Playmakers: How the NFL Really Works

by Mike Florio

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.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Audiobook, Business, History

384 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2022

About the author

Mike Florio (born June 8, 1965) is an American sportswriter, radio host, and television commentator. He writes for Profootballtalk.com, which he created and owns.

Florio is also a contributor to NBC's Sunday night NFL studio show Football Night in America and appears in the Sunday Night Football postgame show to break down the NFL's top stories of the day with Bob Costas. Additionally, he appears with Peter King during halftime of NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football to discuss timely NFL topics.[2]

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me tell you how “Playmakers” is structured. You know how Florio writes his snarky opinion pieces on ProFootballTalk? Every chapter of this book is one of those columns. They’re all style with very little substance, colored with Florio’s traditional holier-than-thou judgment passed towards the NFL, its players, its owners, and its fans. What I’ve come to realize is that Florio is a sportswriter in the sense that he writes about the NFL. He is not in any sense of the word a sports journalist. He does not investigate, he does not inquire, he does not research. He wonders, writes about his thoughts, and presses publish.

The tagline to the book, “How the NFL Really Works (And Doesn’t)” is intentionally misleading. How Florio marketed the book on his website and elsewhere was that of a hidden treasure trove of previously unknown league secrets. This was going to be big, I thought. Even if it didn’t shake the foundations of the league as we know it, could there be some hidden facts and details about the league’s most scandalous stories that were just waiting to be brought to light? Was there a reason that, in Florio’s own words, the league didn’t want this book published? Well, no, at least, not in this text. It’s basically a historical retelling of some recent events in NFL history broken up into different categories. As a football fan, you most likely already know the stories. Remember how Terrell Owens was behaving badly to get out of his Eagles contract? Well, that happened, and guess what? He was JUSTIFIED because he KNEW HIS WORTH. Real brave statement there, player with talent deserves more money. You know how teams apply the franchise tag to prevent star players from leaving in free agency? That’s a BAD THING for the PLAYERS and FANS SHOULD KNOW THAT. Hoo boy, try to cool yourself off after a take that scorching hot. There is, I kid you not, an entire chapter dedicated to the simple notion that, when assistant coaches and coordinators don’t succeed as head coaches, they have to become assistant coaches and coordinators once again. Even the factual recollections of historical NFL events contain nothing in the way of new details and revelations. There’s nothing new to say about why Andrew Luck retired, although Florio remembers turning on his phone during an outing at a Broadway show with his wife to learn of it at the time. (Real football fans would have spurned Broadway and the wife and would already be tuned in to NFL Network to watch the preseason game that was on when the news broke.)

What gets me about this format and structure is that Florio already does this on an everyday basis for his ProFootballTalk website. His column is chock-full of ‘revelations’ like these. Citing his prior career as an attorney, Florio passes judgment upon the league and the events surrounding it. Florio’s knowledge of legalese can be genuinely helpful here because much of the NFL’s problems wind up being resolved in the courtroom or settled before they can reach the courtroom. Florio can break down the complexities to those without law degrees and explain the implications. He’s free to do so without much league oversight because compared to most other NFL news-breakers, he is relatively isolated from a television perspective. Unlike the much-maligned Adam Schefter and his entanglements with Mr. Editor, Florio’s employer is secure in its television contract with the NFL and not in danger of any backlash should one of his scalding hot takes reflect poorly on the league. The title of the book isn’t even original, and Florio admits this: He lifted it from a television drama ESPN produced about a fictional football league that the NFL used its influence to cancel. Florio is not the kind of writer that breaks news and makes headlines, he’s not an ‘NFL Insider’ with sources around the league’s many front offices. So what’s the problem?

The problem lies in Florio’s tone. From a literary perspective, a writer’s tone establishes the writer’s attitude towards a specific topic. For Florio, this topic would be the NFL and everything surrounding it. The tone Florio utilizes is that of a standoffish know-it-all, a sarcastic seer sitting in front of a cloudy crystal ball. This results in a narrative voice that supposes Florio somehow knows all the possible answers, considers all the outcomes, and holds all the cards, even regarding topics he cannot possibly have any insight on. The only certainty is that there is no certainty, just the endless realm of possibility from which any story’s ultimate outcome is defensible. Despite numerous instances in which he has been dead wrong on such topics, the tone and narrative voice remains the same. There’s no humility, no accountability, no rectifying mistakes. Let’s take a recent PFT column written by Florio as an example.

