Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Peyton's final pass -- Desperate for a hero -- The pee-wee QB -- "My boy will be there" -- The redheaded show-off -- The cerebral signal caller -- A storm gathers -- Why now? -- The birth of a folk hero -- The best I ever saw -- The fear of failing -- What might have been -- A married man becomes a saint -- "I'll always be from Dew" -- The beat-up quarterback -- Archie one and Archie two -- The commuter QB -- Teaching life -- and football -- lessons -- The most magical fall -- A note for Peyton -- "The bad thing happened to the right guy" -- The decision -- The Mamma's boy -- Easy rider -- "I only had dogs and cats named after me" -- A coach just like Archie -- The past is never dead -- A combination of Archie and Peyton -- The thinking man's QB.

"From New York Times bestselling author Lars Anderson comes a revealing portrait of the first family of American sports. What the Kennedys are to politics, the Mannings are to football. Two generations have produced three NFL superstars: Archie Manning, the Ole Miss hero-turned-New Orleans Saint; his son Peyton, widely considered one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game; and Peyton's younger brother, Eli, who won two Super Bowl rings of his own. And the oldest Manning child, Cooper--who was forced to quit playing sports after he was diagnosed at age eighteen with a rare spinal condition--might have been the most talented of them all."--Amazon.com.