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The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history - pro football's raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana's gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today.

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Publisher's Summary

This wide-ranging history synthesizes scholarship and media sources to give the listener an inside view of the television contracts, labor issues, and other off-the-field forces that shaped the National Football League. Historian Richard Crepeau shows how Commissioner Pete Rozelle's steady leadership guided the league's explosive growth during the era of Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl's transformation into a mid-winter spectacle. Crepeau also delves into the league's masterful exploitation of media from radio to the Internet, its ability to get taxpayers to subsidize team stadiums, and its success in delivering an outlet for experiencing vicarious violence to a public uneasy over the changing rules of masculinity.

Probing and learned, NFL Football tells an epic American success story peopled by larger-than-life figures and driven by ambition, money, sweat, and dizzying social and technological changes.

The book is published by University of Illinois Press.

©2014 the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"A solid resource for researchers and historians." ( Library Journal)
"A readable, engaging narrative history. Recommended." ( Choice)
"No understanding of the history of the NFL and its societal impact is complete without reading this book." (John A. Fortunato, author of Commissioner: The Legacy of Pete Rozelle)

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Audible.com Reviews
Amazon Reviews
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining and 0bviously well researched.

I enjoyed listening to this book, after having read it when it was first released, I knew it was a well researched narrative of a great story in American sport history. Listening to it was most enjoyable, bringing back parts of the book I had forgotten or glossed over the first time around. It reads as a story, an interesting perspective of how so many people, so many different forces of nature and society came together to create such a dominating force in all of American society.
The author does an excellent job putting complex subjects into perspective, helping the reader see both sides of controversial issues and understanding why and how the League emerged as such a powerful organization. Along the way, I got to relive the "greatest game ever", the Baltimore Colts-New York Giants championship game in 1958 and re-connect with Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, Paul Hornung, and other great players and memorable games from throughout the League's history.
I particularly enjoyed and appreciated the author's discussion of racism and integration in the NFL, violence and injuries, and the business of football. Great book, great performance!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • JMKIII58
  • Clarksville, TN, United States
  • 10-06-17

A wonderful telling

of the history of the National Football League. From its humble beginnings to the 800 pound gorilla sports. All is told of the highs and lows of the league. This book is a must read for all who want to know the histpry of league