“Could Colts make a trade for Kirk Cousins?” is the clickbait headline Florio utilizes to start things off. What follows are several spaced-out sentences of supposition. There aren’t many great options for the Colts to upgrade at quarterback. Washington overpaid for the Colts’ old starter Carson Wentz out of desperation. Kirk Cousins would provide stability at the position, albeit with receivers that aren’t as good as what he has in Minnesota. All ‘stating the obvious’-type observations.

Then comes the Florio signature, in a brief, four-sentence paragraph: “Cousins has shown no inclination to extend his deal with Minnesota. Nor should he. Maybe he would do so for the Colts. That would make him more attractive, and more valuable in a trade.” Ah, Cousins shouldn’t extend his existing Minnesota deal. Why shouldn’t he? No reason or justification is given, it’s just an unsupported opinion. Maybe he would change his mind with Indianapolis. Okay, what evidence is there to support this? Are there any connections or relationships that exist that would suggest Cousins would do this? If there are, Florio didn’t put them in his column. Later on, Florio goes off-topic to again state the obvious by revealing, shock of shocks here, that if Cousins were to go to the Colts, then, gasp! The VIKINGS would need a starting quarterback! Good golly gosh, who could THAT mystery player be? Deshaun Watson, perhaps? “For the same reason the Colts may be willing to go all in with Cousins for a year, the Vikings may be, too.” More maybes, no facts. No evidence. Just…mights. Perhapses. Possiblys. So, could the Colts make a trade for Kirk Cousins? The top comment on the article sums it up best: “Yes they could!”

This column was published on March 10, 2022. It’s still there, you can read it if you want. On March 13, Kirk Cousins extended his existing contract with the Minnesota Vikings through 2023. Hmm, he did exactly what Florio supposed he wouldn’t do, nor should he have done, in Mike’s opinion. There was no inside information contained in Florio’s March 10 column. There was no hidden detail or concealed truth within the Vikings organization that would have pointed to a willingness to re-up with Cousins, nor was there a dissenting opinion within the team that may have indicated otherwise. A similar column with similar results appears in Playmakers, specifically pertaining to the upcoming breakup between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, slated to happen on the book’s publication date according to Florio. Rodgers has since signed a four-year contract with Green Bay, and he is on the best terms he has been in many years with the Packers organization. Florio doesn’t have sources, he has himself, and that’s it.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that! You’re allowed to have opinions about football, and you can write about them on the Internet. Just don’t think there’s anything more to those opinions, because that’s all they are. They’re just opinions, suppositions, musings, you might say. Accordingly, that’s all Playmakers is: Opinions interwoven with Wikipedia articles about recent events in the NFL. Each ‘chapter’ is two to three pages long, tops, and chapters themselves are organized into subcategories like “Quarterbacks” and “Coaches”. I haven’t been a PFT reader for very long, but the urge I kept getting while reading was to log on and check the ProFootballTalk archives to see if these ‘chapters’ had been published before in years past on the site, and for some of the chapters that covered older historical material, it felt like Florio asked himself “What if I had my site during the days when Mike Tice coached the Vikings, what would I have said in a column about them then?” And then he wrote exactly that.

What would really improve this book in my view is if some of the many maybes and perhapses Florio serves up could be defined in some way. I find myself yearning for a solid yes or no when faced with the inter-league drama that Florio recalls. In the Coaches section, Florio brings up how the Buccaneers traded for Jon Gruden. Trades involving coaches are exceedingly rare, and Florio speculates on why that is. He wonders if it’s a gentleman’s agreement between clubs or if Roger Goodell is exercising his Commissioner’s authority. Yet there isn’t a resolution to these suggestions; if anything, Florio worsens the uncertainty by stating, “The fact that it happens so rarely and is mentioned so infrequently invites speculation that something deeper is happening.” I’m like the guy in the meme going, “Well? We’re waiting!” It’s obvious something deeper is happening, I purchased the book to get an inkling of this something deeper, but instead the book tells me what I already know: Something deeper is indeed happening, and here’s Mike Florio to remind you of this fact.

