America's Game

The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation

By: Michael MacCambridge

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

It's difficult to imagine today - when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country's dominant sports entity - but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age.

America's Game traces pro football's grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport's present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America's favorite sport.

©2004 Michael MacCambridge (P)2020 Tantor

The most thorough history of the NFL

As comprehensive of a history as you could want of the NFL without ever being boring. Every fan should read or listen. Narrator Runnette was perfect, and had the voice of someone who was at those games more than half a century ago, but instead he was a younger actor.

So thorough, it might take a second listen. Hopefully Michael MacCambridge adds an addendum 20 years post publishing. Then ideally someone should pick up the mantle every generation or two. Thank you

Sexist but otherwise good

Assumes all football fans are men. Other than that, great overall and in depth information.

Incredibly thrilling

football rise to Primacy was not an accident, but the result of Decades of dedication hard work for many different people. this book explores those people and reads more like a political drama, with big names and big personalities, sometimes the green, sometimes clashing. but they were all working hard to make football the sport it is today.

Solid

Great history of early NFL and its growth and expansion during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It will give you a real appreciation of the early leaders and work they did. I wish there was an epilogue that covered the last two decades.

Great Book, Hard Narrator

I’m not saying the narrator was bad, but there was something about it that grated on all of my sensory issues. If you have any sensitivity to sound, this is not the narrator for you. A sort of whistling thing is happening with his S’s sounds, a lazy sound almost as if the poor guy had maybe had a stroke…and I don’t want to disparage him, but like I said, all you out there with a level of misophonia to whistling or S sounds…it is a tough sled sometimes