About

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."

                                                          -Toni Morrison

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In an illuminated moment during his law practice, Richard Lister decided to heed Ms. Morrison’s familiar advice. Having always loved sports, those with less prominent roles in the games particularly piqued his interest.

 

Among them are the referees and those who form football officiating crews. Finding no book offering a third-person look into the NFL's officiating world, Richard took a step from the treadmill to explore NFL game officials and their lives on and off the field, writing The Third Team.

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He next undertook a work exploring the mysteries of the offensive line. Collaborating with renowned NFL line coach Howard Mudd, he sat with 20 past and present NFL offensive linemen to hear and write their oral histories of playing the position.

Together Lister and Mudd created The View From the O-Line: Football According to NFL Offensive Linemen. Weaving the players' stories through Mudd's timeline, the result is a book that examines the most essential yet underappreciated players on the field. The stories intertwined with Mudd's career arc provide a composite look at the truest team players in the quintessential team sport.

In 2021 Richard revisited football's arbiters in A Tough Job Made Harder: Football Officials in an Unforgiving World. Calling on some of the most prominent voices in football officiating, he looks into how changes in the game and its demands have intensified challenges to officials as well as how the new demands are being met. 

Richard is a graduate of UCLA and California Western School of Law. He resides with his wife, Vicky, in Marietta, Georgia.