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This digital document is an article from The Sporting News, published by Sporting News Publishing Co. on February 11, 2005. The length of the article is 421 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The world according to Deion.(NFL)(Deion Sanders)
Publication: The Sporting News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 11, 2005
Publisher: Sporting News Publishing Co.
Volume: 229Issue: 6Page: 38(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Magazine published monthly ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderfull book!
I love this book, I wont let my friends touch it. It's totallyworth the dollars, it tells you about the greatest NFL players ever. For example: Steve Young, the best left-handed Quarterback ever,and Jerry Rice,the greatest all-time wide receiver ever. ... Read more

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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? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Brooke, OSU Comp Student 2010
I read Brand NFL for a paper I had to write in my Comp 2 class at Oklahoma State University. I read this book becasue Marketing in the NFL is what I am wanting to go into. This boook was very interesting when it came to what the NFL was back in the old days tho what it is today. The money aspect of the book and how much money the professional teams make are interesting and when Oriard goes into detail different players and he talks about how these specific players are very marketable, I think that is what we look at today when watching the NFL. We look at different players and not only how they play but if they are popular or not. This book was a great read and very interesting.

A rather dry history of the NFL
The author is a college professor and the book reads like a term paper. He quotes other sources to the point where there are so many footnotes is disrupts the reading. And even though he is a former player he gives precious little info about his personal experience and opinions. The colorful characters and mud-splattering drama you associate with the NFL are mostly absent. A great case study and historical text if that's what you want. But not entertaining.

very solid, with an exception
Michael Oriard explores an area relatively uncovered in the vast flow of information about football. And that is the establishment of the NFL as a business, especially a media and entertainment enterprise instead of a simple sport played by romanticized warriors.

Oriard is first-rate on the history of the game and its development from a minor sport to the top tier starting in the late 1950s and 1960s. He nicely balanced football and its personalities, such as Lombardi, with the awakening of football as a business, primarily under the timely leadership of Pete Rozelle. People who remember the 1960s should enjoy the history, and young fans could find much to learn. The author is informative and concise.

He then moves into the next wave, with Joe Namath as one of the anchors, with his free spirit and large contract as indicators that, in retrospect, were seminal that seem almost quaint by now. Wow, long hair and white shoes! Here again, the personalities and the business evolved as parallel trends, influencing each other. Pete Rozelle began to lose his grip and the stakes got too high as football became America's #1 sport and the media coverage meant problems became public. Financial visionaries such as Jerry Jones of Dallas were about to open another whole dimension.

Oriard writes extensively about the beginning of the labor movement within football, all the way to the current relative peace. This is possibly both one of the strongest and weakest parts of the book. The strength is that the topic is relatively unfamiliar and normally underestimated in its importance, plus Oriard the ex-player has that insider's perspective. The weakness may be that it may be more than many fans wanted to know, and Oriard certainly is not impartial. Even so, the one-sided nature of owner-player relationship in the old days is almost appalling to read now. Younger fans may also be shocked to hear how little revenue football had and how little players made.

Oriand tackles one of the third rails of sports, that of why black athletes dominate, black cultural issues as they relate to football, and both subtle and obvious racism. He makes some reasonable observations, while also hemming and hawing around specifics where you cannot really win. The "exception" in my title is that he really should have stayed away from intelligence, other than the obvious history of blacks being kept from so-called skill positions that allegedly needed mental skills beyond their capacity. Wading into general intelligence controversies served no purpose, and Oriand misrepresented the famous "Bell Curve" book anyway. In this case, stick to your knitting.

Oriand closed with the transition from Paul Tagliabue to Roger Goodell as the new commissioner, naturally a time to re-assess the state of the business. To Oriand, Goodell fits football's continued growth in complexity that demands far more than Pete Rozelle the PR man. Oriand is very optimistic about football's future, yet he doesn't shy from some of the risks.

That attitude helps the general tone and credibility of the book. A breathless "homer" would have been uninteresting. A negative beat-down would have been unrealistic and pointless. As he said near the end, "Is the NFL become primarily a media company, or, is it still, above all, a national *football* league? It is both, of course, but the balance has been shifting, and how the commissioner will manage that balance over the coming years will be the story of the post-new NFL, whatever it will be called."

