Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer is a book written by Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Jerry Kramer and sportswriter Dick Schaap. Published in 1968, the book covers the 1967 Green Bay Packers season, which ended with the team winning Super Bowl II against the Oakland Raiders. It was also notable because the Packers earned the right to represent the National Football League (NFL) in the Super Bowl (before the NFL's merger with the American Football League) by winning the 1967 NFL Championship Game, more commonly known as the "Ice Bowl", with Kramer making a key block during the winning touchdown. Kramer authored the book by reciting his thoughts into a tape recorder, with Schaap then editing the words into the final written version. In Schapp's obituary in 2001, The New York Times called Instant Replay one of the "best-selling books of its era." In 2002, Sports Illustrated named Instant Replay the 20th greatest sports book of all time. The Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley called the book "the best inside account of pro football, indeed probably the best book ever written about that sport and that league."
This was the first, if not one of the first, sports books I ever read. Jerry Kramer played on the offensive line for the Packers of the 1960's, a team that won five title games, including the famous "Ice Bowl" classic where Kramer was credited with the block that sprung Bart Starr with the winning run which clinched that victory. This book was his first-person account of his second-to-last season playing football, from the start of training camp to season's end. Kramer's account is clear-minded and thoughtful on a number of fronts, and of course, he had Schaap, an experienced writer, to help him in this regard. To this day, it may very well be the ultimate insider's look into what makes a football player and team tick. Not only that, it gave everyone great insight into the Packers who were coached by Vince Lombardi - who wasn't exactly known as a nice guy - and put more of a human face on his stoic character. One of the all-time great books in this category.
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