Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History

by Mark Yost

The NFL is the most successful professional sport. The league's secret to success is sound business practices like revenue sharing and a salary cap. These policies have created parity on the field and in the boardroom. Because of the collective approach of the league, a small-town team like the Green Bay Packers has just as much chance of getting into the playoffs--and succeeding financially--as big-market teams in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. But in 2006, a faction of entrepreneurial owners led by maverick Washington Redskins executive Dan Synder proposed changes to the league finance and revenue models that many fear will upset this near-perfect system. They are creating alternative revenue sources, such as stadium-naming rights, local sponsorships, radio and television deals, pre-game and post-game clubs. These owners are arguing that revenue they generate locally--outside of the normal NFL model--should be theirs to keep. Other owners worry this would dash the league's parity like Major League Baseball, where big-market teams like the New York Yankees flourish and small-market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers flounder.

This critical battle for the future of America's most popular sport has opened a wide rift between owners. "Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps "offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the league and examines the maverick owners whose ideas could have lasting repercussions for the players, owners, coaches, and ultimately the fans.

Genres: Sports, Football

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mark Yost has been a professional writer for more than 20 years. He worked for The Wall Street Journal full-time for 10 years. He was an editorial page writer in both New York and Brussels, and also wrote for the Journal's Leisure and Arts pages, in the U.S., as well as Europe and Asia.
For the past 10 years, he has been a full-time freelance writer. He still contributes regularly to the Journal's L&A page, primarily writing about the business of sports. He also writes reviews of historical museum exhibits, and book reviews. Yost also writes for the Journal's Sports pages.
His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. Yost has also written copy for the J. Peterman catalog.
In Spring 2012, Mark Yost completed his first novel, "Soft Target," featuring firefighter Nick Mattera as the hero/protagonist. The book is the first in a four-book series revolving around the North Chicago firefighter and former Marine EOD TEch who runs into al Qaeda agents hellbent on killing Americans, Mexican drug lords determined to protect their turf after a newly elected Libertarian president decides to legalize drugs, and a disgruntled airline passenger who decides to take his anger out on the FAA and the members of the House Transportation Committee.
In addition to being a writer, Mark Yost is a firefighter/paramedic in both Highwood and Lake Bluff, on Chicago's North Shore. He's also a CPR instructor and certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, International Trauma Life Support, and as a Fire Apparatus Engineer and Hazardous Materials Operations.
Mark Yost is originally from New York, served six years in the U.S. Navy, and lives on the North Shore with his son, George.

Reviews

[William Norvell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great background history of how the NFL came to be and how much of it still works today. If you are interested in getting into the world of sports management, a solid place to start for how salary caps, negotiations, TV deals, etc. work.

[Joaquin]

This book is mostly analytical and explains why football has succeeded in the US. It is informative but is more focused on that than stories.

[Darin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but could probably be half as long.