Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times

by Mark Leibovich

Overview

The New York Times bestseller!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxiety

Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing were a Hail Mary at best, but Brady returned Mark's call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady—Deflategate—whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous.

So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "peak football"—the high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear. Players have long joked that NFL stands for "not for long," but as the true impact of concussions becomes inescapable background noise, it's increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious consequences.

And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark's day job caught up with him, and the NFL slammed headlong into America's culture wars. BIG GAME is a journey through an epic storm. Through it all, Leibovich always keeps one eye on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the 2018 Super Bowl. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399185427
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,211,211
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

MARK LEIBOVICH is the Chief National Correspondent for the New York Times Magazine. He is the recipient of the National Magazine Award for profile writing. Leibovich is the author of three books, including the #1 New York Times best-seller This Town, about the political culture of 21st-century Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Times magazine in 2012, Leibovich covered national politics in the New York Times' Washington Bureau. He previously worked at the Washington Post and San Jose Mercury News. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction Football, in Spite of Itself xiii

Prologue Respite 1

Chapter 1 The Super Bowl Without Jock Straps 13

Chapter 2 The Monkey's Ass 23

Chapter 3 Nuggets 35

Chapter 4 "Tom Brady Here" 54

Chapter 5 "Beware the Pissed Off Pretty Boy" 68

Chapter 6 Garish Fist Ornaments 82

Chapter 7 Ballghazi 90

Chapter 8 Cheater 99

Chapter 9 No One Buys Tickets to Watch a Morality Play 107

Chapter 10 Dings? 118

Chapter 11 Whuppings 126

Chapter 12 "We Pay Him Damn Well to be Neutral" 139

Chapter 13 No Broke Dicks 151

Chapter 14 Roger and Me 168

Chapter 15 The Big Splat 185

Chapter 16 Immortality Gets Old 205

Chapter 17 "Start Blow-Drying Teddy Koppel's Hair 'Cause This One's Done" 215

Chapter 18 American Carnage 225

Chapter 19 Patriotism 235

Chapter 20 Cheesehead Elegy 247

Chapter 21 "We Don't Want You in Los Angeles" 256

Chapter 22 "I'm Drunk, I'm Stupid, I'm a Pats Fan," the Man Told Police 264

Chapter 23 The TV Reporter in the Belichick Underwear 273

Chapter 24 Clocks and Sitcoms 285

Chapter 25 Turn-Ons 293

Chapter 26 This Man's Liver Belongs in Canton 303

Chapter 27 "Faith, Family, and Football … Probably Not in That Order" 310

Chapter 28 "We Need a Black Charlton Heston" 316

Chapter 29 Just Compartmentalize, Baby 332

Chapter 30 The Last Visit 337

Acknowledgments 351

Notes 355

Photograph Credits 359

Index 361

Editorial Reviews

…a gossipy, insightful and wickedly entertaining journey through the N.F.L. sausage factory…Reading Big Game—a sparkling narrative—one gets the sense that, "dangerous times" aside, the N.F.L. will survive on the magnetism of the sport it so clumsily represents.

The New York Times Book Review - David Ohinsky

08/20/2018
In this skewering and witty cultural study, Leibovich (This Town) takes an insider look at the National Football League. Leibovich hangs out with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady at his New York City skyscraper residence; schmoozes with team owners at the league’s annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla.; attempts to interview a very distracted NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell on the sidelines of Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.; and tailgates with shirtless fans at Green Bay’s frozen Lambeau Field. A lifetime Patriots fan, the author weaves his personal experiences chasing Brady for interviews into a charged narrative that calls out the NFL for its willful obliviousness to the physical and mental toll pro football takes on its players, as well as the league’s chest-thumping defense of its logo, “the Shield.” He also refers to the NFL as “the country’s most polarizing sports brand” and explores the impact President Trump is having on the league by taking players to task for kneeling during the national anthem. Leibovich questions throughout whether the NFL is doomed, not only due to the sport’s violence but also because the people who run it seem place the league over the players. Enhancing his casual reporting with cynical commentary, Leibovich provides entertaining reading. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A gossipy, insightful and wickedly entertaining journey through the N.F.L. sausage factory . . . a sparkling narrative.”  —The New York Times