This is especially disappointing when encountering chapters that cover litigation, which is where I was expecting Florio’s legal background to truly shine forth. Yet the Rooney Rule chapter was more of the same. Aside from an introductory legal explanation of management rights as they pertain to the rule (which I appreciated), the chapter is henceforth a history of how NFL teams have skirted or dodged the requirements of the Rooney Rule, and what actions the league has taken in subsequent years to prevent such abuses from happening again. With the Brian Flores lawsuit still on the table as of now, I was hoping this chapter would shed some light on what might wind up happening as a result, but all Florio says is that it may take another lawsuit to enact more change, and not even that another lawsuit would enact change, that it may. A Florio column till the end. Even chapters about the future of professional football don’t go into all that much depth and are filled with more maybes and perhapses. I expected this to be the part of the book with the most support after I grasped Florio’s writing style, but even here, entire chapters can be summarized in a sentence. The NFL might expand again, perhaps even as far as London. The NFL should be careful about legalized gambling or the government could get involved. We might see a corrupt official one day. Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.

None of this is to say there isn’t a place for this book. It could serve as a historical primer, specifically catered to new NFL fans, as a way to catch them up on the recent history of the game of professional football and it’s surroundings. This is particularly pertinent to the book’s treatment of tragedy in the NFL. While one could argue why they were included in the book to begin with since no new details were revealed, retellings of the death of Korey Stringer and the severe on-field injuries suffered by Chris Simms don’t have much more to offer than the paraphrasing treatment Florio gives them. What’s ultimately disappointing about Playmakers is, when sportswriters publish a book, it’s often as a way for them to think outside the box their employer places upon them and do something a little different, or sometimes a lot different. Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball is a perfect example. Back then, Simmons wrote for ESPN’s Page 2, cranking out up to three columns a week about the latest sporting news and events. Topics ranged from the NFL to the NBA to individual athletes and the occasional mailbag column, in which Simmons answered directly to his reading audience. The Book of Basketball was an opportunity for Simmons to concentrate his, at the time, boundless writing energy on the sport he loves most, addressing every individual detail of professional basketball in exhaustive fashion. While in some cases similar to his usual work in the sense that writing by the same person tends to be, it was ultimately a creative divergence for Simmons, and one that produced an exceptional result. It doesn’t have to be done this way either, Ian O’Connor of ESPN has penned biographies of Bill Belichick and Derek Jeter, while Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News has written several sports-centric works of fiction for both adults and children. These efforts were fundamentally and creatively different from their everyday work, even if they weren’t universally praised or well-received.

Mike Florio had the opportunity to do something different with Playmakers. He could have challenged the box he writes in, instead, he reinforces and insulates the box with airtight doors. Even if it didn’t succeed in the way that other titles have, I purchased this book because I wanted to support Florio in trying something different, and I hoped this would be the result, but it isn’t. From reading ProFootballTalk, you only see Florio from one lens, as that of a person who knows nothing for certain but thinks he knows everything. Playmakers could have become an additional dimension for Mike Florio’s readers, one that contextualized the lens through which Florio views the NFL. Is there a reason for the snark? Why does he sound like he knows all there is to know? What insights does he have? We’ll never know, because unfortunately, Playmakers is a disappointing case of more of the same.

[Daniel Montague · Rating 2 out of 5]

With, “Playmakers” Mike Florio has written a book with seemingly little audience. Other than a loyal and dedicated following of Profootballtalk fans, I cannot imagine who he is appealing to. He tries to take the mantle as an honest broker to the bloated and blighted NFL and comes across as little more than a gossip monger. His hot takes are tepid and warmed over, not saying anything controversial or insightful. The book is written as such: categories like Quarterbacks or Owners with a handful of2-4 page “essays” on various aspects of said categories. These essays are often just random thoughts or observations that lack interconnectivity. One will be on Tebowmania another on Brett Favre’s fickle nature and you as a reader will be left to try to connect the dots, if in fact there are any.

