(Gino Marchetti – the Colts’ powerful defensive lineman #89 played a huge role in the ‘Greatest game ever played,’ 1958 NFL Championship Game)
One of the first football games I ever watched on television was the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants which ended when Baltimore fullback Alan Ameche crossed the goal line in overtime, a game that up until that time was considered the greatest in NFL history. I watched the game on my grandparents’ 16 inch black and white television set in their apartment in Lakewood, New Jersey. On the drive home back to Brooklyn with my parents I recounted the game in my mind over and over and from that time I was hooked on football. I have watched the New York Giants almost religiously for the last 68 years and would become addicted to writers like Paul Zimmerman, Frank Deford, and Dan Jenkins as Sports Illustrated became my Bible.
By the 1980s I discovered a new writer, Peter King, who captured the essence of the game and had the ability to take fans to places where most media types did not go. I have followed and read Mr. King’s work for close to 40 years, and I was pleased to learn about his new memoir/history entitled THE GAME which tells the story of the modern NFL from 1984 through 2023. The book is a blend of personal reporting anecdotes, tactical and play calling insights, player profiles, a crossword puzzle, and King’s personal “Mount Rushmore of Pro Football,” which contains many individuals that most would be surprised made the list.
When King began his career covering the NFL, baseball was still hanging on as our national pastime, but the NFL’s popularity would soon explode providing King with a wonderful starting point for his work. King’s writing would draw back the curtain on professional football and allow his readers the inside story on how the NFL reached the heights it has today. King explores the massive television and cable deals, along with streaming services, and satellite television that took a one day a week product and turned it into an almost everyday event that has spread beyond the United States as this season games will take place in Melbourne (Australia), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), London (U.K.), Paris (France), Madrid (Spain), Munich (Germany) and Mexico City (Mexico).
From the outset of the book King delves into the careers of Commissioners, team executives and owners, players, and others who have greatly influenced the game of football and contributed to the sport’s phenomenal growth. Beginning in 1984 with his early career as a beat reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer covering the college draft and the choices made by the Cincinnati Bengals, King’s avocation was launched. King immediately turns to the importance of Bengal’s new coach, a “brainy” and innovative young man named Sam Wyche and his relationship to his newly drafted quarterback Boomer Esiason, the cheapness of Bengal owner Paul Brown, and the offensive advances made by Wyche and his coaching staff. In his opening chapter King sets the pattern for the entire book by integrating wonderful stories about the people he dealt with and how these people impacted football on the field and off.
King does a tremendous job uncovering the minutiae associated with the most interesting characters in the game. One that stands out for me is Bill Parcells who once hit two homeruns off Al Downing in American Legion ball, the same pitcher who gave up Henry Aaron’s 715th. Parcells is the central focus of a chapter dealing with the New York Giants on their road to the Super Bowl in 1986. It is personal for me because the Giants used to hold their training camp at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ. At the same time, I taught at the College of Saint Elizabeth a few hundred yards down the road. I used to take my son Josh to observe the practices, but I had to cover his ears because of the verbal interplay between Parcells, Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Phil Simms and others. King develops how the Giants were built into a championship team after many down years, and later he explores in detail how Bill Belicheck and Scott Pioli used the Parcell/George Young way to build the New England Patriots.
(Bill Walsh and Joe Montana)
King zeroes in on the egos involved on all levels of the NFL. Character studies of Bill Walsh who turned the San Francisco 49ers into a dynasty and Deon Sanders, the all-pro cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys are exceptional. King has a way of providing fascinating details as he has access to individuals that most writers did not have and is able to take his subjects and make them appear human. This is especially important in perhaps one of the most fascinating chapters dealing with John Madden. Madden did not like airplanes and did most of his traveling on a bus that was outfitted as a pseudo motorhome for him during the NFL broadcast season. King was able to convince Madden to let him ride along as the bus left his home in California on the way to the New Jersey Meadowlands. During the trip King had to follow the “Madden rules” for bus etiquette. Madden, who was a championship coach who retired from the sidelines at age 42 was more famous and became richer than most players and coaches. During the trip Madden served as a tour guide and philosopher and showed why he was beloved by football fans all over the country. I agree with King’s assessment that he was one of the most significant figures in NFL history.
