Big game: the NFL in dangerous times

Description

"Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. A lifelong fan of the New England Patriots, he 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 Leibovich's call in the summer of 2014, kicking off, if not a bromance, at least a journalistic courtship that extended through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and to a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on the sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous. So began a four-year odyssey that brought Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than he, and certainly his subjects, ever bargained for. From the owners' meetings to the draft, from Las Vegas to Green Bay, from the offices of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to the floor of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones's bus, and of course through to Brady and the 2018 Super Bowl, the helmet cam never comes off. Through all the sport and merriment, the sense emerges that we have reached an inflection point that might fairly be called "peak football"--The acme of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the moment when its human toll became impossible to ignore. And that was before Donald Trump. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve."--Jacket.;Football, in spite of itself -- Respite -- The Super Bowl without jock straps -- The monkey's ass -- Nuggets -- "Tom Brady here" -- "Beware the pissed off pretty boy" -- Garish fist ornaments -- Ballghazi -- Cheater -- No one buys tickets to watch a morality play -- Dings? -- Whuppings -- "We pay him damn well to be neutral" -- No broke dicks -- Roger and me -- The big splat -- Immortality gets old -- "Start blow-drying Teddy Koppel's hair 'cause this one's done" -- American carnage -- Patriotism -- Cheesehead elegy -- "We don't want you in Los Angeles" -- "I'm drunk, I'm stupid, I'm a Pats fan," the man told police -- The TV reporter in the Belichick underwear -- Clocks and sitcoms -- Turn-ons -- This man's liver belongs in Canton -- "Faith, family, and football ... probably not in that order" -- "We need a black Charlton Heston" -- Just compartmentalize, baby -- The last visit.