Gregg Easterbrook The King Of Sports Summary

549 Words2 Pages

For the avid sports maniac as well as the casual sports viewer, Gregg Easterbrook’s “The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America” is a must-read. Easterbrook gives detailed insight to many of the critical issues plaguing American football both on the professional and college level. The “non-profit” mongul know as the NFL is exposed and is clearly described for the reader. This is a great book not just for the wealth information, but also, an attempt to highlight the flaws in our country's most prized form of entertainment.

Easterbrook’s story gives gaudy and raw statistics as well as inside information that the average fan in remotely unaware of. Even as a die-hard sports fan, there is information that even I was unaware of. Things such as profits, earnings, expenses, and structure in organizations and universities is mind-boggling and can make you rethink who you see the NFL and college football. The amount of money flowing through these organizations is astronomical. The combination of sponsors and donors …show more content…

He does a phenomenal job of showing the good side of football in America and how it benefits our economy. I love that he shows balance and gives both sides of football both the ugly, and the beautiful. I personally have changed how I view the NFL and I feel that other readers will do the same. Gregg Easterbrook did not intend to make people dislike the NFL, his intentions were to change how people see American football, see the corruption he witnessed first-hand and help solve the issues currently withstanding to make football what it should be. Perhaps the greatest, and most profitable, form of entertainment is pro and college football. Football fans crave Saturdays and Sundays in the fall because they get to witness America’s spectacle. Easterbrook is able to analyze how and why football is so contagious, highlighting the good and the bad throughout, making for one of the best sports-books I have ever

Show More
Related

  • Cost of Glory: The Issues Surrounding Football Injuries

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    America’s newfound favorite pastime, football, came from a bizarre chain of events. Football started when a soccer player got fed up with just kicking the ball, so he picked up the ball and ran to the goal. His actions of picking up the ball and running with it fathered a new European sport, rugby, which was soon brought over to American shores, and was altered slightly, the shape of the ball and a few other small rules. The sport became organized into a league and produced the NFL(National Football League). The NFL had a slow beginning, but has picked up popularity, currently having a 9 billion dollar yearly revenue. Playing football comes with great costs, including physical and mental health deterioration, plus the amount of time spent prepping before game day. Which can pose several questions, “Why suffer for a game, Is it worth the money? Is it worth the fame? How great is the cost?” I believe that football, should have stricter regulations for the treatment of injuries, along with informing players of just how devastating a concussion can be, along with the other major injuries that commonly occur while playing football.

    Read More

  • NFL Championship: History of the New York Giants

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    Intro: In 1946 two members of the New York Giants were found associating with gamblers, trying to fix the NFL Championship Game. These members were suspended and in 1947 the NFL introduced their form of prevention, the injury report (Merritt). Every week NFL coaches have to list their injured players on the NFL Injury Report. Each player has to be listed as either “doubtful,” “questionable,” or “probable” to play that weekend. What a lot of people don’t know is that an ample amount of teams are lying on these reports. By skewing the truth on their player’s injuries it gives that team an advantage. Whether the coaches are putting healthy players on the list, injured players not on the list, or just lying about the severity of the injury, it is all affecting the teams and the fans. I have addressed the problems with the NFL injury report and focused my research on the integrity of the teams and their purpose for lying, how much lying is really going on, and the link between the injury report, the NFL, and gambling.

    Read More

  • Student-Athletes and the NCAA Rules

    1939 Words  | 4 Pages

    The $6 billion heist: Robbing college athletes under the guise of amateurism. (2013, March 20).

    Read More

  • XFL Excitment Or Excuse

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Football is something as American as apple pie. It is thought of as gritty, physical, and all around fun just as most Americans like to be thought of. For decades the NFL has dominated the world of football. However, Vince McMahon, the founder of the WWF, has introduced a new and controversial professional football league called the XFL. Much of the controversy is about whether the XFL is a force to be reckoned with or just another of McMahon’s clever marketing ploys. Although the XFL’s survival has been questioned by many, it promises to be a league full of the smash-mouth, trash-talking, fan-oriented football every fan deserves.

    Read More

  • Playing Football: Is The NFL Getting Soft?

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Playing football comes with several risks factors that players’ acknowledge prior to playing the game starting a young age. Regardless, these players still chose to play the game, which they end up loving and cherishing despite all the risks accompanied with it. Football is one of the toughest sports in the world; it takes a certain amount of strength, speed, and aggressiveness to play 48 minutes of hard-nosed football. However, the National Football League (NFL) is in the midst of a controversial issue. Is the NFL getting soft? This has been a debatable issue for several years. While some believe that implementing all these rules in the NFL is progressively turning the game soft, others say that the NFL is not getting soft; it is just trying to make the game safer for its players.

    Read More

  • Warren Hartenstine's College Athletes Should Not Be Paid?