“Juicy and mean in the way all books about the NFL ought to be, but few are.” —Drew Magary, Deadspin

“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League, it is also the story of an aging fanboy whose reportorial eye and ear are far too acute to ignore what’s wrong with the game and the team he loves. . . . Mr. Leibovich understands that humor—bruising, black-and-blue humor—is the best way to attack the self-seriousness and grandiosity of the NFL. It works as well for him as it did for his comically insurgent predecessors—Dan Jenkins in 'Semi-Tough' and Peter Gent in 'North Dallas Forty'—making Big Game an instant classic in the pigskin oeuvre.” —Wall Street Journal

‘"Hilarious, energetically reported and endlessly entertaining. . . Leibovich emerges as the pro game’s Mencken, tossing out one-liners as barbed as the spiked costumes of the Raiders’ faithful.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“This book needs to be remembered as the greatest accounting of the NFL owners I have ever read.” —Mike Pesca, Slate

“As someone who’s covered the league for three decades and knows how difficult it is to get behind the curtain, I can tell you Big Game is genuine and important—and a great read.” —Peter King

“A funny, insightful and fascinating perspective of the league.” —USA Today

“Highly entertaining . . . If anything, you’ll want to read until Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones invites Leibovich over for a few—well, more than a few—drinks.” —Mother Jones, Best Nonfiction Books of 2018

“The high point of any monster movie, whether you’re talking 'King Kong' or 'Jurassic Park,' comes at the moment when you finally get a full view of the giant beast. You’ve caught a glimpse or two, heard a roar in the distance, but when you finally see the monster’s full immensity, it’s a sight to behold … and you wonder how in the hell your little heroes are going to survive its fury. Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, an exceptional new behind-the-scenes book by Mark Leibovich, is a monster movie disguised as investigative journalism. Running from 2014 right on up to this year, Leibovich’s narrative presents the NFL’s owners and commissioner in all their bumbling, well-meaning, self-serving, self-satisfied glory … and shows in high definition how unprepared they were for the monster that stomped in to demolish everything they hold dear.” —Yahoo Sports
 
“What we have here are 349 unflinching pages detailing the NFL’s rampant boobery . . . It probably took a reporter like Leibovich to write a historic book like this. A top-flight journalist who’d gorged on a product for decades parachutes into the factory to see exactly how the product is made and who’s making it. The findings are mind-numbing, stomach-turning and stupefying. But the product is still so delicious.” —NBCSports.com

“Enlightening and entertaining . . . Boston fans will savor an abundance of material about the hometown team. The chapters involving the Patriots (among them, ‘Beware the Pissed Off Pretty Boy,’ ‘"I’m Drunk, I’m Stupid, I’m a Pats Fan”, the Man Told Police’) are filled with delectable tidbits.” —Boston Globe

“Rollicking entertainment. Must-read for NFL junkies.” —Kirkus

“[A] skewering and witty cultural study.” —Publisher’s Weekly

From the Publisher

09/01/2018
The National Football League (NFL) has dominated U.S. sports in recent years, with unlimited potential for continued growth and popularity. However, a rift between the public and the league has developed owing to a flurry of franchise relocations, violence both on and off the field, performance-enhancing drugs, the controversial New England Patriots dynasty, the old-boy network of franchise owners, and players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against people of color. How that unfolded and where it might lead is examined here by Leibovich (This Town). The author spent four years embedded with team owners, the league commissioner, and players, trying to determine whether the NFL, which once looked invincible, has already peaked and why we should still care. Showing the league as a microcosm of American values in an era of national division, Leibovich delivers an engaging, sobering portrait of a dominant institution facing critical challenges. VERDICT Current and former football fans, as well as readers fascinated by American culture, will find this an important look at the NFL today.—Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT

Library Journal

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