Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game
What prepared Vince Lombardi for phenomenal success in professional football? St. John and Ramirez believe it was the eight years Lombardi spent teaching high-school math and physics. For behind Lombardi’s six NFL titles in the 1960s, the authors discern a brilliant application of Newtonian physics in the Green Bay Packers’ famous power sweep and of probability theory in the Packers’ run-oriented game plans. But Lombardi’s storied career is but one gridiron setting in which readers discover hidden scientific and mathematical concepts. Readers will marvel, for instance, at how chaos theory connects an injury to a key player with the beginning of the West Coast offense. Just as amazing is the Boolean logic governing quarterback reads. Other analyses deploy the science of dynamic feedback to explain how adding a face mask to the helmet put players at greater risk of concussions, and combine the physics of pass-blocking with the thermodynamics of nutrition (and steroids?) to account for behemoth linemen. A delightfully improbable book putting science nerds and sports fans on the same page. --Bryce Christensen