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    If there’s one thing we dread in the summer more than the heat, it’s the afflicting sentiment that surrounds oneself when one is inhibited from experiencing the thrills of football for six long and gruesome months. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football is a part of many Americans’ Saturdays, but to fewer does it mean their lives. Recently coming under debate, many sporting fans and college athletes believe that players should be paid more than just tuition, room, board, and books. Two articles on this issue that bring up valid points worth discussing are Paul Marx’ “Athlete’s New Day” and Warren Hartenstine’s “College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” From these articles I have found on the basis of logical,

    Read More

  • The Application of Social Conflict Theory to Football

    1850 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book entitled Out of Their League, David Meggyesy describes his life as a football player from high school through his days with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Born in 1941, Meggyesy was raised in a low-income household in Solon, Ohio. Like many athletes from impoverished backgrounds, he was able to use the game of football to better himself though both a full scholarship to Syracuse University and financial stability with the Cardinals. During his career, however, Meggyesy became increasingly disillusioned with the game of football and how its athletes were subject to tremendous physical and psychological turmoil from those in power—namely the coaches and the NFL team owners. He began to see the game of football from a conflict theorist point of view. This is the belief that sport is an opiate used to benefit those in power through the exploitation of athletes which enables those such as coaches and team owners to maintain their power and privilege in society. (Coakley, 1998) Meggyesy's growing disenchantment with football and adoption of a conflict theorist point of view led him to retire from the Cardinals in 1969.

    Read More

  • College Athletic Programs Undermine Academics

    2198 Words  | 5 Pages

    Financial aspects and profitability of college athletic programs is one of the most important arguments involved in this controversy. A group of people expresses that college athletic programs are over emphasized. The point they show on the first hand, is that athletic programs are too expensive for community colleges and small universities. Besides, statistics prove that financial aspects of college athletic programs are extremely questionable. It is true that maintenance, and facility costs for athletic programs are significantly high in comparison to academic programs. Therefore, Denhart, Villwock, and Vedder argue that athletic programs drag money away from important academics programs and degrade their quality. According to them, median expenditures per athlete in Football Bowl Subdivision were $65,800 in 2006. And it has shown a 15.6 percent median expenditure increase fro...

    Read More

  • The Argument for Paying NCAA Football Players

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Luzer, Daniel. "College Guide: The Profit in College Sports." The Washington Monthly. N.p., 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Student Athletes Should Not be Paid

    1793 Words  | 4 Pages

    Zimbalist, Andrew S. Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism And Conflict In Big-Time College Sports. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • How the Super Bowl Affects Society

    1728 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... from its most humble beginnings to now being the most viewed game and valued form of entertainment, the NFL and the Super Bowl have become a staple and reliable boost for our economy. Everyone knows about football and it is on pace to become, if not already, the most influential and dependent resource ever.

    Read More

  • The Invention of Football

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Football provides the American people an event to look forward to. It keeps people on the edges of their seats, wondering what will happen next. When football was first invented, people would not think it would turn into a professional sport. At its creation, their football gear was nothing but leather helmets, shoulder pads, pants, and boot like shoes. I think as of now, this sport will continue to grow in popularity as the years go by. Football will still be a major part of our culture in years to come due to the type of passion that never dies down, it is ubiquitous. The economics of the industry will grow, as well as the culture celebrating the sport, and the global impact will never cease to entertain the population.

    Read More

  • The National Football League ( Nfl )

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    The National Football League is made up of 32 teams that were once founded in 1920 by a group of people who helped form the league. In the beginning the league wasn’t really structured to what it is now. Teams will just play and no playoff games, seeding’s, or the game itself matter because not only was the game was overshadow by America’s past time baseball, but it was difficult because the college game was established as well. Owning a team was extremely hard because owner’s will spent large amounts of cash and participate in bidding wars for players. Fast-forward to today’s day and age it is safe to say the NFL may be the most brutal and exciting game to play. Rule’s and norms are intact for teams to do things more ethical. Money is what really drives this business and of course constant advertisement to promote its brand. With some of that revenue, the NFL has opened a program called NFL: Play 60. The purpose of this program is to encourage kids to be physically active for 60 minutes in a day to reduce America’s child obesity. The NFL has been successful because in 2010 the first lady Michelle Obama announced it would be teaming up with NFL PLAY 60 as a health imitative for children. This was a great move for the brand because The First Lady’s office and...

    Read More

  • History of American Football

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the modern day United States the sport American football has become not only entertainment but also a tradition whether it’s watching the BCS college championship or watching the super bowl with the family. The sport of American football is unique to the United States and has grown and became iconic over the years and has become a part of many Americans lives. American Football was made in 1869 and was modeled after the sport of rugby. They took the basics of rugby and changed it to make it fit better for them. The game has changed over the years but it also affected many Americans as the tradition of Monday Night football has begun. The game has had problems with the United States government as it was said to be too dangerous to play, this lead to an upgrade in the equipment and they tried very hard to make the equipment well ensuring player safety throughout the sport.

    Read More

  • How to Play Football Soccer

    1430 Words  | 3 Pages

    12. No Christian End! The Beginnings of Football in America. Professional Football Researchers Association, 2012.

    Read More

More about Gregg Easterbrook The King Of Sports Summary

Open Document