyme or reason. The writing is good, the information extensive, but for me the lack of completeness in any one section was a major drawback. I kept having to go back and check where one story ended , when it picked up again.I see that I am in the minority here, but the lack of cohesiveness made it a difficult read.

A really interesting look at how the position has and hasn’t changed throughout American football history. Also an interesting look at how the game of football has changed, from coaching to players’ athleticism. I knew some of the more modern stories from Montana forward but a lot were new to me. Fun read in the lead up to training camp and the season.

Another good book from Seth. Very good look at what it takes and what you give up to be a quarterback.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.

As someone who loves sports books I can always appreciate when I come across one that has a lot to say. I was amazed at the amount of quarterback stories that Wickersham was able to tell while keeping the focus of the book very tight and easy to follow. He was really able to get to the heart of what it means to be a quarterback, at the high school, college and professional level, as well as what it all means when they retire. This book was a fantastic take on the most American position in the most American sport. I highly recommend it to football fans, but as a cultural history it also goes above and beyond.

***Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this upcoming book***
This was an absolutely fantastic look into what makes quarterbacks tick and why we hold the position in such high regard. You get a pretty complete look at the history of the position and the author had access to a lot of legends from the past (Warren Moon, John Elway, Steve Young+more) as well as upcoming stars like Arch Manning.

This is a must read for all sports fans, especially ones who love them some football! Give it a read!

Seth Wickersham's book is a masterful example of sports and nonfiction writing, proving to be both page-turning and enthralling. Wickersham's deep experience with quarterbacks shines through, offering a rare, behind-the-scenes look into the mystery of what it takes to not only play the position but also to live a life after the pads come off.

This book is a must-read for football fans of any level, from the most dedicated enthusiasts to those with only a passing interest. I can confidently say I'll never look at another football game the same way again. It provides an unparalleled understanding and fresh perspective on what it truly means to quarterback. Thank you to NetGalley for the early copy; I enjoyed this book immensely.

I read one or two sports-themed books per year (tops.). After watching an interview with Seth Wickersham about his new book entitled “American Kings” I looked forward to picking up a copy -electronic style -. And thanks to NetGalley I have received my copy and just this evening completed the final chapter. Simply put, this book is one of my favorite reads of 2025. In style it is excellent, in substance even better, and Mr. Wickersham is at the top of his game as a writer. Wickersham interweaves stories of about a dozen notable NFL notable quarterbacks from the early days of the professional league 100 years ago all the way up through their regal status in the 21st Century. The book evolves from the humble beginnings of the quarterback role “way back when “ to the culturally, and financially, peak status in 2025.
This book has earned its five star review.
Y’all of Fame Eligible in 2030?