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Overview
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 than he'd care to admit tuned into pro football. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up with a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient sports dynasty of the 21st century, its organization the most polarizing in the NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession relatively private, in the meantime 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 in the New York Times Magazine. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing to this were a Hail Mary at best, but Leibovich kept trying, at least to indulge his fan-boy within. To his surprise, Brady returned the call, in the summer of 2014. He agreed to let Mark spend time with him through the coming season, which proved to be a fateful one for all parties. It included another epic Patriots Super Bowl win and, yes, a scandal involving BradyDeflategatewhose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous.
So began a four-year odyssey that has taken Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. Ultimately, this is a chronicle of what may come to be seen as "peak football"the high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the moment when it all began to turn. From the owners meeting to the NFL draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show, at the elbow of everyone from Brady to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, who is cordially hated by even casual football fans to an extent that is almost weird. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, as deluxe new stadiums spring up all over the country, but also one of creeping existential fear. Football was never thought to be easy on the bodyplayers joke darkly that the NFL stands for "not for long" for good reason. But as the impact of concussions on brains became has become the inescapable ear-ring in the background, it became increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious toll.
And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark Leibovich'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 cocked on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the end of the 2017-1018 season. 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 |
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Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 09/04/2018 |
Pages: | 400 |
Sales rank: | 1,129,512 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.30(d) |
About the Author
MARK LEIBOVICH is The New York Times Magazine's chief national correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of #1 New York Times-bestselling book This Town and Citizens of the Green Room. Leibovich 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