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The Christmas amount of time is traditionally a busy one for football gear aficionados, as the biggest brands duke it out with new launches and clever merchandising to earn a place under the playing population’s collective tree.
Last year’s festive run up of November and December saw launches of various football boot launches. Latest incarnations of the Puma v1 speed series, Nike’s flagship Total 90 range and Adidas’ legendary Predator bequest – but due to this season following the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, each football affiliated company worth their salt made sure their latest and greatest football productions were on store shelves in time for June when the World Cup kicked off.
Step forward Nike Football, who are lining up their most audacious launch since the notorious Mercurial Vapor Berry – the Nike Safari Collection – to take vantage of this holiday-season lull.
Nike have been keeping the details of this stimulating new entry exceedingly close to their chest, but these bold pieces of high-end sportswear integrate a black-and-white animal print, safari style in a manner never seen before.
They’re sure to be lambasted by old pro’s and sniffed at by commentators and pundits but as the Nike Safari Collection is designed for the most costly player on the planet – Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo – they are sure to be taken to heart by those who recognise their football gear and those who like to follow the influence of their hero.
Cristiano Ronaldo is set to have been involved in the development of the Nike Safari collection, and the instrumentation is to his precise specification. With a ringing endorsement like that from one of the world’s most regarded masters – you may bet that in spite of your better judgment, not to mention your better taste, that you’re going to be asked for the Nike Safari collection by the footballer in your life come November.
This is not the firstborn time Nike Football have launched a flamboyant football collection. In 2008 Nike broke the tradition of conservative football footwear when they launched a bright pink football boot known as the Mercurial Vapor Berry. Ahead of the release, few would have prevised the buyer interest in this range. The product sold phenomenally well and stockist’s shelves were empty within a matter of weeks. Due to the minimal run in production, a good deal of buyers were unable to get their hands on the football boots.
This led the product to rise in value in the second hand marketplace and online auctions, where, even today, employed Mercurial Vapor Berry football boots alter hands for more than the initial price.
With this forthcoming release of the Nike Safari Football Collection, Nike will be hoping for more of the same.
Football Hits 2010
A stirring portrait of the decade when the Steelers became the greatest team in NFL history, even as Pittsburgh was crumbling around them.
In the 1970s, the city of Pittsburgh was in need of heroes. In that decade the steel industry, long the lifeblood of the city, went into massive decline, putting 150,000 steelworkers out of work. And then the unthinkable happened: The Pittsburgh Steelers, perennial also-rans in the NFL, rose up to become the most dire team in the league, dominating opponents with their famed “Steel Curtain” defense, winning four Super Bowls in six years, and lifting the spirits of a city on the brink.
In The Ones Who Hit the Hardest, Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne trace the rise of the Steelers among the backdrop of the fading city they fought for, bringing to life characters such as: Art Rooney, the proprietor of the team so beloved by Pittsburgh that he was known merely as “The Chief”; Chuck Noll, the headstrong coach who employed the ethos of steelworkers to motivate his players; Terry Bradshaw, the strong-armed and underestimated QB; Joe Green, the defensive tackle whose fighting nature lifted the franchise; and Jack Lambert, the linebacker whose snarling, toothless grin embodied the Pittsburgh defense.
Every story needs a villain, and in this one it’s played by the Dallas Cowboys. As Pittsburgh rusted, the new and glittering metropolis of Dallas, rich from the capital infusion of oil revenue, signaled the future of America. Indeed, the town brimmed with such selfconfidence that the Cowboys felt comfortable nicknaming themselves “America’s Team.” Throughout the 1970s, the teams jostled for control of the NFL-the Cowboys doing it with finesse and the Steelers doing it with brawn-culminating in Super Bowl XIII in 1979, when the aging Steelers attempted to hold off the Cowboys one last time. Thoroughly researched and grippingly written, The Ones Who Hit the Hardest is a stirring tribute to a city, a team, and an era.
From BooklistBetween them, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys won five Super Bowls in the 1970s. The Steelers cultivated a blue-collar image; the Cowboys, though dubbed “America’s team,” carried a more glamorous aura. The writers trace the rise of the teams through the decade. The Cowboys had a heap of success in the sixties but no championships. The Steelers had been woeful for decades. When the Steelers hired Chuck Noll as head coach for the 1969 season, their fortunes started out to change. Noll opted to build conservatively and gradually through the college draft; meanwhile, Landry and the Cowboys were the firstborn NFL team to supplement in-person scouting with computer analysis. In the course of telling the story, the authors—who interviewed 30 former players, coaches, and assistants—portray the Steelers as a lifeline to an industrial city losing it is constructing base and the Cowboys as the darlings of the Texas oil boomers. Interspersed allround are dozens of anecdotes when it comes to how Noll—and his stoic counterpart, Tom Landry—motivated and built the two dominant franchises of football’s golden age. Exciting, informative reading for NFL fans with an interest in the league’s history. –Wes Lukowsky
About the AuthorChad Millman is a senior deputy editor for ESPN The Magazine and is the author of a lot of books, including the New York Times bestseller Iceman: My Fighting Life. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
Pittsburgh native Shawn Coyne is a former editor and a publisher who has overseen numerous bestsellers, including Favre, Payton, Taylor, and Namath. He lives in New York.
Football Hits 2010 Photo
Football Hits 2010 Picture
Football Hits 2010 Photo
Football Hits 2010 Pic
Loved this one
The good guys won (twice)
This is a good read for any Steelers fan, but peculiarly those of us who grew up in the 70′s and watched this team grow to dominate the NFL.
The writers do a good occupation of explaining how Chuck Noll’s distinctive personality and drive were instrumental in building the Steelers dynasty. The football narrative with no problems or difficulties interweaves with the decline of the steel industry and it is affect on Pittsburgh. The chapters contrasting the origins and development of the Cowboys provide sufficient detail to reinforce my dislike of “America’s Team”. Landry was uptight and unable to connect with his players, and the Cowboys had a lot of jerks like Cliff Harris and Thomas Henderson. The good guys unquestionably did win in Super Bowls 10 and 13.
The only issue I had with the book was that there were times when I felt like I was reading transcripts from NFL Films and the “America’s Game” series in particular. Some of the quotes and anecdotes were direct lifts from those shows. Which is ironic since the writers in truth manage to get their facts faulty in places (for instance, Cliff Harris didn’t give Terry Bradshaw the concussion in SB10, nor did Roger Staubach’s final pass that game fall not complete – it was intercepted by Glenn Edwards). A little more original research, galore new consultations and better fact-checking would have made this good book in truth great.
The 70′s Steelers were a once-in-a-lifetime team, where the good guys (Rooneys, Noll) managed to assemble a immense group of athletes who beat a great deal of fine but flawed teams – exceptionally the self-promoting Cowboys.
Interesting view of a city and how it is team helped it survive rough times
The ones who hit the most unmanageable is a arousing and attention holding view of how the Pittsburgh Steelers because perpetual doormats and losers and rose to become one of the NFL’s outstanding franchises. The story telling is straight forward and direct and tells the story concisely and with numerous flair. The writing is interesting and crisp and is told from a home town perspective so don’t suppose an unbiased story here.
I liked the angel focusing on the steelworkers and how the union was engaged in a struggle just as the Steelers were emergent as a powerhouse. I find the one glaring error in this story is that there is no post script to tell us how things ended up for the majority of the Steelers players, the union leaders and the steel industry itself. That in my mind is the major weakness of this book.
All in all a good and gratifying book. One I am sure Steeler fans will enjoy!
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