Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times

by Mark Leibovich

“A raucous, smash-mouth, first-person takedown of the National Football League." —Wall Street Journal

The New York Times bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town , an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxiety

Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich 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 Mark's call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous.

So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "peak football"--the high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear. Players have long joked that NFL stands for "not for long," but as the true impact of concussions becomes inescapable background noise, it's increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious consequences.

And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark's day job caught up with him, and the NFL slammed headlong into America's culture wars. Big Game is a journey through an epic storm. Through it all, Leibovich always keeps one eye on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the 2018 Super Bowl. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Politics, Audiobook, Business, History

400 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2018

About the author

Mark Leibovich is The New York Times Magazine chief national correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. In 2011, he received a National Magazine Award for his story on Politico's Mike Allen and the changing media culture of Washington. Prior to coming to The New York Times Magazine, Leibovich was a national political reporter in the Times's D.C. bureau. He has also worked at The Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, and The Boston Phoenix. Leibovich lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Richard de Villiers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's start with the good stuff. Leibovich is an engaging writer, even when his subjects have little to say he still makes it interesting. The last four years, the time he dedicated to writing this book, have been chock filled with controversy in the NFL so there are no shortage of issues or stories to cover. Finally, the book is filled with characters that even the casual fan knows. Overall it's a book that goes down easy and serves as a rather pleasant distraction.

Unfortunately I have plenty of gripes, some of which Joe Nocera covered in his review of the book in the Washington Post. As Nocera noted, sure there is plenty to cover but there seems to be no point to the Big Game. There is no overarching theme; it's just a compendium of stories. A major flaw of the book is that Leibovich, a self proclaimed Masshole and diehard Pats fan had originally intended to write about the Patriots. He doesn't get around to saying it but it becomes evident why he chose to broaden his scope - the Patriots are boring. Kraft recycles stories and says little that we haven't heard before. Tom Brady spends more time pushing his TB12 lifestyle than anything else. If he touches on another topic he deflects and speaks in cliches. As for Belichick, he doesn't say hardly anything at all. Trudging through the sections on the Pats can be tough. Leibovich would have been better served having more "visits" with Jerry Jones. I am hardly a fan of Jones but every mention of him is pure literary gold. Rex Ryan appears for about a paragraph and a half and it is more memorable than anything that happens around Belichick .

Another challenge is that Leibovich is trying to do for the NFL what he did with DC in "This Town." The problem is that he'd been covering DC for years. His cynicism came from knowing the characters and the habitat they populated. Even his most glib remarks came from something deeper and understanding of what motivated DC players and gladhandlers. Leibovich doesn't really know the folks in the NFL. His takedowns at times seem superficial and unduly mean spirited. Early on he cracks that Chip Kelly could benefit from a procedure to lose weight. Leibovich just seems to be taking shots to entertain the masses not because he really knows what he is talking about.

I also don't know who this book is written for. It certainly isn't for the hardcore fan because even the most casual viewer of ESPN or NFL fan will not be surprised with about 90% of what is covered. In addition the book covers well worn issues and controversies - concussions, deflategate, Ray Rice, the national anthem - without adding much to the conversation. Leibovich, Masshole that he is, whines about Deflategate despite insisting that he doesn't want to get into it.

I hate being so negative because if I really hated it I wouldn't have read it in about four days. It really is a quick read and it does have its moments. Just don't expect to learn anything new or be enlightened.

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don’t have to be a rabid fan of football to enjoy Mark Leibovich’s Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times. A passing acquaintance with the game is all that is required to be drawn into this book, as long as you enjoy Leibovich’s prose. He is funny, snarky but never cruel, goofy, and manages to sneak a lot of facts into your brain by disguising them as well-written and entertaining writing. After reading This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral—Plus Plenty of Valet Parking!—in America’s Guiled Capital, I decided I would read anything he wrote. Big Game did not disappoint me.

The thread that holds the book together is Leibovich’s undisguised fanboy crush on Tom Brady, the superstar, handsome, petulant, quarterback for the New England Patriots—the team America loves to hate. Why do we hate them? Because they’re such arrogant assholes who win all the time. No one loves a persistent winner, no matter what our current president says. Sometimes, the losers really get pissed off at the winners, especially when they’re such douchebags about it—and act like big baby losers when they lose. But maybe that’s just me (full disclosure: the two teams I dislike the most are the Patriots and the Steelers. When the two teams played each other last year, I didn’t know who to root for—I think in the end I just wanted a scoreless tie). Built around the author’s quest to become Tom Brady’s new best friend is the story of the NFL’s biggest personalities, how it’s a huge money machine for the owners, and how it deals (badly) with its latest challenges: the Colin Kaepernick controversy, Trump’s trolling, and the truth about concussions.