One of the players King explores is an aberration, a man without an ego. King uses Reggie White, an ordained Baptist minister who became the most important figure in the battle for free agency. Throughout the 1980s conservative NFL owners did not want to enter the modern world after three players’ strikes. It would take court decisions to encourage a settlement with the players and create a modicum of labor peace. Once free agency was granted, a number of teams wanted White and King to trace his recruitment and the negotiating process that led to his signing with the Green Bay Packers, a team that was not on White’s radar. White was somewhat fatalistic when it appeared his choice of the San Francisco 49ers would not pan out as he stated that he would leave his choice “in the hands of God.” White was an amazing athlete in addition to being a moral and empathetic individual who told everyone that one of his major criteria was to set up a ministry wherever he settled. King’s astuteness is clear as he points out that the free agent process contributed to making the NFL a year round commodity as it extended interest in the off season. In addition, the NFL would make the draft an extravaganza which would further extend the season, as would the Super Bowl almost to the opening baseball spring training in February.
Individual relationships form an important component to King’s work. His description of the Jerry Jones-Jimmy Johnson connection is incisive and explains how the Dallas Cowboys became a dynasty in the 1990s. Interestingly, Johnson would walk away from his coaching position when he was on the top of his game. King delves into a number of important aspects of decision making within the Cowboys organization to explain their success. The key assessment was trading Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for numerous draft choices which would result in choosing players who became the foundation of the Cowboys domination and making them “America’s Team.” The conversations King quotes support everything he writes about which makes for an exceptional read especially the interplay between Jones and Johnson, who for the life of me I cannot figure out whose ego was larger. Another amazing coach quarterback relationship is that of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahommes, one which King raises to the level of the best that has ever existed in the NFL. King delves into their professional and personal relationship where respect is paramount and a deep appreciation and caring for each other that does not usually exist in any coach-player relationship.
(Patrick Mahommes and Andy Reid)
The role of league Commissioners is carefully examined from the reign of Pete Rozelle to Roger Goodell. Rozelle was a pioneer who was able to overcome the opposition of conservative owners as he tried to bring them into the modern world of sport to try and keep them out of the courts. He was able to negotiate the first meaningful television deals, created Monday Night Football, brought Dallas and Minnesota into the league through expansion, and pushed the Washington Redskins to integrate. Next in line was Paul Tagliabue who went from the NFL’s lead counsel to commissioner. He oversaw the most consequential labor agreement in league history in 1993 which introduced the salary cap and free agency. Twenty new stadiums were built under his auspices and paved the way for games to be played overseas. Tagliabue also realized that it was important to make football a year round sport for its fans introducing a draft gala, free agency period, mini-camps all designed to keep fans attuned to their teams. If there was a negative to his reign it was his inability to recognize the harm of head trauma to players which his goal of adding an 18th game to the schedule would further exacerbate. Lastly, Roger Goodell who does not come across as well in King’s presentation. Goodell is all about money and profit even in the area of head trauma or CTE. Another avenue that Goodell is responsible for is the explosion of sports betting on football. Publicly he decries the social issue leading to people becoming addicted to gambling, but in terms of policy it is all about the money.
(Nov 3, 2023; Frankfurt, Germany; American sportswriter Peter King at Kansas City Chiefs press conference at DFB Campus)
King introduces what may appear to be esoteric components to NFL success, but in reality without the work of these individuals the game itself would not have reached the heights that it has. A prime example is the work of Steve Sabol whose father was the founder of NFL films. According to King he “more than any other person is responsible for revealing the violent and oft-inspirational ballet of the sport.” It began when Sabol was able to convince Pete Rozelle and others to allow cameras in previously sacrosanct areas; i.e., the coverage of Vince Lombardi and Jerry Kramer during the 1967 NFL Championship game referred to as “the Ice Bowl.” Sabols work turned players into legends and elevated the game in the eyes of its followers. Another important area that comes under this heading is King’s description of the public and private work of NFL officials and how difficult their lives can be. Using one of his techniques – imbedding himself with his subjects, in this case Gene Steratore’s life for a week preparing for a Sunday clash and the evaluation process that follows is eye opening. Lastly, the impact of David Hill, a British transplant hired by Rupert Murdoch to force networks to do football on television differently as head of the FOX startup for the 1994 season. This would result in FOX innovations that would enhance the viewers experience and eventually make the NFL exceedingly more profitable.
There is so much to unpack in King’s book and there does not seem to be an aspect of the NFL upon which he does not touch. The role of Dawn Aponte, who was the NFL’s Chief Administrator, the night that Buffalo Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin’s heart stopped after tackling an opposing player and how she took charge of the situation is a case in point. King uses Aponte’s career to introduce how the role of women has expanded on all levels of the NFL. The push to hire women is in part due to the fact that 41% of NFL fans are female! This along with the King’s exploration of the impact of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) on players and other aspects of the player’s health these topics are extremely important to the future of professional football.
I have read many books on football over the years and apart from George Plimpton’s PAPER LION and Jerry Kramer’s INSTANT REPLAY I cannot think of another that I have enjoyed as much. It will bring back memories for football fans of any age and create new ones for things of which you were not aware.
