Ray Mirra Sports
Ray Mirra is a football coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. In his professional career, he has coached a number of different teams. Ray Mirra has been in charge of the college and professional teams for many years. This book covers his background and the progression throughout his time in charge.
A great number of fans have supported him throughout his entire career. In this book, he gives us an inside look at his childhood and development as an athlete as well as an individual. He discusses how he was injured during his youth, and how this led to his career as an athlete and player-coach. The book talks about some of his coaching responsibilities with the US National Team, including the successful results in the 1996 Olympics.
Graduation
Ray is a graduate of High School but has always been known to be one of the better athletes on his team. Raymond Mirra played on the swim team throughout his years of High School, and was also on the basketball team. However, his true love really began when he was a senior in high school playing tennis. Ray has always worked on improving his tennis skills, and that has led him to a long professional career in track and field as well as a professional tennis player. This book covers everything from his beginnings as a tennis player, to his time as a professional tennis player.
The other half of the book discusses his role as an American football coach with the Raiders. I really enjoyed reading about his successes and failures as a head coach with the Steelers. I particularly enjoyed learning about his interest in football when he was a kid growing up in Iowa. Ray has been an offensive and defensive coordinator for the Dolphins as well as an assistant for the Giants.
There are some good stories and information contained in this volume that will appeal to most football fans. You can see Ray's enthusiasm for the game as he relates stories of his playing and coaching days with the Dolphins. It is interesting to learn that he was cut by the Dolphins at the height of his career, but then went on to play four more years in the NFL. There is no question that the transition was difficult for him, but it is one of the anecdotes included in this wonderful biography. I particularly appreciated the portions where he talks about his love of the game, how he adjusted to the speed of the game, and how he became such a great blocker.
Of course, most of the book is about his two years as a pro football player with the Dolphins. While it may seem a bit strange to include an account of his playing days, it is helpful to give some background about his career. It is especially interesting to read about the impact that Brokaw had on Ray because of his love of the game. You learn about the importance of communication and how it helped to shape the entire organization.
Professional sports
Overall, this is a fun and entertaining book about one of the true legends of professional sports. I enjoyed reading about the effect that Brokaw had on Ray and how that impacted his professional career. However, I do not think that it is necessarily a good biographical book. I do not think that it gives you enough background information to understand Ray's game from an objective standpoint. However, if you enjoy this witty and entertaining read about the life of a professional athlete, then I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about pro athletes.
Overall, this is a fun read with some entertaining anecdotes about some not so popular figures in pro sports. If you are a fan of sports or even if you just want to learn more about some current players or just about pro football in general, then I would recommend this book. The only real negative I could give is that it does not give a lot of background information. That is something that I am sure that everyone will find interesting. So if you are a sports fan, or even if you just want to see more of Ray Miller and what he has to say about the NFL, then I would definitely recommend that you consider picking up this book.
