"The valuable part of the narrative is a story that many sports fans will not know, or at least know only in outline?namely, the increasing blurring of sports figure and cultural celebrity in the Depression era, especially once Hollywood began to recruit sports stars to turn up in all sorts of B-list productions. That blurring, after all, is what defines sports figures today, and Grange was an indisputable pioneer . . . A useful character study of a figure often overlooked today." Kirkus Reviews
"Puts Grange's great career in the context of its colorful time... Pays worthy tribute to a legend." Booklist, ALA
"Poole is eminently readable, and the accent on Pyle is a real bonus." Library Journal
"A lively, well-written biography of this towering figure. Grange revolutionized the game on the field and his business manager, C.C. Pyle, revolutionized it off it." -- Orange County Register
"...reveals how the game is played on the field, and how it resonates in the wider world." The Washington Post
"[Poole] recounts the rise and tragic fall of the first national star of the gridiron. Poole also lays bare the complex relationship between a prominent athlete and the nation's first real sports agent." -- (Chicago) Sun-Times News Group
"Poole gives us the first major biography of Grange." -- Time Out Chicago
"Football wasn't truly football until the coming of Red Grange" -- Chicago Magazine ?