NFL Football in the Rowdy, Reckless '70s--The Era that Created Modern Sports
W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated
September 2012
On Sale: September 3, 2012
288 pages ISBN: 0393080161 EAN: 9780393080162 Kindle: B007Q6XMHE Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL historyβpro footballβs raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montanaβs gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today. Kevin Cookβs rollicking chronicle of this pivotal decade draws on interviews with legendary playersβHarris, Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Ken βSnakeβ Stablerβto re-create their heroics and off-field carousing. He shows coaches John Madden and Bill Walsh outsmarting rivals as Monday Night Football redefined sportsβ place in American life. Celebrating the game while lamenting the physical toll it took on footballβs greatest generation, Cook diagrams the NFLβs transformation from second-tier sport into national obsession. 8 pages of photographs
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