Pull back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports: the Quarterback, the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshiped. The New York Times bestselling author of It's Better to be Feared examines football's QB lifecycle: high school, college, the NFL, retirement--and all that comes with it. Before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals, and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner to high school to college, becoming the ultimate American idol requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of bad breaks, insecurities, jealousy, pressure, and fame. 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. Through unprecedented access into the lives of dozens of quarterbacks and generational greats such as Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Steve Young,