Noted Washington Post sports reporter and columnist Mark Maske has written the Moneyball of professional football, a behind-the-scenes account of a year in the life of the on- and off-field competition between four of the NFL's bitterest rivals: the New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys.

The NFL's NFC East is perhaps the most storied division in all of professional sports. The rivalries are ancient and bitter, the markets are sports mad, media saturated, and very impatient with failure, and the owners, coaches, and players include many of the most outsized egos in the game. How better, then, to understand the big competition and big business of pro football today than by spending a year with a behind-the-scenes pass in the cockpits of all four organizations, chronicling the strategy and tactics employed over the course of an unrelenting four-season struggle?

To place the story of the NFC East within its larger context, Mark Maske has secured extraordinary access to the new league commissioner's office as well as that of the players association head, Gene Upshaw, and the most important agents in the game. But the heart of Maske's story is his relentlessly reported account of the view from the leadership level of each of these four franchises, all in their way struggling with dramatic personality conflicts and unexpected changes in personnel and fortune. The result is nirvana for sports fans, an engrossing ride through a competitive free-fire zone in which the pressure is unremitting and the punishment for failure is swift and sure.

The NFL is the most successful professional sports league in America, and its influence on the culture enormous: Through the story of these four organizations locked in a steelcage match with one another over the course of this one year, Mark Maske takes the measure of this league in a way no one before has and few others could.

"'The four teams in the NFC East have won 10 Super Bowls, and Maske, a sports columnist for the Washington Post, offers an up-close look at these storied franchises throughout 2006. Legendary Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs struggles in his second stint with the team; controversial receiver Terrell Owens tries to make nice with his new employer, the Dallas Cowboys; the New York Giants surge and then struggle under disciplinarian coach Tom Coughlin and young quarterback Eli Manning; and the Philadelphia Eagles adjust to a slow start and a season-ending injury of their star, quarterback Donovan McNabb. The book excels when Maske profiles key characters — such as Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells or Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Too often, however, Maske offers breezy accounts of games and interviews. He looks at how running an NFL team has become a major endeavor, and while his extensive (if not overwhelming) coverage of the collective bargaining agreement shows how the league has become a big business, it takes away from the stories of a new generation of driven men with limited time, limited earning potentials and big dreams of winning a Super Bowl. That kind of personal touch is missing far too often in this ambitious but anticlimatic book. Photos not seen by PW.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Noted "Washington Post" sports reporter and columnist Maske has written a behind-the-scenes account of a year in the life of the on-and-off the field competitions among four of the NFLs most bitter rivals.

Mark Maske is a Washington Post staff writer and sports columnist. He also writes The Washington Post's NFL Insider blog and is a frequent guest on ESPN, ESPN radio, and other sports media. He lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.