Another short review this time.
Ken Rappoport’s The Little League That Could: A History of the American Football League is a light and fairly readable run through the history of the AFL, from its founding by Lamar Hunt, Bud Adams, and friends up through the Chiefs’ victory in Super Bowl IV. It hits the expected high points, with overviews of each of the championship games, draft wars with the NFL, the New Orleans All-Star Game boycott, the merger, and the Super Bowls.
Personally, I found it a little too light. The high points are hit, but I already knew about them from reading other books like America’s Game and Going Long and the fantastic TV series that aired on NFL Network “Full Color Football,” all of which I enthusiastically recommend, plus other books on the sidebar and other things I’ve read. I enjoyed reading Little League, but didn’t get much out of it.
Index, no bibliography, list of interviews. Most valuable to people who know very little, if anything, about the AFL and its history. If you don’t know much about the AFL and want to learn about it, though, you should read the other works I mentioned first, and if you do that, there’s not much point in reading Little League.
Reading and Thinking Football 