America's Game

Michael MacCambridge

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Nov 26, 2008 - Sports & Recreation - 608 pages

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. 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.

 

America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to 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. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.

Contents

• Going West: 3
• The Organization Man: 21
• Let Bert Do It: 38
• Going Deep: 55
• Baltimore: 75
• On Any Given Sunday: 96
• A Light Bulb Came On: 116
• The Siege: 135
• The New Frontier: 152
• The Czar: 175
• War: 193
• A Separate Peace: 213
• The Only Thing: 231
• Respect: 248
• Prime Time: 275
• Americas Team: 312
• Under Siege: 341
• The Last Stand: 356
• Changing of the Guard: 373
• A Different World: 402
• Americas Game: 450
• AFTERWORD TO THE ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION: 459
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 465
• BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY: 523
• INDEX: 533

About the author

Michael MacCambridge is the author of The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine, and the editor of the bestselling ESPN SportsCentury. He worked for eight years as a columnist and critic at the Austin American-Statesman, writing about movies, music, and popular culture. He lives with his wife, Danica Frost, and their children, Miles and Ella, in University City, Missouri.

Bibliographic information

• Title: America's Game
• Author: Michael MacCambridge
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008
• ISBN: 0307481433, 9780307481436
• Length: 608 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; Sports & Recreation / Football; Sports & Recreation / History