The disorganization while obnoxious pales in comparison to the larger issue of the utter pointlessness of this book. For fans of the NFL and its history, these short vignettes provide no extra insight besides the blathering of a semi-competent commentator. Anyone who devotes hours and hours of their life a week to watching games and dissecting tidbits throughout the year will not find any of the observations surprisingly or interesting. Who knew that the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell is a stuffed shirt who answers to the owners? That Jerry Jones is a megalomaniac, obsessed with the Cowboys being the biggest and brightest? That the NFL is now actively promoting gambling after so many years dissociating themselves and burrowing their heads in the sand? These perceptions are so commonplace to have become hackneyed. Why would anyone with a working knowledge of the NFL let alone hardcore fans be interested in such a superficial work?

Maybe those inclined to watch a game periodically might have interest in such a book, one might ask? Even for less devoted fans, this book provides little in the way of working knowledge. Due to the nature of Mike Florio as a former attorney, even with the short chapters this book still finds a way to get bogged down in legalese. It is quite a thing to be too dry for the layperson yet too gossipy for a devotee but this book finds a way. It would serve the football agnostic much better to read a magazine like Sports Illustrated even in its modern skeletal form. So with too little history and insight for fans and too much rigmarole for casuals, what is the audience?

If you are a Mike Florio Stan, like brief anecdotes of the controversies of the NFL from the last 20 years, like Florio’s radio partner Chris Simms or the referee/officiator Gene Steratore, then this book could be for you. If you do not count yourself in this small minority than I cannot imagine you enjoying this book. As someone who has spent entirely too much of their life combing through the minutiae of football, I found this book tiresome. Instead of coming across as a radical lobbing Molotov cocktails at the establishment or even making keen observations, Florio is a bargain basement Harvey Levin with superficial takes and boring perceptions.

[Matthew Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book overall was ok, the stories were mostly stories that would be familiar to NFL fans. Near the end it basically becomes an advertisement for gambling, and how the NFL needs to handle gambling in the future.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

It feels like a week cannot go by without some type of news about the National Football League (NFL) being generated. Most of the time, if the news is not about games or player accomplishments, it is usually some type of bad or controversial news. Yet, the league and the sport are more popular and making more money than ever. Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com takes a look at this seemingly contradictory phenomenon.

There isn’t an aspect about the league that Florio doesn’t cover. Whether it is the players – especially quarterbacks since they are the most important member of the team in today’s game – coaches, the draft, owners, social awareness, officials – you name it, Florio writes about it. The chapters are all very short, but packed full of not only information but well-crafted opinion and explanations on those thoughts that are just as interesting as the writing about the game itself.
One example, without giving away too much of the segments on this topic, is Florio’s observation about the NFL draft. He writes about the popularity of this event and how it is grown into an event that cities are bidding against each other to host. But Florio also is against the draft because it restricts where a player can pursue his career, a restraint that just about every other person in most other careers do not face. All of the chapters on the draft make for great reading, as does every other topic he covers.

The chapters themselves are all very short but they tie together into one good package for the topic at hand. This makes the book a very good one for readers who don’t have large segments of time to devote to a book – it can be read in small doses and one will not feel lost or have a hard time picking up where they left off. It also reads well for fans of any level. A casual fan will enjoy this book as much as a hard-core NFL fan – and neither fan will be either too confused by technical language or bored because it is too simplistic. This is highly recommended for all readers of pro football books.

I wish to thank Perseus Books for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was fairly disappointing. From the title and description, I was expecting/hoping for something like “The Game” by Jon Pessah, only for the NFL. That’s not what this is. It still could have been good, had any actual depth been provided on the topics that Florio talked about. The three pages per topic started off as a nice way to chunk things, but became exhausting the farther you went. You jumped from topic to topic, and none of them felt like they were any more in depth than something I could google to read. This felt like “NFL for Dummies” more than an in depth dive into the league and how it works.

[Matt Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book was ass

[Adam Murfet · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and most comprehensive overviews of the NFL. This book has tons of insight, suggestions, shocking stories and knowledge. If you are a diehard fan, you need to buy and read this book

[Chris Allaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for guys, especially guys who are into football and don’t have a lot of time. The short chapters make it easier to consume small sections throughout a busy schedule. The short chapters allow the reader to stay concentrated throughout and along with the parts broke up the book into a very enjoyable read. Even if you don’t agree with some of Florio’s opinions that he sprinkles throughout, it offers more conversation within your head of the topic revolving in and around the game of football.