When Leibovich gets snarky, he is often targeting himself. He knows he is a Masshole (the not-so-flattering nickname for Patriots fans), he knows his love for football in general, and Brady in particular, is unrequited, but he’s okay with this. When he finally gets what his heart desires—a meeting with Tom Brady!—he is nervous, sweaty, and completely sure he is being pranked. Brady told him to come to his apartment at Twenty-third and Madison (in Manhattan), but couldn’t be more specific:

I was in the cab on the way there when it occurred to me that any number of homes might be found at Twenty-third and Madison. So I emailed Brady back to ask him for a more precise address.
“Hahaha, I wish I knew the address,” he replied.
Brady didn’t know his home address? Another point in favor of the prank theory. At the very least, Brady’s casual ignorance of this most basic personal data reinforced the notion that he did not dwell in the pedestrian realm of slobs who must remember street addresses. (58)

The discussion of how players are viewed by the owners and the majority of fans is not entirely surprising, but still sounds somewhat shocking when you realize how true it is. Athletes who speak out (about concussions, about racial inequality) are breaking the rules. Eric Winston, then playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, was disgusted when fans cheered because the team’s (current and disliked, apparently) quarterback was led off the field, injured and likely concussed. He made the comment that it was “fucked up” so many people cheered about a player being knocked out because even if he’s a not a great quarterback, he’s still a person. When Winston’s comments went viral, fans became defensive and he was criticized. Comments Leibovich:

Athletes are never supposed to criticize fans like this, especially home fans. According to the settled norms of pro sports, customers should enjoy full absolution for any form of verbal abuse they perpetrate, by the power vested in them by their status as “fans who spend their hard-earned money”—always hard-earned—“to buy their tickets and come to games.” They pay the players’ salaries, dammit. (187)

I’ve heard the comparison before that the draft is a lot like slaves being sold at auction; the owners are primarily old white wealthy men and the players are African-American. The players are “bought” based on their bodily strength and skills—it’s not too much of a leap to see well the comparison works. Leibovich does not go quite that far in his book, but he does say that it is disturbing to hear newly drafted players refer to their coaches and the team owners as their “owners” because it’s so close to the truth: players, no matter their contract, can be traded (sold) away to another team without their permission. The aforementioned Eric Winston came to realize (as other players do) that fans consider him to be “merely a dancing elephant paid to perform” and don’t care about him as a human being, but only as a football player. “The prevailing sentiment Winston heard from fans during that time was that players were paid well; they should just shut up and play” (187-188). Where have we heard that before?

To get a full picture of Trump’s unrelenting trolling of the NFL and Colin Kaepernick, you need to realize two things: 1) Trump’s a racist asshole and 2) He carries a huge grudge against the NFL because the owners wouldn’t let him join the Membership. The Membership, of course, are the team owners. The author describes them this way:

There is much about the Membership that is “inadvertent,” starting with who gets to join this freakish assembly. They are quite a bunch: old money and new, recovering drug addicts and born-again Christians and Orthodox Jews; sweethearts, criminals, and a fair number of Dirty Old Men. They are tycoons of enlarged ego, delusion, and prostate whose ranks include heir-owners like the Maras, Rooneys, and Hunts, of the Giants, Steelers, and Chiefs, respectively, whose family names conjure league history and muddy fields, sideline fedoras and NFL Films. There is also a truck-stop operator whose company admitting to defrauding its customers in a $92 million judicial settlement, a duo of New Jersey real estate developers who were forced to pay $84.5 million on compensatory damages because, according to judge, they “used organized crime-type activities” to fleece their business partners, an energy baron who funded an antigay initiative, a real estate giant married to a Walmart heiress, tax evaders, etc…Trails of ex-wives, litigants, estranged children, and fired coaches populate their histories. (29)

“The NFL had long factored in Trump’s well-documented Wannabe Complex: his craving for acceptance from the real billionaires and real tough guys whose ranks he desperately wanted to join…Trump did not come close to passing muster with the Membership. He was, for starters, not considered sufficiently solvent or transparent to proffer a serious bid. Football owners, as it turns out, get a much closer look at a candidate’s finances than electorates do” (231).

