The Red Zone: Cars, Cows and Coaches : The Life and Good Times of a Texas Dealmaker

by Red McCombs, Mickey Herskowitz

Big man, big voice, big boots, and big deals. Meet Red McCombs, who hasn't heard his given name, Billy Joe, since his mother called him that years ago. His is a story of "only in America," but with a Texas twist. Even down to the name he never uses, Red is a living logo for the Lone Star State—a strapping man with a booming bass voice, a wheeler-dealer who shoots from the hip and asks questions later. In the circles he travels, people know him only as Red. They also know him as cattle and oil baron, empire builder in cars and sports, investor in more than 200 companies. In the area of sports, Red offers a revealing glimpse that few if any owners have ever shared. He tells how trades are made and how coaches are hired and fired. Few self-made billionaires ever had a more rollicking ride for their money. McCombs has power and knows how to use it. He's made a fortune and knows how to share it. This is an autobiography unlike any written by a corporate giant.

226 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Billy Joe "Red" McCombs was a businessman and self-made billionaire. He was the founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group in San Antonio, Texas, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a past chairman of Constellis Group, a onetime owner of the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Force, Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Vikings, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He was on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Reviews

[Christopher Lewis Kozoriz · Rating 2 out of 5]

"You do need to be aware that there is no such thing as a self-made man. I'm certainly not one. We all have help along the way. But if you define "self-made" as having created wealth when you were not born with a family fortune, yeah, I have done that.
If I had to reveal only one key condition for success in business, it would be to pick great partners-if partners are necessary. You should pick someone who would put his hand in the fire for you and vice versa." (Red McCombs, Red Zone: Cars, Cows, and Coaches, Page 166)

Lots of football talk in this book. I would say 90% of this book is about football. The author starts off sharing about his upbringings and then goes on and on about football. I didn't really read this book to learn about football. I am reading his book to learn how he went to zero to billionaire status. He shares very little about that. What I gleaned from this book is that he worked hard, he partnered, he took advantage of opportunities, he had a bit of luck, he made decisive decisions, he treated everything as a business, even the football business. I lost count of how many coaches he fired in this book. Coach after coach after coach. If the teams he bought did not perform, he fired the coach. He says in this book that this is normal in football.

At the end of the book he talks about helping schools. This chapter I liked. My favourite quote from this chapter is the following:

"There is, or should be, a touch of the dreamer in each of us. The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next level, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth. Good teachers earn a kind of immortality. They stay with you for the rest of your life, and later you always intend to go back and visit, except you rarely do. They understand." (Page 209)

If you are planning on owning a sports team then this might be a good business book for you. There are sparse business nuggets here. You really have to beg for them. I am not sure why a billionaire would write a book and then not share much about what kind of thinking got him to his status. That's why most people read books by billionaires. Not to learn about football. Yes, include a chapter, but not 90% of the book. Those are my thoughts. I had a look to see if the author has written other books about his life and to my surprise he did, it is called Big Red. Perhaps, that will be a better book. Hope so!