Big Game

August 1, 2018
Ladies and gentlemen, the NFL, America's "beautiful shit-show of a league."A football fan and chief national correspondent of the New York Times Magazine, Leibovich (Citizens of the Green Room: Profiles in Courage and Self-Delusion, 2014, etc.) spent four years immersed in the NFL's "cultural hunger games," interviewing owners, coaches, and players to trace how football has morphed from "being one of the most unifying institutions in America to the country's most polarizing sports brand." Still superpopular and profitable, the game's present "moral and cultural moment" includes ball-tampering, child and domestic abuse, brain-disease deaths, and knee-taking during the national anthem. While exploring all of these, the author's chief focus is on the owners and players, who, like the politicians he covers daily, are all part of "the same sitcom." The 32 owners, typified by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys ("rich, audacious, distracted, shameless"), are variously described as "aging show poodles," "superrich postmenopausal dudes," and "tycoons of enlarged ego, delusion, and prostate." Jets owner Woody Johnson is "an overgrown third-grader who collects toy trains and rotten quarterbacks." Leibovich gives lengthy treatment to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his suspension for allegedly using underinflated footballs in the 2015 AFC championship game. Wealthy, with a supermodel wife, Brady touts sustained peak performance with his TB12 business partner and bodywork guru Alex Guerrero and famously golfs with NFL owner-wannabe Donald Trump, whose anti-kneeling tweets have their own moments. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, much-harassed by fans, dodges the author's questions and holes out watching league games on three TV sets in a man cave. Leibovich covers Super Bowl parties, the NFL draft, training camps, Hall of Fame inductions, and more. The "conservative, Republican, and nationalistic" NFL has mostly white fans (83 percent) and mostly black players (nearly 70 percent), he writes. However, the implications of that sociology--and the deep uncertainties facing the league--are lost amid the rollicking entertainment.Must-read gossip for NFL junkies.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 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.

September 1, 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

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
There's been plenty of water-cooler chatter lately about the NFL reaching a saturation point: too many games on too many days, too many scandals, rules changes (many implemented for safety reasons) diminishing the game's excitement, and, of course, the growing concern over supporting a game that can cause long-term brain damage. Leibovich, chief national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, usually covers politics, but he's also a lifelong New England Patriots fan, and he's spent the last four years deep-diving into the operation of the NFL. Among other research, he interviewed Tom Brady, attended an owners' meeting and the draft of college players, and spent time on the field with Commissioner Roger Goodell during the 2017 Super Bowl. (Goodell comes across as arrogant here.) The case of President Trump vs. the NFL also figures prominently in this meandering, highly opinionated, and often very funny account. Like many fans, Leibovich can't help but keep following his favorite team despite his growing misgivings about the game. With publication timed to the beginning of a new season, this book will certainly keep those water coolers bubbling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)