NFL Century

The One-Hundred-Year Rise of America's Greatest Sports League

By: Joe Horrigan

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL's 100th-anniversary season.

"I can think of no one better qualified - or more enthusiastic - to chronicle the National Football League’s century-long history than Joe Horrigan." (Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach)

The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the 100 years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges - the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights, and competition from rival leagues - to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-hear for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football.

Advance praise for NFL Century

"Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years - the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It’s a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old." (Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius)

“There is no one - and I mean no one - who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its 100th season, it’s appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey.” (Gary Myers, New York Times best-selling author)

©2019 Joe Horrigan (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Believe me, it is a daunting challenge to weave a narrative from the years of Jim Thorpe and Fritz Pollard to the years of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Joe Horrigan pulls it off elegantly in NFL Century. His choice of subjects to highlight is spot-on. His reporting sheds new light on decades-old events. A century of rollicking pro football history flies by." (John Eisenberg, author of The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire)

"Joe Horrigan may not have witnessed all one hundred seasons of the NFL in person, but it seems that way. The legends and lore of professional football come to life in NFL Century just as if we were back in the years and decades in which they lived. Some of the story lines we know; others are a revelation. I’ve known and worked with Joe since the eighties, and every time he talks about the history of the NFL you can see the twinkle in his eyes. That very same twinkle appears throughout these pages." (Chris Berman, ESPN sportscaster)

"An entertaining, passionate, and educational rags-to-riches story of the NFL’s greatest names, games, and events of the past one hundred seasons of America’s most popular sport. NFL Century should be on the shelf of every football fan’s library." (Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films, author of Red Grange)

"[Horrigan] delivers an expansive and celebratory history of the NFL.... Sports fans will find plenty to sink their teeth into, as Horrigan provides detailed and lively depictions of stars and coaches from various teams, including Joe Namath and the Jets’ legendary Super Bowl III triumph, the successes of the 1972 undefeated Dolphins, and the recent Patriots dynasty. This fast-paced history will thrill football fans of all allegiances." (Publishers Weekly)

An excellent history of the NFL.

Accurate and precise on how the NFL started and what went on in each and every decade since the 1920's up to modern times. Mark Deakins gives a very professional performance as the narrator. Been a fan of the league since 1971 and read a couple other histories of the league and this was the best.

I leaned so much

This was a great book. There were a few spots where the text was wrong but overall I learned a lot.

C+

Not great, not terrible. An extremely superficial history of the first 100 years of the NFL. Decent in parts, but insufficiently detailed overall. Entertaining, but certainly not a definitive account of the NFL during this period.

Only one problem with reader

Only problem I had was that reader should have learned proper pronunciation of some people's names.

Like a textbook!

I learned things about the NFL that I’d never known, which was nice, but it was dry. The narrator was fine in terms of his voice and pacing, but one thing drove me nuts. There are no teams in the NFL named the JagWIRES or BANGLES. I have a hard time believing that a single narrator who could pronounce Jaguars and Bengals couldn’t be found. If you’re going to narrate book about the NFL, the least you could do is pronounce the team names properly.

Details of the formation and growth of the NFL

I especially liked the details of the creation of the NFL and the changes to the teams that made up the NFL. I did not find the later chapters on labor issues and the collective bargaining agreement interesting.

Interesting start lousy second half and finish

I really liked the deep dive into the old characters and teams in the early NFL.

Way too much stuff around labor disputes and commissioners in the last half. Not nearly enough about all the great players and personalities of what makes the nfl great and how it relate.

Yawn

It just seemed like the majority of the book dealt with management/owner/bureaucratic issues, especially in the second half of the book. When the author did actually talk about on the field football, he just seem to skim over all the dynasties and not much about individual teams or classic characters.. while I completely understand that certain management issues are vital parts of the leagues, history, the league, as a whole is so much more than that.. it’s completely ironic that the author, Joe Horrigan, who was in charge of the pro football Hall of Fame, for decades, wasn’t able to truly capture the spirit of the NFL.