I’ve included a lot of quotations from the book and that’s because the author’s prose is fun. It’s also because I finished reading this book about two weeks ago and haven’t had the time till now to write the damn review, so any kind of coherent summary I had outlined in my head dissipated long ago. This is a fun, interesting look at the NFL and its myriad problems and personalities. While I think the author tackles serious issues the NFL faces, I wouldn’t say this book is a serious, in depth exposé of the business and sport as a whole. If you enjoyed the quotations I inserted and have even a mild interest in football, I’d say read the book. If you want a more serious take on the NFL, I’d say look elsewhere.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets 5 stars from me because it's so well-written. This really isn't a book about the NFL, so much as it is a peek behind the curtain of the people who run it (the commissioner and the owners), and it's also about Tom Brady. So it's a weird setup but the stories are all great and it's interesting to get an insider view into some of the big news stories the NFL has had over the last couple of years. Leibovich is a great writer.

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better) · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Mess

This book is trying to be an editorial piece on the NFL, politics and anti-Trump but selling it as a football book.

The author’s bias is not very well hidden and actually shines right through especially when he finds every opportunity to slam President Trump This includes areas that one has to really stretch to find action actual involvement by President Trump

[Jose Vitela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Occasionally you come across a book (show or movie) that is bad but for some reason you're able to power through only to wonder why you didn't cut your losses early. I felt this way with this book. No offense to the author, I haven't written a book (yet) and have respect for the process but this should have been a much shorter article (or series of articles) and not a book. It might have been more beneficial to write exclusively about Jerry Jones and America's team within the context of the NFL of the last 20 years. Or a book about the effectiveness and nearly universal hatred of Roger Goodel. Or a book on the unbelievable 10 year dynasty the Patriots have built and an insight into the Patriot machine. Anyway, this book was trying to be all of that and as a result did not render much of anything other than a feeling of precious time wasted.

[Brian Calandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a guy who spent four years embedded with NFL owners and athletes, Leibovitch came out with very little in the way of anecdotes except for getting wasted on Jerry Jones's bus and seeing Giselle Bundchen congratulating the Eagles. Almost all of this is stuff that anyone could have written after reading ESPN NFL coverage for a few years and then summarizing. And he's got nothing but loathing for the beat writers who cover the game.

Most irritating is the author's smug, arch tone -- he's an avid football fan, but takes pains to emphasize that the game is stupid, fandom is infantile, the owners are craven fatcats and the athletes are exploited idiots. And what is with all the fat shaming and calling people ugly? It's like a mean girl spent a day covering the NFL and the only thing that made and impact was the bad facial hair and obesity. I know that billionaires need no one to protect them, but if I ever happen to be in the same room with Mark Leibovitch, I know he'll be sniggering about my beard and belly.

Leibovitch's aloofness, superficial coverage and affected self-deprecation gives away the real purpose of the book -- this is NOT a book for football fans. If you follow the game you already know all of the stories here and know a bit more about what the owners were thinking about deflategate and the flag fiasco. Instead, this is a book for people who read "This Town," but who don't know anything about football. Leibovitch is here to summarize the last four years in the game for someone who doesn't follow football. He wants these people to know that it's all stupid and they're not missing anything, and if he was any smarter he'd stop paying attention too.

This was a real disappointment -- fans should just reread Michael MacCambridge's "America's Game" (which Leibovitch cites liberally). It does what Leibovitch is trying to do with the mean girl attitude.

[Jolene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich people suck. Jerry Jones is a cartoon. The Lambeau Leap is one of the greatest traditions of human achievement. Ultimately, this book didn't really SAY anything, but I was endlessly entertained.

[Gina Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t express how much I enjoyed this book. It’s smart and funny and gossipy and solemn and the Leibovitz has enough sense to share his sheepishness about being a Masshole.

I loved reading about The Membership and its junior high issues. I loved learning how much Tom Brady curses (maybe he’s not a robot?). I loved learning about the power and the money. And most of all, I loved reading the section about Pittsburgh and Dan Rooney. I got to gawk at Rooney’s funeral from my office across the street from the church, and it it’s fun for me to know that Leibovitz was there, and that he wrote about things I saw.

If you’re at all interested in looking at the ways the NFL intersects with (and smashes into) our culture, give this a read.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rollicking expose that is often very funny.

