No position is more critical, more celebrated, and more critiqued in American professional sports than quarterback. A great one can elevate a franchise, a fan base, and a city. However, as much as we love signal-callers, there is still a lot about great ones that we don’t understand.
Seth Wickersham sought to find the answers in his new book, American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback. The ESPN senior writer and New York Times bestselling author interviewed and researched several quarterbacks from the past and present to gain a better understanding of what it takes to be the best of the best.
We recently caught up with Wickersham to discuss his book, which will be released on Sept. 9. American Kings is now available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: Why should someone buy your book?
Seth Wickersham: “I think that quarterback is one of the jobs in this country that people care about most and are completely fascinated and mystified with. My goal with the book was to show it in a full way at every single level, from high school to retired Hall of Famer. To show the ways that it’s a beautiful job, to show the ways that it’s a cruel one. Most of all, to get at what it takes to survive a winnowing from 16,000 high school quarterbacks each year to 32 in the NFL to four who make the Hall of Fame.”
How did you select the quarterbacks to write about?
“I picked characters that I thought were fascinating to me personally. John Elway, my hero growing up. Warren Moon, not the first Black quarterback in the NFL, but the first Black one for whom greatness was expected. Steve Young, a great quarterback philosopher. Arch Manning is a window into getting into all of the Mannings. Colin Hurley, trying to get at what it’s like to be a high school quarterback now, from a kid who was doing everything on the fastest track possible. And then there were other stories that I picked because you can’t write the story of quarterbacks without them. Almost every quarterback is derivative of Johnny Unitas or Joe Namath. People like Y.A. Tittle, who I knew before he died.”
What would you regard as the most fascinating detail in your book?
“The way that quarterbacks have to hardwire themselves to survive everything that being a quarterback demands of you. Each one has their own story on how they do it… The ways that each of those guys did it, to me, is the biggest story. And then, of course, the details of the pressure that young kids face today because we have such a hunger for young quarterbacks and spotting genius in its infancy. There’s one quarterback who gets chewed out by his dad at the end of Elite 11 because he didn’t play well in the seven-on-seven tournament. Something that has no predictive value at all. And yet, this teenager was getting cussed out by his dad in front of all of the other contestants.”
Who was the toughest quarterback to track down?
“Joe Namath. He’s cooperative with a lot of things, but he traditionally hasn’t been cooperative with books. I went to a bunch of events that he went to and watched him be Joe Namath. Watched him turn it on. At one point at the University of Alabama, he was at an event….
“There was a moment when he posed for a photo with all of the cheerleaders. Just smiling wasn’t enough. And so he had to kind of turn on that Broadway Joe thing. He kicked his legs back and forth like they were all Rockettes. He was kind of funny.”
What was your reaction to the reaction about your reporting in the book regarding Caleb Williams being reluctant to play for the Chicago Bears?
“I thought that Caleb handled it like the thoughtful and mature young man that he is. He answered questions about it and led people into his thought process. I had sat down with Caleb in late January or early February and went through all of the reporting with him. So, I think that he knew what was happening. But that stuff did take off. It’s a small part of the book, but it did get a lot of attention.”
Is there a common trait that some of the great quarterbacks have?
“I talk a lot in the book about improvisation from Patrick Mahomes to Matthew Stafford in the Super Bowl when he threw the no-look pass. People [talk] about improvisation, like these guys are out there freewheeling when in fact, it’s jazz at the highest level. They’ve already mastered the chord changes and shifts in tempo to a degree that very few have. It’s a level of confidence and knowledge about a craft that very few people can experience, much less articulate.”
What kind of pressure is on quarterbacks, and how much do they embrace it?
“I think the quarterback has gotten so big that you can’t do it without the celebrity aspect being a huge part. To be a great quarterback now, you have to have that little hole in your stomach that needs constant adulation and love. In that sense, it’s very much like a politician or a rock star, and with that comes pressure.
“Steve Young and I sat down and we tried to name all of the hats you have to wear as a quarterback, from spokesman of a billion-dollar organization to amateur psychologist, to breathtaking a******, to the biggest cheerleader. And oh, by the way, someone who can throw a football through windows that most people can’t even see. I think we stopped at 24 titles.”
Did you gain any insights into how teams can do better at drafting quarterbacks?
“How could the 49ers draft Trey Lance and Brock Purdy? Look who ends up being the guy who takes them to a Super Bowl. It’s not the one they traded up all the draft picks for…
“There’s a difference between processing speed in college and processing speed in the NFL, and it’s about a half-second. I detail an analytics formula that Sean Payton came up with years ago. He wanted to draft Patrick Mahomes, and Patrick had an unbelievably good score on it. He missed out on Patrick Mahomes, but he kept using the formula, and the formula led him to (taking) Bo Nix in the draft (in 2024).”
In the book, you wrote that you cried harder after not making varsity as a high school quarterback than your “parents’ divorce, harder than when the bank took our house.” Why?
“It was something that I thought was in my control. There was nobody else at fault in that particular moment. I had been a quarterback in high school, and my entire identity was wrapped up in it. I was just devastated. The book isn’t about me. I’m not trying to be Uncle Rico over 400 pages, but I do try to look at the job in the most curious way I could.”
Will your son be a quarterback?
“No, not at all. My son seems to take a particular glee in not being interested in anything that his dad was ever interested in. I make it my job to help him with the things that he wants to do, not to show him the things that I was fascinated with when I was his age.”
American Kings is now available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.
About Michael Grant
Born in Jamaica. Grew up in New York City. Lives in Louisville, Ky. Sports writer. Not related to Ulysses S. Grant.