A history of women playing American football in the United States, focused on the growth of the game since the passage of Title IX in 1972.

In 1927 Cuban national Ignacio S. Molinet was recruited to play with the Frankford Yellow Jackets of the old NFL for a single season. Mexican national Jose Martinez-Zorrilla achieved 1932 All-American honors. These are the beginnings of the Latino experience in American Football, which continues amidst a remarkable and diversified setting of Hispanic nationalities and ethnic groups. This history of Latinos in American Football dispels the myths that baseball, boxing, and soccer are the chosen and competent sports for Spanish-surname athletes. The book documents their fascination for the sport that initially denied their participation but that could not discourage their determination to master the game.

American football is the most popular, and controversial, sport in the United States, and a massive industry. The NFL’s revenues are over $13 billion annually. The Super Bowl is watched by half of US television households and is televised in over 150 countries. Touchdown: An American Obsession is the first comprehensive guide to the history and culture of the sport, covering US college football as well as professional football worldwide. The editors and authors are among the world’s leading sports scholars. They cover race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, and globalization, as well as recent scandals and controversies, the importance of television, and the art and aesthetics of the game. Touchdown: An American Obsession is a readable, authoritative guide for Americans as well as an introduction for people around the world.

Sports betting is the general activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. Aside from simple wagers--betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division, for instance, or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl--sports betting is commonly done through a bookmaker. Bookmakers generally offer two types of wagers on the winner of a sporting event: a straight-up or money line bet, or a point spread wager. Moneylines and straight-up prices are used to set odds on sports such as soccer, baseball and hockey (the scoring nature of which renders point spreads impractical) as well as individual vs. individual matches, like boxing.

The Sports Book features the largest and most diverse range of sports of any comparable book--more than 200 in all--from basketball to bobsledding, karate to korfball, and synchronized swimming to ski-jumping. This up-to-date and authoritative guide presents information sourced from leading experts and sports governing bodies around the world to give you the most comprehensive book on sports to ever hit the market.