No-Brainer by Mike Amos

"A heart-breaking but still inspiring insight into the real-life impact of the biggest issue facing the world's biggest sport." Jeremy Wilson, Chief Sports Reporter, The Telegraph

'It is beautifully written, immaculately researched and pulls no punches.' Ian Herbert, Daily Mail

This is the story of the 'real' Bill Gates.  A famous footballer, a successful millionaire and a global philanthropist. This is the story of an incredible man and his remarkable wife, who in his final years made a commitment to use his brain to save the next generation of football players.

Bill was Britain's first £50 a week teenage superstar who played 333 games for Middlesbrough, where he was the PFA representative.  He was the first entrepreneur/businessman to make sports shops the centre of high-street fashion.  He was a philanthropist who travelled the world using football to change the lives of millions of children in over 100 countries.

But in 2017 his life changed when he was diagnosed with football's best-kept secret, probable Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, caused by repetitive head impacts including headers, a brain disease with no cure.

Author Mike Amos perfectly captures the incredible life of Bill and Judith, from a coal mining village in Ferryhill in the 1950s, a brilliant 13-year professional career in the 60s and 70s, a chain of sports shops in the 80s, to a millionaire's lifestyle on 7 mile beach on Grand Cayman in the 90s, to their most difficult journey together to ensure the future of the beautiful game.  He shares Judith's work, designing the Billion Pound Game of Football that captured the attention of media around the globe and highlighted the need for changes in sport.  

Their ground-breaking Head Safe Football charity has led to research and education, and supported families of players with CTE. Designed to protect the future of the game, Head Safe Football educates players, coaches, sports scientists, and parents to recognise that CTE begins in young footballers and can be prevented with common sense Head Safe Football policies and training.   

No-Brainer explains how one man and his family have galvanised the football world around facts and science to impact player care and child safeguarding policies for both males and females.

If you have ever headed a football, if your child or grandchild are heading footballs, then this is the one book that you need to read.  

Reviews

"A heart-breaking but still inspiring insight into the real-life impact of the biggest issue facing the world's biggest sport. But does football care enough about its former heroes to take sufficient action?" Jeremy Wilson, Chief Sports Reporter, The Telegraph

"What a brilliant read. Took me through every emotion from laughing and smiling to tears of true sadness. A great insight into the dark and oh so sad side of the beautiful game. A must-read, not only for the light-hearted reminiscing of football anecdotes and memories, but to learn the startling truth behind a game touching so many lives, and the devastation it can cause."  Hilary Maddren, widow of Willie Maddren, Middlesbrough player and manager who died of neurodegenerative disease 

"Not just an important read for football fans, but for anyone whose life has been touched by the slowly unfolding despair of dementia." Harry Pearson, author of The Far Corner

"No Brainer is a meticulous and moving read that exposes the cost of football's collective failure to protect players. One day, football will thank women like Dr Judith Gates who fought to spare future generations the pain they suffered as they watched their loved ones slowly succumb to diseases like CTE." Warren Manger, Daily Mirror

"Bill and Judith Gates are the opposites who stayed attracted for more than 60 years together, but both in their very different ways have become titans in the world of football. This book is a vivid and vital account of their work together to improve the lives of footballers, young and old" Michael Aylwin, sportswriter, The Guardian

About the Author: Mike Amos was for 55 years a journalist in north-east England, almost entirely on The Northern Echo, until made redundant at the age of 73. He has won more than 40 journalism awards, was named North-East Journalist of the Year seven times in 18 years, was an inaugural inductee in the Provincial Journalism Hall of Fame and in 2006 was appointed MBE for services to journalism. Born in Shildon, Co Durham, where he served as local councillor, churchwarden and parish magazine editor, he retains a lifelong passion for Shildon FC but worries over where allegiance might lie should they ever draw his other favoured club, Arsenal. For 20 years until 2016 he was chairman of the Northern Football League, the world's second oldest, and has written or edited several books about the league. Other books include Unconsidered Trifles, a 400-page memoir of life as a "jobbing journalist."