Book cover of The League: The Rise and Decline of the NFL

Book description

Based on three years of research, extensive interviews, and confidential NFL documents, an investigative report documents the little-known power struggles that have recently reorganized the internal structure and politics of the football business

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The League as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Although now quite old, I still think the wonderful journalistic description of Pete Rozelle’s success in what the author coined as “LeagueThink” to overcome the structural problems in sports identified in my book is a great model.

I knew David Harris by reputation as an anti-Vietnam War activist and singer Joan Baez ex-husband, but I found he pivoted to this topic with excellence.

This book is genuinely unique because David Harris is an investigative reporter, not a sportswriter.

He used his investigative skills to look at the inner workings of the National Football League from the 1960s into the early 1980s. Instead of the standard “great teams, great games, great coaches, great players” approach, Harris studied the infighting, the conflicts, and the compromises among owners that took place behind the scenes to help shape the modern NFL.

From Ralph's list on the history of pro football.

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The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

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