Welcome to the first annual Sports Bank Holiday gift guide. Here are some gift ideas for the sports fans in your lives on this Cyber Monday.
-NFL Style The Essentials
NFL Consumer Products are ready with an arsenal of versatile apparel and accessories that can accommodate anyone on your holiday shopping list — Men, Women and even those hard-to-shop-for Tweens. Be it a new look for the big game, a night out on the town, or rocking down the high school hallways, there are new looks for everyone on your list.
Everything is available on NFLshop.com, making it a one stop shop for all holiday needs.
-Sports Illustrated for Kids “Big Book of Who All-Stars”
-Sports Illustrated for Kids “New All Access”
Want to find out what it takes for hockey player Martin Brodeur to get dressed for a game? Or how 19-year old Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin prepares for ski races? The second title in the Sports Illustrated All Access series provides readers with a colorful, informative behind-the-scenes pass to the coolest people, places and things in sports, including:
o A look at the San Francisco 49ers pre-game locker room routine prior to playing in London in 2013,
o A tour of San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker’s trophy room in his home,
o The transformation of Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field into a hockey rink for the 2011 Winter Classic (a “lift-and-look” page),
o Some of the best stories behind the NHL Stanley Cup trophy,
-Sports Illustrated for Kids “Slam Dunk! Top 10 Lists of Everything in Basketball”
Sports Illustrated for Kids “What are the Chances? The Wildest Plays in Sports”
is broken up into sections of accomplishments from rare, really rare, super rare, almost impossible, and never happened, and highlights more than 200 game-changing, signature sports accomplishments that are the benchmark of success and history-making. The book features interesting facts and figures from the history of the sporting world from horse racing’s Triple Crown, to MLB, NFL, NBA and tennis. Fully stocked with more than 120 pages of legendary facts, What Are the Chances? engages its reader with breathtaking sports photography from the Sports Illustrated archives. By holding the full slate of rare, to almost impossible, to never happened feats, this book is sure to bolster the knowledge of even the most sports savvy kids and serve as an introduction to hallmark sports history.
-The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High-Performance Industry
authors Irving Rein, Ben Shields, and Adam Grossman demonstrate that relying too much on winning is a losing long-term strategy for dealing with these challenges. Instead, they argue that sports strategists must focus on building and growing sustainable long-term businesses without depending too much on winning. Their approach centers on identifying and maximizing key factors in sports organizations that, unlike winning, can be controlled and shaped.
Blending extensive industry experience and real-world case studies with their academic expertise, the authors arm readers with the combination of the necessary tools to help them make better strategic decisions.
-The Modern Girls’ Guide to the Gridiron
In recent decades football has surpassed baseball as ‘America’s Game,’ and the ‘manliest’ sport has become more accessible to people in all walks of life. Now with women representing over 45 percent of the NFL’s viewing audience, sports journalist VF Castro has decided that it’s time to make it easier for women and girls to understand and relate to the sport they love.
With player contributions and hard-hitting, outside the box, witty, and vivid explanations, The Modern Girls’ Guide to the Gridiron is a comprehensive guide to all things football for women. Whether you’re a novice fan, or a seasoned veteran, this book is sure to amp your arsenal of football knowledge — the best accessory you could wear on Game Day.
-You can order the Ryan Giggs documentary “Life of Ryan” here via Amazon
Next week NBC Sports’ “Premier League World” will be a special episode on Giggs and this new film. So keep an eye out for that.
Makes the perfect gift for any Ryan Giggs fan and/or Man United supporter. Here’s our review of Life of Ryan.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2