[Bobby Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed disjointed and repetitive in some parts. Enjoyed some of Leibovich's roasting, but a lot of it felt forced and too snarky. Second half of the book was much better than the first.

[Alex Hairston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought the sound bites or excerpts I read in the press were all I really needed to know. I also didn't realize how New England centric this book was before I read it.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leibovich says things in funny ways which I appreciate. His lampooning of politicians in This Town was an apt choice for his talents. It doesn't quite work the same when your subjects is world class athletes and winning coaches, though I appreciated his digs at Roger Goodell, the politician that runs the league. I think it's his ability to describe the little quirks of conversations or the idiosyncratic behaviors of people. In and around that is a story about the pulse on the NFL during the middle of Trump's time in the white house. The casual fan may enjoy this but not as much as the hard core.

[Chris Pippin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I heard Leibovich discuss his book on a podcast and was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, as you'll discover very early on, Leibovich is a Pats fan. This wouldn't be a problem on its own, but he spends a good third of the book relitigating Deflategate, and spends the remainder of the book coming to grips with his own feelings about Tom Brady and Bob Kraft. The best parts of the book are the nuggets about Arthur Blank, Woody Johnson, and the other owners, but those nuggets are too few and far between to recommend.

[Darrell Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting nuggets about what the "Membership" (NFL Owners) are like, but mostly this book is just a dreary march through tailgates, stadiums, owners meetings, and parties.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing..a little snark, and little that's new.

[Mark Miano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the dinner table one night we got into a discussion about Thomas Jefferson and whether it was fair to judge him today as a hypocrite for penning the phrase “all men are created equal” while being the owner of slaves. (I believe it is fair to make this judgment)

I asked my sons if they could think of anything that we were doing today that people 200 years from now might similarly brand us as hypocrites for continuing to do, even though we knew it was wrong. We came up with two examples: driving gasoline powered cars despite evidence of climate change, and watching football despite evidence of the crippling brain damage the game inflicts upon its players.

CTE and the concussion issue is just one of several things happening in professional football today that make Mark Leibovich’s book so aptly named: BIG GAME: THE NFL IN DANGEROUS TIMES. Other controversies span race, culture, wealth disparity, politics, and more - a wide ranging narrative that covers everything from Deflategate, to Trump blasting kneeling football players, to clueless billionaire owners, to the much hated commissioner Roger Goodell.

This is the second book I’ve read by Leibovich. I also read - and loved - THIS TOWN, which detailed the grotesque behavior of Washington insiders in the media, political, and lobbying worlds. As he did in his first book, Leibovich comes across as kind of a dick. He’s funny to read, but there’s also something uncomfortable about the way everyone seems to be fair game for a takedown. He seems to enjoy it a little too much. Another strike against him is that he’s an unapologetic New England Patriots fan. So I’d say yes, Leibovich definitely is a dick. But I also admire his journalistic chops and his take no prisoners approach to describing everyone as he sees them, no matter if they’re Jerry Jones, Roger Goodell, or the G.O.A.T.(Greatest Of All Time) hero Tom Brady.

This is a book that will appeal to football fans and football haters alike. Leibovich is becoming one of those can’t-miss nonfiction writers, in the vein of Michael Lewis, who cover whatever interests them: sports, politics, Wall Street, etc. Wherever they seem to look, they find subjects that reflect back the good, bad, and ugly of America today. As Leibovich himself notes about football:

“There is something about this sport that brings the story back to its most fascinating self. I would always tell people that whenever they would ask how I could keep watching football, despite everything I saw and everything we were learning. I say this every time: the best thing football has going for itself is football.”

[Sean McGowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the level of access Mark Leibovich got, it's incredibly easy to see how this could've been a 400-page puff piece in the hands different sportswriter. But Leibovich recognizes this league is 99% bullshit—including his own investment in it— and tackles it accordingly. It's a refreshing self-awareness that most people frankly wouldn't expect from a guy that shares an office with David Brooks.

Even with Leibovich's backstage passes to all of the NFL's bluster, there isn't anything in this book we don't already know. We know Tom Brady is a deeply weird human being. We know that Jerry Jones is a lecherous old pervert. What Leibovich is doing here is confirming and fleshing out those perceptions with juicy details, anecdotes, insinuations, and rumors, all tracked with his own snarky commentary. It's kind of like solving those connect-the-dots puzzles. Yes, you've made the picture clearer, but we already figured out its a duck by Dot 13.

