Customer Reviews

Dominance: The Best Seasons of Pro Football's Greatest Teams

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Epstein's book objectively analyzes what separates the truly great NFL teams from the near-greats or simply the good. Most NFL analysts are too emmotional or are biased toward the coaches or players that they idolized. Epstein cuts through the hype to show you which teams were the best ever.

Simply put, this is the first adult, objective look at the NFL's greatest teams. You may not agree with Epstein's methodology or his selections, but at least he offers logical reasons for what he writes. I think it's a fantastic book.

This is the finest book on pro football's best teams ever written, in my opinion. Epstein uses a strict system of mathematics and statistics to measure teams and sets forth meaningful criteria to seperate the wheat from the chaff. To the reviewer above, I say this: Isn't the whole point to win in the playoffs? How can a team be considered among the GREATEST EVER in a sport if they fail to win the most meaningful games of all?
Epstein's arguments are lucid and intelligent, not given to histrionics or buffered by boorishness. This is an exhaustive book, Epstein leaves no stone unturned and even displays some good humor in the face of his intimidating statistical virtuosity. This is about as objective a study as I have seen on this often touchy subject. I would love to see this sort of method applied to my other favorite sport, Pro hockey. If you love intelligent, objective and interesting writing, then I suggest you do yourself a favor and buy this book.

A great book if you like Pro Football at all. Eddie is one great Pro Football and Pro Baseball "know it all", meant in the nicest of ways.

Epstein's book sets lofty goal and falls just short. I was extremely happy to see someone attempt to rate the great teams in NFL history with objectivity.

However, there is inconsistency in how Epstein uses his own measuring stick. Only Super Bowl or NFL Champion's were considered leading to the exclusion of teams whose only failing was loosing at the wrong time (in the playoffs) when the book itself places much emphasis on the quality of opponents which is clearly much higher in the playoffs than in the regular season. You can have a team which scores higher by his measure but fials to make the cut. The individual player evaluations were shallow, for example, rating QB's based on their deviation from the average QB - based on QB rating - in that season misses the fundamental problem that the QB rating is a flawed system which is only marginally correlated with winning QB's.

Epstein should have read The Hidden Game of Football by Bob Carroll, et al prior to writing this book. Perhaps that would have helped him fill the book out with more meaningful observations.