Playmakers: How the NFL Really Works (And Doesn’t) - Mike Florio

Written by Mike Florio
Read by Dan Woren
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release date: March 15, 2022
Duration: 12:12:56

The story of a modern NFL that can’t get out of its own way—and can’t stop making money

In recent decades, the NFL has simultaneously become an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse—and a League that can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a scandal. Whether it’s about domestic violence, performance-enhancing drugs, racism, or head trauma, the NFL always seems to be in some kind of trouble. Yet no matter the drama, the TV networks keep showing games, the revenue keeps rising, and the viewers keep tuning in.

How can a sports league—or any organization—operate this way? Why do the negative stories keep happening, and why don’t they ever seem to affect the bottom line? In this wide-ranging book, Mike Florio takes readers from the boardroom to the locker room, from draft day to the Super Bowl, answering these questions and more, and showing what really goes on in the sport that America can’t seem to quit.

Known for his constant stream of new information and incisive commentary, Florio delivers again in this book. With new insights and reporting on scandals past and present, this book will be the talk of the League—whether the League likes it or not.

“…Throughout, the author’s sympathies are clearly with the players. He writes sympathetically about Colin Kaepernick, whose “role as the robot who made the other robots self-aware turned him into a pariah,” and Tim Tebow, who, though he turned out to be a flash in the pan, at least had his day in the sun. Florio is less kindly disposed toward the money side of the game, with its nepotistic front offices, managerial ineptitude, and coaching jobs that “are filled based on factors other than merit.” A sometimes ill-tempered and snarky but always entertaining look beyond the gridiron.” — Kirkus Reviews,