I don't want to sell that short—Mark Leibovich has a definite nose for exactly the kind of color commentary that people want to hear. For instance, we know that Jerry Jones is a lecherous old pervert. I did not know he's got a ready-to-go anecdote about masturbating into a pair of shoes. For me, that was enough. Your mileage may vary

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leibovich is a political writer who produced a book about the NFL at a cultural crossroads. The reviews I read said that this book covered a league besieged by political crosswinds, criticism for its mishandling of domestic abuse, and reeling from new information about the danger of concussions for its players. But I found this book to be too personal by half--it was mostly a tale of the author's affection for the New England Patriots.

Leibovich did manage to get a great deal of access, to the NFL commissioner, several NFL owners, and Tom Brady. But he produced an underwhelming book from all that access. I would have liked to see more revelations about what the league is like on the inside, but all I got was a wild tale of what it is like to drink Johnnie Walker Blue with Jerry Jones on Jones's bus.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any modern football fan capable of self-reflection. If you are not willing to reconcile your love of the NFL with the billionaire ownership group ("Membership") who do not care about the well-being or independent thoughts of their players I would avoid this book. All Patriots fans (myself included) will find the in-depth sections on Kraft and Brady particularly compelling in this regard.

[Josh Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this, for many reasons.

- Football
- Nice to get away from Nixonland sometimes
- Nice to get away from the real world

It’s weird because this book doesn’t go back *that* far. 2015 is basically the earliest the narrative is and the NFL was so different back then. No politics, at least like it is today. Was like being transported in time.

Loved the sense of humor as well. Fun writer. 8.5/10

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are interested in professional football, you will find, Big Game: the NFL in Danferous Times an interesting read. One caution, I did not realize it centered so much on Tom Brady & the Boston Patriots. The author’s adoration of Tom Brady does become repetitive and overstated. For a look into how professional football operates this book is informative.

[Dylan Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The same biting sense of humor and keen judgment of character that made THIS TOWN such a delight is back — and the subject might be even better suited to Leibovich’s talents.

You walk away feeling like you really do understand the NFL better but all the more baffled that these yahoos run the biggest entertainment brand in sports.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not have enjoyed reading a book anymore than I did this one

Leibovich has a keen eye at studying other humans. Fortunately he is able to share these keen and witty observations with us mere mortals. I loved this book and can hardly wait for his next offering.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how this book explores the moment in time in the NFL. It was an almost outsiders look into how the NFL functions as an organization and on a team level. He shares his time interacting with executives and with players. It kept me engaged the entire time.

[MacKenzie Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really funny.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a disappointment. Leibovich is a good writer, but he really doesn't have much to say. It's supposed to be an examination of the NFL, but this is a series of bits and pieces where the whole is less than the sum of its parts. This comes off less like analysis and more like tourism. Leibovich recounts the conversations he has with various NFL people - Jerry Jones, Tom Brady, Robert Kraft, etc - but the focus of the book is who would talk to Leibovich and what they said to him, not about any of the issues the NFL is facing these days. It's an exercise in navel-gazing. That Leibovich is a respected national correspondent is depressing, as he's living up to a negative media stereotype here as someone more interested in access than in the story he's supposedly reporting on.

Also, Leibovich let's his Patriots-fandom get in the way of things. He's more interested in talking to Tom Brady than he is in most of the issues that are supposedly central to the book.

Some parts of interesting and Leibovich is, as noted already, good at stringing sentences together. But this book is far closer to two stars than to four stars.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to enjoy this book more. I have both a professional and personal interest in sports business and I find Leibovich an entertaining and engaging writer so I figured this book was bound to be right for me. But it missed somehow. Maybe it was his subject matter; ultra rich people just aren’t that interesting I suppose. The book became very repetitious - the stories may have been slightly different but the characters were the same , the interactions with Leibovich were the same and the interactions with each other were the same with Tom Brady became tiresome very quickly. All in all, while they were scattered nuggets of interesting tidbits of interesting information about various NFL owners and assorted others, pun intended, there just wasn’t enough to carry the book as a whole. You were not left with a clear picture of the league or the crisis it is truly undergoing, although he alluded to it’s problems many times, without really delving into the owner’s attempts to address any of them. If that was his point, he didn’t make it very well.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gets a little too one-note as it goes on, but it is a good reminder that rich people are the absolute worst.

[Sabra · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is not a fan of football, I found this surprisingly enjoyable

[Amara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially liked that recap at the end of the Falcons’ epic choke in Super LI. Who dat?!