One of the most influential sportsmen of the late 20th century, Johnny F. Bassett's marketing wizardry belied his impact on professional hockey and football. A Canadian showman with a Barnumesque flair for spectacle, Bassett challenged the orthodoxy of sports, building sporting utopias in the fatally flawed World Football League, World Hockey Association, and United States Football League. He catered to the common fan, demanded fair treatment of athletes, and forced the sporting establishment to change the way it did business, often to his own detriment. Drawing on archival research and interviews with Bassett's contemporaries, this comprehensive biography chronicles his life in and around professional sports: his quixotic attempt to compete with the Maple Leafs; his stunning coup in signing three members of the reigning Super Bowl champions for his WFL team; his battles with the Canadian government over American football; his audacious marketing of hockey in Alabama; and his rivalry with Donald Trump for the soul of the USFL.

From 1976 until 1994, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost far more games than they won. The Bucs' status as a sporting punch line belied the fact that they were led by arguably the most important owner of that era. Known as the "Vice-Commissioner," Hugh F. Culverhouse, Sr., wielded his financial acumen as a weapon, keeping other NFL owners in line through the economic downturn of the 1980s, two work stoppages, and a multimillion dollar lawsuit from a rival league. Culverhouse's near-Dickensian frugality also led, directly and indirectly, to the Steve Young-Joe Montana quarterback controversy; Doug Williams' triumph in Super Bowl XXII; and the largest fourth-quarter collapse in NFL history. Over two dozen interviews with Culverhouse's allies and adversaries inform this thorough and balanced chronicle of Hugh Culverhouse and his team.