New Book From ESPN Senior Writer Seth Wickersham Explores Journey of Being a Quarterback

Seth Wickersham, ESPN senior writer and New York Times bestselling author of It’s Better to Be Feared, pulls back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports in his newest book American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback.

From Disney Publishing’s Hyperion Avenue, American Kings will go on sale Sept. 9, 2025, and the book’s Amazon and retail feeds went live today.

Quarterbacks are the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshiped. From the backyard to Pop Warner to high school to college, it requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of insecurities, jealousy, pressure and fame.

The heartbeat of this book is why and how [one becomes a quarterback] — and in the end, for those who reach iconic status, is it worth it? – Wickersham

Through unprecedented access into the lives of generational greats such as Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Steve Young, and others, as well as those striving to be remembered, like Caleb Williams and Arch Manning, to name a few, Wickersham’s fresh reporting goes deep into that journey and beyond, measuring the distance between what the men who have done it expected and what they found, with an inside look at the drama, demands, sacrifice and glory that comes with playing quarterback.

Wickersham spoke with Front Row: 

Why quarterbacks? What was your main inspiration for digging into this particular role for this book – and your writing/career in general?
I needed to write a book on quarterbacks not only because it’s the most prominent job in American sports, with its aristocratic and mythological qualities, and not just because it’s so hard — roughly 16,000 American boys are high school quarterbacks each year, which years ago I badly wanted to be and briefly once was, and three or four out of every generation reach the Hall of Fame — but because it’s become a lifestyle.

Quarterback is not something you turn on and off; you are one for life. It has so many unique roles and responsibilities, and I wanted to take readers deep into that journey.  

What was something notable or surprising you learned along the way while writing this?
So much has changed around quarterbacks, and yet, in some ways, history is a flat circle. Certain aspects, like the skillset, compensation, and notoriety have evolved, but there’s something about the job title, from the beginning, that captivated the country and most of all, became cool.

Bob Waterfield was as big in L.A. in 1947 as Dan Marino was in Miami in 1984, and Patrick Mahomes is now in Kansas City. If you manage to get this job on a big stage, your life is instantly different. The heartbeat of this book is why and how — and in the end, for those who reach iconic status, is it worth it?

Patrick Mahomes (15) has quarterbacked the Kansas City Chiefs to three Super Bowl titles, including the last two. (Phil Ellsworth?ESPN Images)

Texas star Arch Manning (16) is a member of quarterbacking royalty, the Manning family. (Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

Quarterback Matthew Stafford (9), seen here in 2022 action, hopes to lead his Los Angeles Rams to a second Super Bowl title. (Scott Clarke/ ESPN Images)