[JJ Otey · Rating 3 out of 5]

just 375 pages of moral grandstanding and spilling tea on the NFL… alright man wrap it up

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eu não ligo pra sua opinião

[Mrs C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for fans of the NFL. Lots of information that are known and not so well-known. Patrick Mahomes could have been a Saint? Didn't know that. And much more. It's a highly critical book about the goings-on in the NFL--both the good and the bad.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is the embodiment of the notion of being an inch deep & a mile wide. Florio has a 350+ page book, that's really just a series of 3-page blog posts. Each little snippet talks about a different issue or facet in the NFL. Florio gives you a very brief summation and moves on.

Most aren't bad. It's just rarely that good. Florio can't really get into any depth or anything more than a few cursorary details to explain what he means. It's like a starter kit of a book. And when the highs aren't very high, it means the book can be defined by its lows.

You'll get Florio's repeated (and weird) argument that we should blame the players' union for the concussion fandango (because they control the sport?) A chapter criticizing the rise of analytics is entirely free of any detail - just Florio taking a swipe at all.

The lowest point in the entire book is easy to find: his blurb on former owner Jerry Richardson, who was forced to sell after a dozen female employees came forward to note his workplace misconduct. For Florio, the reason tragedy there is that so many people willingly violated the contracts they'd signed that containd secrecy clauses. That .... is certainly a take. Me? I'd say the real problem is that a guy mistreated so many women with unwanted sexual advances/comments (at the very least) that a dozen where willing to come forward and accuse him. Think: if a dozen accused him despite the secrecy clauses, how many more signed such clauses? How many others didn't even make a formal complaint that could result in such a clause? Did any have especially serious complaints? Florio notes that the $2 million fine levied on Richardson was chump chnage compared to his sale of the franchise for $2 billion - and by that same logic the money he paid in the secrecy agreements was really ashtray money. For years (decades?) he'd been doing this with impunity to however many dozens of women..... but, hey, the real tragedy is that some women didn't uphold their secrecy contracts.

The highs in this book are nothing special and the lows are pretty damn low indeed.

[David Kutas · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a fan

I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t like this book and why I want to express that publicly, when I’ve never written a book and should therefore be more empathetic.
But this book is not good. It offers very little in the frame of new info. It’s “chapters” are 3-5 pages of disconnected thoughts, relative to the rest of the book. It’s as if someone figured out that pro football has about six components and that you could pick 15-20 names/nouns out of a hat for each component and just whine and bi&$h about them for 3-5 pages.
The tone is simultaneously whiny, self-righteous, and forgiving, and I just found myself napping through my reading of it.
Skip it.

[Jaimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and entertaining look into current matters in the NFL. Quick-paced and engaging, Playmakers covers a variety of relevant topics: the Draft; new and old penalties and rules; the treatment and development of players and coaches; off-field behavior of players, coaches, and owners; the impact that legalized gambling could have on the League; and more. Even if you have been following Florio for years, you are going to enjoy his astute (and humorous!) analysis of the matters the NFL has recently faced or will be facing in the near future.

[Rocco Pallotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

In short, league, owners and management bad, players good. That's oversimplified, obviously, but that is the case more often than not. There are a few interesting notes but this feels like an Intro to Football textbook. Not much here for the hard-core fan.

[Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty boring and all over the place. Basically a collection of short essays on a lot of different topics. Some were interesting, most of it was pretty random and surface and hardly any of it connected in any way except for some stuff in the last section on gambling.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting at times, dull at others. This book follows a series of loosely grouped connected anecdotes about the intricacies of back room NFL goingson. It ranges from anti- to pro- league sentiment

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting tour of pro football. I liked the candor and the suggested solutions to problems the NFL faces.

It’s an interesting look behind the curtain, and when looked at in totality, a relatively condemning view of the entire pro football endeavor, and how willing we are as consumers to turn a blind eye to the industry’s many failings.

It did feel a bit disjointed. More collection of articles that a holistic book wrapped around a thesis. I didn’t really go into this with expectations so that seemed fine. My main goal was to learn more about football and stop losing in my fantasy league. I do not think the book helps with the losing part but that’s more an error on my part than the authors. As far as the learning more about the league, it’s plenty good.

