About Three Bricks Shy...And the Load Filled Up

by Roy Blount Jr.

Overview

Thirtieth Anniversary EditionAny number of writers could spend an entire season with an NFL team, from the first day of training camp until the last pick of the draft, and come up with an interesting book. But only Roy Blount Jr. could capture the pain, the joy, the fears, the humor—in short, the heart—of a championship team. In 1973, the Pittsburgh Steelers were super, but missed the bowl. Blount's portrait of a team poised to dominate the NFL for more than a decade recounts the gridiron accomplishments and off-the-field lives of players, coaches, wives, fans, and owners. About Three Bricks Shy . . . is considered a classic; Sports Illustrated recently named it one of the Top 100 Sports Books of All Time. This thirtieth-anniversary edition includes additional chapters on the Steelers' Super Bowl wins, written for the 1989 paperback, as well as a new introduction by the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822979685
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	07/25/2013
Series:	The Library of Pittsburgh Sports History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	826 KB

About the Author

Roy Blount Jr., humorist, sportswriter, poet, performer, lecturer, dramatist, and the author of twelve books, has written for the Atlantic Monthly since 1981. Raised in Decatur, Georgia, he now resides in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction Introduction to the 1989 Edition One - About Three Bricks Shy 1. About the Title 2. A Little Background 3. Why Pittsburgh 4. Names 5. First Dip into the Scene 6. Training Camp 7. Moosie and the Old Ranger 8. Contact 9. The Exhibition Season 10. Noll 11. Beating the Lions, the Browns and the Oilers 12. The Premises 13. Steelers Away From Work 14. Good-bye, Johnny U. 15. Fandom 16. The Bengals, the Jets and the Bengals 17. Terry and Terry and Joe 18. The Chief and Family 19. Burning Out the Redskins 20. Race 21. Mad Dog 22. Oakland and Denver 23. The Body 24. Scouting 25. Loosing Two Barely 26. Franco, Frenchy and Preston: Dancing and Blowing 27. Mean Joe 28. Money, and Supe 29. Hands 30. The Playov Two - . . . and the Load Filled up 1. Super Bowl, 1975: "You're a Part of All This" 2. Super Bowl, 1975, P. S. 3. Joe Greene: "He Does What He Wants Out There" 4. Ray Mansfield: How to Raise Your Boy to Play Pro Ball 5. Super Bowl, 1976: "You Can't Cover It" 6. Super Bowl, 1976, P. S. 7. The Short, Happy Life of Joe Gilliam 8. Holding Out with Blount 9. Swann's Way 10. Super Bowl, 1979: Spots and Water and Rock 11. Super Bowl, 1980: Still Can't Cover It 12. Dwight White: Mad Dog Retired 13. "Franco Thinks Out Everything" 14. Blount in Georgia

Editorial Reviews

The biggest news about football writing this fall [2014] is that it’s the 40th anniversary of About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, Mr. Blount’s book about the Steelers. It’s my long-held contention that this book isn’t just a classic of American football writing but the classic of American football writing, and a book that deserves a place on the short shelf of the cracked masterpieces of New Journalism.”
—New York Times
 

“Not merely is ‘Three Bricks’ funny, smart, perceptive and winning, there’s also a lovely quality about it that, for all the ferocity of the gridiron and the profanity of some of its language, I’d call gentleness. It’s a book about men in groups, this particular group being one that plays a very rough game, and it’s actually far less about football than about people.”
—The Washington Post
 

"A terrific book. . . . I have never read anything else on pro football, fiction or nonfiction, as good as this."
—New York Times Book Review

"Both a literary and journalistic masterpiece. . . . At last, a superb and superbly hilarious writer has gone deep beneath the surface of the sport and wrenched the truth from it."
—Dan Jenkins, author of Semi-Tough
 

"Richly worded, highly affectionate, frequently reflective, sometimes indiscreet. . . . One of the best sports books of its kind."
—Library Journal

From the Publisher