I can't argue with that. What I hope Oriand and Goodell realize is that excessive commercialization is itself a major risk. Major sporting events already are flirting with unwatchability with all the commercials and side shows. It's one area that could have gotten a bit more attention here. Why exactly is it that people like me watch less football than before, why don't I want to pay for the NFL Network, and why don't I like being shaken down at every opportunity by Dan Snyder? ... Read more

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Chapters: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Jerry Jones, Tim McGraw, John Elway, Deion Sanders, Mike Ditka, Bud Adams, Bernie Kosar, Glyn Milburn, Tom Benson, Ron Jaworski, William Clay Ford, Jr., William Davidson, Jerry Colangelo, Charles Wang, Harry Carson, Joey Galloway, Stan Kroenke, Casey Wasserman, Doug Buffone, Robert H. Garff, Arthur Blank, Neil Smith, Sanjay Kumar, Pat Bowlen, Joe Morris, Mike McBath, Carl Banks, John H. McConnell, Jim Foster, Brian Noble, Robert Hernreich, C. David Baker,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 206. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts, leading him to achieve total album sales in excess of 40 million units. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw. His trademark hit songs include "Indian Outlaw", "Don't Take the Girl", "I Like It, I Love It", "Something Like That", "It's Your Love" (featuring his wife, Faith Hill), and "Live Like You Were Dying". McGraw had eleven consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums charts. Twenty-one singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country 100 chart. Three singles became the No. 1 country song of the year ("It's Your Love", "Just To See You Smile", and "Live Like You Were Dying"). He has won 3 Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 3 People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour with Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music. McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The K...http://booksllc.net/?id=525336 ... Read more

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Chapters: Robert Urich, Randy Moss, Mack Brown, Burt Reynolds, Deion Sanders, Ron Simmons, Brad Johnson, Danny Mcmanus, Charlie Ward, Vince Gibson, Antonio Cromartie, Damian Harrell, Derrick Brooks, Lee Corso, Sebastian Janikowski, Warrick Dunn, Myron Rolle, Jason Altmire, Anquan Boldin, Greg Newell, Javon Walker, Everette Brown, Chris Weinke, Joe Avezzano, Peter Boulware, Reggie Herring, Peter Warrick, Craphonso Thorpe, Samari Rolle, Drew Weatherford, Ernie Sims, Graham Gano, P. K. Sam, Laveranues Coles, Chris Hope, Fred Biletnikoff, Kamerion Wimbley, Leon Washington, Adrian Mcpherson, Leroy Butler, Andre Wadsworth, Stanford Samuels, Danny Kanell, Eric Moore, Wyatt Sexton, Christian Ponder, Darnell Dockett, Paul Gleason, Greg Spires, Michael Boulware, Xavier Lee, Walter Jones, Lorenzo Booker, T. K. Wetherell, Peter Tom Willis, Bryant Mcfadden, Kim Hammond, Terrell Buckley, Dexter Jackson, Eric Shelton, Sam Cowart, Devard Darling, Rick Stockstill, Antone Smith, Chris Rix, Jeff Bowden, Tommy Polley, Travis Johnson, Jerome Carter, William Floyd, Corey Simon, William "Red" Dawson, Zack Crockett, Buster Davis, Sonny Shroyer, Brodrick Bunkley, D. J. Williams, Lawrence Timmons, Willie Reid, Alex Barron, Eric Powell, Greg Jones, Rodney Hudson, Tra Thomas, Dexter Carter, Scott Player, Montrae Holland, Tamarick Vanover, Tay Cody, Gary Huff, Bill Capece, Jamie Dukes, Nigel Bradham, Lorne Sam, Travis Minor, E. G. Green, Andrew Datko, Chris Bradwell, Marvin Jones, Jamal Reynolds, Jackie Flowers, Chauncey Davis, Greg Carr, Orpheus Roye, John O.sorzano, Edgar Bennett, Gary Parris, Mario Edwards, Dekoda Watson, Ray Willis, Todd Fordham, Todd Williams, Amp Lee, Ron Sellers, Corey Surrency, Reggie Johnson, Martin Mayhew, Patrick Robinson, John Palermo, Kenny Ingram, Scott Bentley, Pat Carter, Fred Rouse, Milford Brown, Geno Hayes, Tony Bryant, Bobby Jackson, Marvin Minnis, Casey Weldon, Michael Ray Garvin, Leon Bright, Monk Bonasorte, Zeke M...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=449268 ... Read more

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Features: Troy Aikman, Larry Allen, Bill Bates, Chris Boniol, Larry Brown, Shante Carver, Ray Donaldson, Dixon Edwards, Cory Fleming, Jason Garrett, Charles Haley, Dale Hellestrae, Chad Hennings, Clayton Holmes, Michael Irvin, John Jett, Daryl Johnston, Robert Jones, Leon Lett, Brock Marion, Russell Maryland, Godfrey Myles, Nate Newton, Jay Novacek, Deion Sanders, Darrin Smith, Emmitt Smith, Kevin Smith, Ron Stone, Tony Tolbert, Mark Tunei, Erik Williams, Kevin Williams, Darren Woodson, and Barry Switzer and Jerry Jones. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best Gift Ever
I was thrilled to find this book after years of looking. My husband was the team photographer for the Cowboys and most of the photographs in the book are his. It is truly a cherished item in our household! ... Read more