[Matt Dell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for anybody who loves the NFL but wants to understand it on a deeper level. A lot of interesting facts for somebody who has followed the league over the last 5 or so years

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story by Mike Florio was interesting. He did seem to do his homework and had some really compelling subjects. But the problem is that he skimmed the highlights and didn't go much more than a foot deep but in a 20-foot deep pile. A number of these chapters could have been combined into a book, or a series of books and made for very compelling storytelling. But I can't get the feeling he was writing this book for people who lose interest if they have to follow along for more than 5 minutes.

Could and should have been much better and more focused.

[Benjamin K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mike Florio's Playmakers is a ten-part book on the National Football League, essentially an insider's perspective on everything from the Draft to ownership to officiating and beyond. Each of the ten sections contains roughly ten or eleven "chapters," with each chapter curiously uniform at about three pages long. This format makes for quick chapters and easy reading, though personally this style was a little tiring at times due to the uniform format making it a bit too monotonous to read a large amount in one sitting. I'd recommend reading it in smaller doses, just a few chapters at a time, and perhaps even alternating between parts.

On the form of the book, Florio presents his subject matter in an anecdotal form, a "three page system" of sorts. After introducing the subject of the chapter/discussing the background of an event or the like on the first page, page two will present a story that had taken place about said person/event, and then page three concludes the chapter with Florio's thoughts on the matter. Personally again, I would have preferred longer chapters in which the author could have more thoroughly presented his insights, but eh, c'est la vie.

Playmakers isn't necessarily a book that I would recommend to casual watchers of football, but for those that very much enjoy the sport and the league its a good read. Florio's humor is enjoyable, and due to his many years as a sportswriter and insider he does have quite a few interesting insights into how different aspects of the world of football work (or don't work, at many times).

[Doug Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good, quick read from Florio that is entertaining but disappoints when it comes to real behind-the-scenes access to the NFL's thinking or meaningful insights into the league's inner workings. There are some fun vignettes and inside football observations, but if you listen to an NFL podcast during the regular season nothing should surprise you. Most interesting is the final chapter, in which Florio outlines the future of the game as gambling, international expansion, and potential corporate ownership of teams become a reality.

[Adam Yalowich · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much promise and I was really excited to get to it. Florio is very good on PFT and does well articulating his positions on NBC Sports. Unfortunately, this book is a very lazy effort on his part and is not worth buying or reading. He has probably 125 topics/chapters in this book, none of them longer than 3.5 pages and most are shorter. The topics are clearly interesting, but he provides no depth, no counter positions, quotes of any substance and just moves onto the next one. It's really disappointing after you realize that a topic that could easily have 10-20 pages written on it, is covered start to finish in 3.

Rather than having 125 topics, he should have narrowed this down to maybe 30 of the best and done some actual work and writing. My guess is he knocked 2-3 chapters a day out between commercial breaks on his show.

What is worse is how he probably has 20 chapters where his solution of sorts is "the NFL better change or Congress will make them change". I highly doubt that is going to happen. Some of his positions are sheer lunacy, suggesting that the league would be better adding 8 teams, many around the globe, and going to 18 games to create even more revenue. I am sure the players are just thrilled with that gem of an idea.

It took me a long time to get through this book, and I only finished it because I am a completist. But I cannot recommend others doing the same. It is a very disappointing effort on the authors part.

[Andrew Langert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Florio is one of the most intelligent voices I hear on sports talk radio. Even though the NFL is not my favorite sport, I always find what he has to say insightful and entertaining. Now he has managed to put a whole book together that is equally insightful and entertaining.
Florio has an edge to him. He must feel like a stone in the NFL commissioner's shoe. Florio is constantly challenging the league to do better.
You gain an appreciation for how hard it is to manage the NFL when you read this book. Large sections of this book are devoted to the myriad of problems the NFL constantly faces. Crazy owners. Player health and safety issues. How to deal with player misconduct. Scandals like the Patriots cheating. And then cheating some more. And lots of discussion on how legalized gambling will impact how the league is managed. Florio speculates that it is highly possible that a government commission may someday be created to oversee the NFL, similar to the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the stock market. Needless to say, the owners desperately want to avoid that, but must do better to avoid that fate.
Written as a series of 3-page essays, grouped very logically, this is a great book that is especially appealing to a person interested in football as a business.

