First Down and a Billion: The Funny Business of Pro Football [Hardcover]

Gene Klein (Author), David Fisher (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At last, a book about pro football from the owner's point of view. This one was worth the wait. A lifelong football fan, Klein bought the San Diego Chargers in 1966 "to have fun" but the most fun he had was when he sold the team 18 years later. Starting as a used-car salesman during the Depression, he made his money in the corporate world and planned to run the Chargers like any other business. That was his first mistake. Nothing escapes his rapier wit: head coaches, agents, lawsuits, players, the college draft, and the drug problem. But it is his fellow owners, especially archenemy Al Davis, who are thoroughly lambasted in this compulsively readable, nonstop account that will have readers chuckling aloud. This belongs in every sports collection. Jo DeLapo, Queens Borough P.L., New York
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company, Inc.; 1st edition (January 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688068944
• ISBN-13: 978-0688068943
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,121,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute riot!, November 20, 2003

By 

Thomas L. Magness (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First Down and a Billion: The Funny Business of Pro Football (Paperback)

This book had me rolling in my chair! I'm a football fan (now a converted Charger fan) and the events recounted here bring back a lot of memories. Gene Klein was a masterful storyteller. His descriptions of such characters as Al Davis, Leonard Tose, Dan Fouts, and Rolf Benirschke are dead-on. Just as interesting, in my opinion, is his recounting of his life and career before he bought the San Diego Chargers, and after he sold them (he turned to breeding race horses, one of whom, Tank's Prospect, won the 1986 Preakness Stakes). His recounting of his days in the used car ("cheaper by the pound than hamburger!"), film theater and insurance businesses paints a vivid picture of what it was like in post-World War II southern California, when opportunity was waiting with open arms for those willing to take a chance. He is not above recounting his mistakes, such as the time when he backed Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken (a franchise named after the Grand Ole Opry legend), but when he sat down to take his first sampling of it, he developed HEARTBURN. And there was the time when, trelying on the advice of his son, he passed up on the American concert rights to THE BEATLES.