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As a sportswriter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob McGinn has covered more than 25 Super Bowls. One of the best pro football writers out there, McGinn was honored in 2011 with the Dick McCann Memorial Award for his long and distinguished reporting on pro football. The award, given to one writer each year, places McGinn in the writer’s wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. He has also won numerous awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and the Pro Football Writers of America. His latest effort, The Ultimate Book: A Complete Reference to the Stats, Stars, and Stories Behind Football's Biggest Game--and Why the Best Team Won, is a football lover’s must-read, with School Library Journal calling it “the best book ever on America’s greatest game.”

Football Literacy interview with Bob McGinn:

ABDO: Bob, we’re honored you could join us. Librarians will often do what's called a "book talk" for classrooms, sharing their favorite recommended books in a certain subject area… Say you're on a half-hour bus ride with a high school football team on their way to a game, and you're going to recommend five books for the team to read about the history of football. What do you recommend and why?

McGinn: The two books by Bill Walsh would top my list. His first was Building a Champion, the story of the 49ers’ title teams in the 1980s. His second was Finding the Winning Edge, which he wrote during retirement. Mike Sherman (former coach for the Packers, and current for the Browns) once told me he had read the Winning Edge several times. Tim Layden wrote a terrific book a few years back called Blood, Sweat and Chalk, a deep look at major strategic innovations in football. Jeff Miller’s Going Long is an uproarious look at the old AFL. And the winner is Michael MacCambridge’s America’s Game, perhaps the finest football book ever written. It’s a history of the league, beautifully written and researched.

ABDO: Your Ultimate Super Bowl Book is fantastic; one of our favorite features was the roughly 200 interviews with legendary coaches, assistant coaches, players, scouts, and more—each of them telling the story of their role in that ultimate game. Did any of the interviewees excite you, not just as a writer, but as a football fan? What were some of your favorites?

McGinn: The thrill of doing this book was talking to all these football people. Certainly the interview with Bill Walsh was an all-timer. So were the several long conversations that I had with Bill Belichick (the multiple-Super-Bowl-winning coach of the ). Among players, Vikings linebacker Jeff Siemon, Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, Chicago defensive tackle Dan Hampton, Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi and Broncos safety Charlie Waters stand out. Assistant coaches gave me so much time and expertise. was incredible on Arizona’s close loss to Pittsburgh. Bill Muir of Tampa Bay also is so incisive. Tony Dungy was brutally honest. The great Bud Carson passed away only a few months after our interview; I will never forget him. There were dozens more that should be mentioned here as well. I can never omit Ron Wolf (former General Manager of the Packers), who was money on the Raiders and Packers games.

ABDO: We believe today's young people are more knowledgeable about the game than ever before. Do you agree?

McGinn: When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was so little sports on television. In baseball, there was the game of the week every Saturday afternoon with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese, and that was it during the regular season. The NFL had one game on Sundays featuring the local teams. There was no Monday Night Football until 1970. So of course young fans today are more knowledgeable. They see so much. Sports is almost 24-7 these days. It can be a bit overwhelming.

ABDO: Many students don't realize the intense deadlines of the beat reporter during a season or even a single game. Could you give us some insight on how you go about your job?

McGinn: When you work for a newspaper, there is a deadline to meet every day of the week. It would be lovely to attend a game, interview players and coaches, think it through for several hours and then write a story or two over the next few hours. Instead, it’s a dog-eat-dog environment, especially on night games.

That newspaper that is at your doorstep by 7 AM or online by midnight meant the guy in the press box covering the game had to have his story done by about 11 PM. When games start at 7:30 PM, I generally watch the first half and then start writing. Only when something big happens do I even look up from my computer screen to the field below. It requires discipline, that is for sure. After writing the first half, there might be eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Then I can rejoin the action, watch, and write the top to the story before rushing it off to my desk operation for editing.

Many people don’t know that beat guys (reporters) never, ever write the headline that goes with their stories. It’s a hassle, but functioning under pressure just becomes a way of life. I have been fortunate because the NFL doesn’t play a lot of night games. The guys who cover baseball and pro basketball deal with night games the majority of the time. Their existence is really pressure-packed.

ABDO: What a thrill it must have been to be inducted into the "writers' wing" of the Football Hall of Fame. Tell us a little bit about that night.

McGinn: In 2011, my fellow pro football writers voted me the annual winner of the Dick McCann Award, which goes to one writer who has done distinguished work over a long career. The fact that it was from my peers made it special. There is a plaque just inside the front door at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The names of the McCann winners, and the award dates to the early 1960s, are on that plaque.

When I received the award at a banquet in Canton, I just kept thinking of all the people that helped me along the way. My mother was a 1928 graduate of the University of Michigan in English. It was like having my own grammar and vocabulary teacher around the house. My father was an attorney and sports junkie who couldn’t get enough of either the law or athletic competition. I had the good fortune of having outstanding writing teachers in high school at Holy Name in Escanaba and at the University of Michigan. During 15 years at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, I learned from some true pros. And then in 20-plus years at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I have been able to work side by side some of the best sports journalists in the country.

ABDO: You've covered the Packers and the NFL since 1982—that’s 30 years. Congratulations! How has the game changed and stayed the same in the time you've been writing about it?

McGinn: When I started chasing after the Packers, the NFL was more of a rushing league than a passing league. Then in 1978, the game changed when offensive linemen were allowed to extend their arms and put their hands on the chests of their opponents. That made pass protection so much easier and, as a result, opened up the passing game. Later, rule changes cracked down on the mugging of wide receivers downfield by defensive backs.

In the last decade, quarterbacks have had a far easier life with pass rushers often having to pull up or risk roughing the passer penalties. Defensive coordinators were under siege to come up with responses to all the rule changes going against them. They responded with an unbelievable variety of blitzes, deception, and shifting pass coverage designed to confuse offenses. The NFL wants touchdowns because it believes touchdowns drive television ratings. The trend toward even more prolific offense and scoring should continue.