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Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL
by: John Feinstein

Used Price: $3.56
Collectible Price: $25.95
Third Party New Price: $5.79

Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Little, Brown, and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown, and Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: October 17, 2005
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Sales Rank: 429282
Studio: Little, Brown, and Company

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Despite - or perhaps because of - its immense popularity, the NFL remains one of the most secretive sports societies in America. John Feinstein goes behind the scenes of this closed sport as he takes his readers through an NFL season - all the ups and downs, the procession from 100 degree heat in training camp to frigid cold in January and the week-to-week pressures faced by the coaches and players - in an illuminating and entertaining look at the most lucrative sport in America. NEXT MAN UP highlights the Baltimore Ravens, one of the most watched and dramatic NFL teams in recent years. Like many teams, the Ravens have faced extreme obstacles - in their case, players in prison, under indictment, and injured - but they've still managed to play at an extremely high level, winning their first Super Bowl in 2001 against the New York Giants. From the first strategy sessions of a new season to the last down of the final game, John Feinstein reveals the intensity, spirituality, and the near life- or-death drama of professional football as it's never been revealed before.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Another great work by Feinstein
John Feinstein cronicals a full NFL season with the Baltimore Ravens franchise, from the pre-draft meetings, through the ups and downs of the regular season, to the heartbreak of cleaning out your lockers the Monday after the final loss of the season. John does a great job detailing the professional and personal interactions of the whole orginization, from the owners (the Modell family, which happened to be in the last season of majority ownership of the Ravens during the book) to the front office of Ozzie Newsome, to coach Bilichk and the players. From this book, you can get a real feel as for what emotions players and coaches go through during their carrears, from draft day jitters, fighting for a roster spot, playing in a rivalary game, to getting the dreaded call of "bring your playbook to the office with you". I must read for any NFL fan.

Rating:

- About as In-Depth As You're Going to Get on Life in the NFL.
Given the fact that the NFL is as secretive, controlling, and vindictive as a Mafia family, Next Man Up is about as in depth of a look into professional football as you are going to get. You have to remember that this is the league that pressured ESPN over the fictional series "Players," has a "uniform nazi," and is meglomanical when it comes to negotiating/awarding television contracts. Do you honestly think that John Feinstein is going to risk his future access to the league by giving us insight into everything he saw? No; not so much.

What we have is a 500 pg. sports article. Next Man Up is well written to be sure, but nothing you won't learn anything in this book you don't already know if you are a fan of NFL football who faithfully reads the sports pages everyday.

Still, I came away with a new-found respect for Brian Billick. Feinstein does an excellent job of showing us the man behind ... Read More

Rating:

- If you know Feinstein, this is just as you would expect..
I have now read 5 Feinstein books (Civil War, A March to Madness, A Good Walk Spoiled, The Open and this one)and they are all essentially in the same style. There is no technical discussion of the sports involved, Feinstein is more interested in the characters who play and coach the games and the environments they work in rather than how the games are played. This worked brilliantly in Civil War where the young men with no prospect of a professional career played for the honour of their service academies and the respect of their peers and losing with dignity was as important as winning. 'Character' was of vital importance.

In all of the other books this way of writing doesn't have the same impact because sports fans could care less about the early lives of proffesional golfers,football players and basketball coaches. They care even less about how Golfers or Sports coaches met their wives, which Feinstein ... Read More

Rating:

- Dreadfully Tedious
How Feinstein managed to take an intriguing team (the Ravens) and an exciting subject (football), and turn it into an absolute snoozefest is a complete mystery. He is endlessly descriptive about the most uninteresting minutiae. He is also overwhelmingly apologetic regarding the less than stellar moral character of a lot of the Ravens. Avoid at all costs!

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