Read Online Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL Audible Audio Edition Jeff Pearlman Joel Richards LLC Dreamscape Media Books
Download As PDF : Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL Audible Audio Edition Jeff Pearlman Joel Richards LLC Dreamscape Media Books
The United States Football League was the last football league to not merely challenge the mighty NFL but also to cause it to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, featured as many as 18 teams, secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans, and launched the careers of legends - but then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner, a New York businessman named Donald Trump.
In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than 400 interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports listeners back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost and how, 30 years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler. This is sports as high entertainment - and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.
Read Online Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL Audible Audio Edition Jeff Pearlman Joel Richards LLC Dreamscape Media Books
"What started as an insterting read quickly turned into an anti-Trump bashing. Anyone who remembers the USFL, should agree that we may be still watching it if not for Trump. The fake court ramblings of former Commish Pete Rozell really did it for me. A waste of time and money to read..Wannt a good book on the subject,The United States Football League, 1982-1986 by Paul Reeths and the hard to find The $1 League: The Rise And Fall Of The USFL by Jim Byrne..I'm not a Trump fan by the way."
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Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL Audible Audio Edition Jeff Pearlman Joel Richards LLC Dreamscape Media Books Reviews :
Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL Audible Audio Edition Jeff Pearlman Joel Richards LLC Dreamscape Media Books Reviews
- As a casual fan of the Tampa Bay Bandits back in the USFL days, I was eager to read this book. Though there wasn't much about the Bandits save for John Bassett being the only sane adult in the room, I enjoyed it immensely. I found myself very sad for what could have been. Does the book have an anti-Trump bias? Sure. But then again, the truth often has an anti-Trump bias. I don't think the book would have been written much differently had Trump never run for president. The proposed move to the fall killed the league and it was Trump who led that charge. So therefore, Trump killed the league. Overall, very well written, easy to follow and fun to read.
- I am a sports fan, old enough to remember the USFL from my mid-late teens. When the UPS guy tossed “Football For A Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL†by Jeff Pearlman on my porch, I knocked it off; more or less; in one sitting.
It’s exactly what I thought it’d be, a “Ball Four†in a helmet and dem shoulder m’pads, with no cup on, about a league that; 35 years later; is remembered (If at all) as having been “Small potatoes†(by our current Circus Peanut-in-Chief) or just a joke.
The truth is, the USFL produced four Pro Football Hall-of-Famers, two Super Bowl MVPs, sixty Pro Bowlers, and three full teams worth of NFL players.
And five future professional wrestlers.
Jim Kelly, Kent Hull, Ray Bentley, and Scott Norwood; from the Bills Super Bowl teams; all played in the USFL, and the braintrust that put those teams together; Bill Polian, John Butler, and Marv Levy; were all ex-USFLers.
The USFL’s last season was 1985. In 1987, the Saints made their first playoff appearance EVER, with Bobby Hebert and Sam Mills among ten ex-USFL players on a roster coached by Jim Mora, who coached the Philadelphia-Baltimore Stars to all three USFL Championship Games, winning the last two.
Before dueling in the Bills @ 49ers “No Punt Game,†Steve Young and the LA Express vs. Jim Kelly and the Houston Gamblers in 1985 became known as “The Greatest Game No One Saw.â€
They’re all in there, and so are the nobodies, the coke-heads, the steroid-users, and the guy who a.) only got a draw trying to fight the coach as he was being cut, and b.) followed the team owner home to his mansion with a baseball bat to collect money he was rightfully owed.
And I give Pearlman a lot of credit. It probably would’ve been a lot easier to promote a book about “How We Should’ve Known The Current President Is A Moron By How He Single-Handedly Ruined The USFL†here in 2018.
Pearlman didn’t write that book. You can’t tell the story of the USFL without talking about Trump. But I thought he was in the book in the right proportion. He’s in there exactly as much as he needs to be to tell the story of “The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL,†and no more.
The book is fantastic. An enormously fun read. - What started as an insterting read quickly turned into an anti-Trump bashing. Anyone who remembers the USFL, should agree that we may be still watching it if not for Trump. The fake court ramblings of former Commish Pete Rozell really did it for me. A waste of time and money to read..Wannt a good book on the subject,The United States Football League, 1982-1986 by Paul Reeths and the hard to find The $1 League The Rise And Fall Of The USFL by Jim Byrne..I'm not a Trump fan by the way.
- This was a terrific read, explaining in detail the three year rise and fall of the USFL. The league began as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, but, to their credit, the owners righted the ship and were destined for success, exploiting the notion that Americans would embrace first rate football played during the spring.
Then enter Donald Trump, who had been rejected for ownership in the NFL. As an end-around, he purchased the NJ Generals, convinced the other owners to go head to head with the NFL playing fall football, and sued the NFL for non-competitive practices, leaking to the press all the while information that would bolster his position. The league won the suit, was awarded $1 in damages, and soon after disbanded. Another one of Trump’s business successes!
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read that I recommend with enthusiasm. - I was a little worried about reading this book, because I follow Jeff Pearlman on Twitter (@jeffpearlman) and let’s just say he’s not a big fan of Donald Trump, and I’m sick of politics. But the worry was unfounded. He does take justifiable shots at DT for helping to ruin the magnificent and bizarre experiment of the USFL, but the book is full of hilarious stories, is well-researched and well-written, and engages you in the history of a league that most have long forgotten.
(I picked up this gem in the footnotes “Yes, we were awful,†said Alan Risher, Arizona’s quarterback. “But we had a defensive back whose name was Admiral Dewey Larry. That’s amazing.â€)
I found the story frustrating because if blustering egos hadn’t become involved, it’s obvious that this thing could’ve worked. I think (and some of the attendance numbers show) that there was a market for a spring league with a modest budget and a limited number of teams, and a cable package. There’s a bit of dead zone, sports-wise, after the Final Four, before the NBA and NHL Playoffs get deep, as MLB is just gearing up. The USFL could’ve exploited that gap. Alas, it was not to be.
A great story, though.
