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Title details for Football for a Buck by Jeff Pearlman - Available

Football for a Buck

The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL

by Jeff Pearlman
Joel Richards
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The United States Football League was the last football league to not merely challenge the mighty NFL but also to cause it to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, featured as many as eighteen teams, secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans, and launched the careers of legends—but then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner, a New York businessman named Donald Trump. In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports listeners back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost and how, thirty years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler. This is sports as high entertainment—and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 19, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666570199
      • File size: 409443 KB
      • Duration: 14:13:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Joel Richards has a rich story before him, and he presents it in the perfect tone. That means that on rare occasion he imitates--appropriately--one of the many subjects interviewed. Most of the time he narrates with an interested and incredulous voice, using slight accents here and there. Jeff Pearlman has written a fascinating, comprehensive, and laugh-out-loud history of the short-lived professional football league of the 1980s. A catalyst amid the characters, players, coaches, and others is Donald Trump, one of the league's owners. Pearlman's exhaustive research and clean writing style and Richards's delivery provide a great listen for pro football fans, ardent or casual. M.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 30, 2018
      Pearlman (Gunslinger) wonderfully recounts the story of the spring professional football league that enthralled fans, frustrated the NFL, and withered to the dismay of the players who fought for the game they loved. The United States Football League played its first season in 1983 as a cadre of businessmen tried to cash in on the financial boom of televised football. Starring a smorgasbord of luminaries such as Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Steve Young, as well as NFL has-beens and third-tier college stars, the USFL was far more than the joke that the NFL wanted to believe it was. In addition to providing a rough history of the short-lived league, Pearlman illustrates how hubris led to the league’s abrupt demise, as team owners—including a young Donald Trump, who owned the New Jersey Generals—began to believe the spring league could move to the fall and challenge the NFL’s supremacy, resulting in an antimonopoly case that virtually bankrupted the league in 1985 and led to owners abandoning their teams while players jumped to the NFL or faded into obscurity. Pearlman’s hundreds of interviews with former players and coaches shine a light on this almost forgotten league. This is an excellent book for football junkies, but it’s just as enthralling for a general audience.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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