{"id":48999,"date":"2025-11-01T21:35:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T01:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/?p=48999"},"modified":"2025-11-01T21:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T01:35:34","slug":"american-kings-the-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2025\/11\/the-bookworm-sez\/american-kings-the-qb\/","title":{"rendered":"American Kings: The QB"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>

Snap.  And with that, and a catch that\u2019s picture-perfect, your team is on their way to a big win.  The guy that threw the football sure knows his stuff.  He\u2019s worth every penny he\u2019s paid, and in the new book \u201cAmerican Kings\u201d by Seth Wickersham, you\u2019ll see what it took to get there.  Like so many little boys, Seth Wickersham wanted to play football when he was growing up \u2013 specifically, he wanted to be a quarterback.  Unlike most other boys, though, he took it to an extreme, becoming \u201cobsessed\u201d with throwing a football with the best accuracy, hoping to match the skills of the players he admired.  Alas, despite an entire childhood of constant practice and a few wins on the field in high school, he didn\u2019t make varsity and ended up playing as a receiver.  He knows now that to be a quarterback is to be a star, but it\u2019s also \u201ca way of life.\u201d  Here, he writes about Archie Manning, \u201cA legend, a folk hero, a song title, and the beginning of a family franchise.\u201d  Wickersham shares the story of Warren Moon, how he stepped up to help his mother when his father died, how domestic violence almost derailed his legacy, and the racism he quarterbacked under for years.  He spent time with Caleb Williams, the first true professional amateur quarterback to get money for playing at the college level.  Wickersham spent much of 2022 with Andrew Luck, who \u201clearned quickly that greatness requires an unlimited selfishness.\u201d  He writes about how Jack Elway influenced his son\u2019s choice of career, what Hollywood had to do with one pro footballer\u2019s life, and the post-career of the first player \u201cto throw a consistently beautiful spiral.\u201d  Says Wickersham about his subjects, \u201cAnyone can throw a football, but only a quarterback can make people cheer.\u201d  Your favorite recliner is ready, the snacks are laid out, and beverages are on ice.  You know exactly what you\u2019re wearing for the game this weekend.  All you need is \u201cAmerican Kings\u201d and you\u2019re set.  Author Seth Wickersham calls his book \u201ca biography,\u201d but it\u2019s just as much a history, since he refers often to the earliest days of the game, as well as the etymology of the word \u201cquarterback.\u201d  That helps to lay a solid background, and it adds to a reader\u2019s knowledge about football itself, while explaining what it takes for men and women to stand out and to achieve gridiron greatness.  On that, Wickersham is honest, sometimes calling out his subjects for their attitudes toward teammates and others.  Blunt words are used that are unprintable in family newspapers, so beware if you\u2019re sharing.  Is your favorite QB in this book?  Maybe.  Check out \u201cAmerican Kings\u201d and see what you find.  Both football fans and pigskin prognosticators alike will love this book, so snap it up soon.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snap.  And with that, and a catch that\u2019s picture-perfect, your team is on their way to a big win.  The guy that threw the football sure knows his stuff.  He\u2019s worth every penny he\u2019s paid, and in the new book \u201cAmerican Kings\u201d by Seth Wickersham, you\u2019ll see what it took to get there.  Like so<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":49001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bookworm-sez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49002,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48999\/revisions\/49002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}