Synopses & Reviews
Professional football today is a $6 billion sports entertainment industry. In this astute field-level view of the National Football League since 1960, Michael Oriard looks closely at the development of the sport and at the image of the NFL and its unique place in American life. At the heart of this story is a question with no simple answer: has the extraordinary commercializing and "branding" of NFL football since the late 1980s ironically weakened the cultural power of a sport whose appeal for more than a century was fundamentally noncommercial?
Review
Brand NFL is the definitive account of America's most compelling sport.
Sally Jenkins, sports columnist, The Washington Post
Review
Detailed, compelling, and strangely fascinating. . . . This book's signal contribution to our understanding of leisure, culture, and sport in America makes it highly recommended.
Library Journal, starred review
Review
Only an offensive center could have written this book! Michael Oriard is detailed, conscientious, and accurate. This is the most comprehensive document of NFL growth I have seen.
Bill Curry
Review
"Many books have been written about the NFL but, quite simply,
Brand NFL is the best."
-Florida Historical Quarterly
About the Author
Michael Oriard, a former professional football player, is Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. He is author of Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle and King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies and Magazines, the Weekly and the Daily Press (both from the University of North Carolina Press).
Table of Contents
"Provides an excellent history of the NFL. . . . Sophisticated and accessible. . . . Especially appropriate for undergraduate and non-scholarly readers."
-American Studies "A fascinating journey from the 1969 beginning of Pete Rozelle's reign and his revolutionary idea of revenue sharing to the 2007 hiring of Roger Goddell and the failure to persuade cable providers to carry the league's network as a part of their basic packages."
-Aethlon Enlightening and well researched. With his casual humor and refreshing lack of academic-speak, Oriard has fashioned a riveting examination of how a violent sport has become a staggering mainstream American success.
-Publishers Weekly "An excellent addition to the literature on sport. . . . Recommended."
-CHOICE Detailed, compelling, and strangely fascinating. . . . This book's signal contribution to our understanding of leisure, culture, and sport in America makes it highly recommended.
-Library Journal, starred review Oriard, a former pro player and current professor, makes the epic tale of the NFL's touchdown drive from tainted image to powerhouse brand as intensely exciting as a Sunday game on a highlight reel.
-Robert Lipsyte, contributing writer, The New York Times Brand NFL is the definitive account of America's most compelling sport.
-Sally Jenkins, sports columnist, The Washington Post Only an offensive center could have written this book! Michael Oriard is detailed, conscientious, and accurate. This is the most comprehensive document of NFL growth I have seen.
-Bill Curry