Alabama Football

Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships - six apiece - than anyone else in the history of the game. Chasing the Bear examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing listeners a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.

As the head coach of the University of Alabama's football team, Nick Saban is perhaps the most influential - and controversial - man in the sport. Unpredictable in his professional loyalties, uncompromising in his vision, and unyielding in his pursuit of perfection, the highest-paid coach in college football has changed the face of the game. His program-building vision has delivered packed stadiums, rabid fans, legions of detractors, countless NFL draft picks, and a total of four championships.

Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured 25 conference titles, finished 34 times among the country's top ten, and played in 53 bowl games.

With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression

To borrow the slogan offered over the Bryant-Denny Stadium public address system before the start of every Alabama home game, "This is Alabama football." Ask a fan to talk about his favorite game and he’ll probably answer, "Which season?" Ask another to describe his favorite Crimson Tide play, and he may also respond the same way. And if asking an Alabama fan to recall his favorite player, don’t be surprised if you are asked to be more specific: "Which year? Which game? Which position?" Such is the tradition and legacy of the program.

Growing up, one of my favorite books was Instant Replay by the Green Bay Packer great, Jerry Kramer. The book chronicled the Packers' 1967 world championship season, based on a journal that Jerry had kept during the year. Ten years later in 1977, I was a senior on the University of Alabama football team. Our goal was to be national champions, and, just like the 1967 Green Bay Packers, it would take a lot of hard work and dedication to reach that goal. I thought maybe someone would like to listen to a similar book about a championship college team based on a journal I had kept.

The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....

Nick Saban called his boys the “ultimate team,” but it wasn’t just because they kicked the ever-living hell out of everyone on the football field. It was because the team leveraged a power and influence born of Southern pride to push back against a hateful legacy of racism that a populist president was exploiting to divide the nation. At a time when Americans needed real leaders in the face of so much hate, the sports world answered the call and fought back for the soul of the country.

Adversity has a way of bringing out the best or worst in people. No one knows about adversity quite like Jalen Hurts. Very few people know what it’s like to go from a true Freshman starting Quarterback on a National Title Contending team, to being benched in the Championship. It’s also fair to say that no one knows how to bounce from that adversity quite like Jalen Hurts. Not only did Jalen put the team first and keep working for his teammates, but when he decided to move on he was the most explosive player in the country and won the Heisman Trophy, college football’s biggest award. ...

In the life of every sports fan, there comes a moment of reckoning. It may happen when your team wins on a last-second field goal and you suddenly find yourself clenched in a loving embrace with a large hairy man you've never met. Or in the long, hormonally depleted days after a loss, when you're felled by a sensation similar to the one you first experienced following the death of a pet.

Some of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks in recent memory have had remarkable simple names, like Ben, Tom, and Joe. Every now and then, one comes along with a moniker that’s a bit more difficult to handle, like Tuanigamanuolepola “Tua” Tagovailoa. Fresh from starting with the national football powerhouse, the Alabama Crimson Tide during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, it remains to be seen if Tua can comfortably join the best-ever Miami Dolphins quarterbacks, like Bob and Dan, in the record books.

As Mac Jones looked around the stadium as the confetti fell down and his teammates celebrated a dominant National Championship performance it would have been easy for him to think he had made it. In reality, Mac has been building for the ultimate challenge in football, to be an NFL starting Quarterback his whole life. Coming from an athletic family it was always clear Mac had the potential to be good, but only his drive and insatiable work ethic would determine how far he would go. In Mac Jones, we follow the path of one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL. From his trials and ...