[Mike Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mike Florio of ProFootballtalk’s opus on the past, present and future of the National Football League, for me was both a nostalgic look back at many of the events, players and situations I witnessed or at least had some knowledge about from my many years of following this sport. Many of these are still fresh in my mind, while others were long forgotten nuggets that were fun to relive in a way. However, for the most part, I did not feel that I learned anything new about these moment in time. That’s not to say that the research and attention to detail wasn’t there, but rather that it felt like much of this was written for either the casual fan, looking to learn more about the NFL, or possibly someone who didn’t live through or experience these situations firsthand. Ultimately, worth the read for the purpose of reminiscing, but for the seasoned football enthusiast, don’t expect to have your mind blown.

3.5 stars

[Blaise · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could I would say this book is more 3.5 than 3 or 4 lol, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book way more than I thought.

If you're a more a lil more than casual fan of the NFL many of the stories you've heard or know about. Then there are also bits that come at you and go "huh, I didn't know that or hmm". If you don't know much about the NFL it has a chance to influence how you feel about it too. Its what I thought I'd get from a book like "Gridiron Genius".

Florio didn't change how he presents things so I enjoyed that. As if he's in my ear ranting on PFT/PFT Live. The way the parts are broken up I thought was a little weird early but just accepted them as Florio essay (think) pieces. Where as a reader it makes you think.. where I would stop and question what the hell he was talking about. So the book does a good job of giving a broad overview of the league but for diehards it might lack the depth you'd want. Overall I think its a solid book and would recommend it.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overpromises on what it delivers

This book is hardly as groundbreaking or eye-opening about how the NFL works. Instead, it feels like a recycle of many of ProFootballTalk posts that may have been edited for topical snippets.

I regularly read ProFootballTalk and while I often appreciate Mike Florio’s legal analysis with his background, I’ve often tired of his articles which are little more than click-bait “what ifs?” And sadly this book delves into too many of those hypotheticals in my opinion.

This book doesn’t demonstrate how the NFL really works or doesn’t work, but it is simply an anthology of articles about moments in NFL history. Overall, I felt the book failed to really give me any more of a “behind the scenes” look at the inner workings of the NFL any more than any sports news website, like ProFootballTalk

[Ian Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It can be argued that this isn't a true "book". Instead, it's a repackaging of content that previously appeared on his website, ProFootballTalk.com. Each chapter is about 3 pages long, addressing the key NFL issues of the last 20 years -- it's a greatest hits album. I saw only a handful of items that we're new to me (including Matt Cavanaugh campaigning for the Ravens to draft Tom Brady).

But Florio nonetheless is one of (if not the No. 1) notable voices covering the NFL today. He's got extensive contacts, and a unique ability to focus in on the key aspects of stories. He's not afraid to call out teams and and the league. And he's got the law background, with the ability to explain the legal sides of issues.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers things that happened in the NFL in the first 20 years of this century. Be warned, even as 2023 ends, it's already a little out of date, talking about some things we now know how they panned out.

If you follow the NFL closely, you possibly know most of what is covered. Being in the UK myself, I remember many of the incidents but didn't perhaps know some of the details around them, so that was fun.

3 stars might be a little harsh, but early on the author annoyed me a little with some contradictions. 'The franchise tag is bad for players!', then shortly after 'The franchise tag really helped these players'. Not as simple as that, but that was the essence of it. Also, the author talked about his opinion like it was fact, too often.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ugly Side of Football

I have always known that there are controversies surrounding the sport but never have I took time to read and look at these in depth. Mike gives his readers this view and immerses them in the ugly side of the sport. However, so as not to appear as a mere grumbler, he also provides solutions and recommendations to address these problems.

To be fair, the book is fairly up to date and I suggest football fans to read it as soon as they possibly can before the information becomes irrelevant or stale. And to Mike, if he could update the book, that would be most appreciated. The game is growing at a rapid pace and some of his insights or perhaps vision, are already in place in the league.

This has been a good read post Superbowl.