It's difficult to imagine today-when the Super Bowl has virtually
become a national holiday and the National Football League is the
country's dominant sports entity-but pro football was once a
ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports
landscape. Yet in the span of a single generation in postwar
America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity,
becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment
colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose
sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. Pro football's ascent
is an epic American story, and "America's Game does it full
justice.
Beginning with the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting
for its very existence, Michael MacCambridge traces the game's
grand transformation, with particular attention paid to six key
franchises-the Rams, Browns, Colts, Cowboys, Chiefs, and
Raiders-and how their fortunes reflected the larger growth of the
game itself. Along the way we meet the sport's legendary
architects, men such as Pete Rozelle, George "Papa Bear" Halas,
Bert Bell, Tex Schramm, and Lamar Hunt, as well as a wide range of
its memorable characters-including Johnny Unitas, Paul Brown, Vince
Lombardi, Jim Brown, Al Davis, Joe Namath, Bill Walsh, and Deion
Sanders. In the process we witness the rivalries, the games
themselves, and the passion that have made professional football
the nation's signature sport.
MacCambridge continues the story through the turbulent 1980s and
1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to
its core, and up to the sport's present-day preeminence under Paul
Tagliabue. The unique portrait of the modern game's inner workings
andrelentless competitiveness sheds light on contemporary stars
such as Ray Lewis and Peyton Manning, as well as on the men whose
leadership skills are scrutinized and second-guessed by much of the
country, celebrated coaches such as Bill Parcells, Dick Vermeil,
Tony Dungy, and Brian Billick.
Magisterial and sweeping, definitive and unprecedented in scope,
"America's Game is cultural history at its finest. A thoroughly
entertaining account of the entire universe of professional
football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to
press box, it is a unique lens through which to view the past sixty
years of American history.
"From the Hardcover edition.
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