The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It [Hardcover]

Tom Callahan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2007

In the summer of 2006, the NFL’s most senior general manager, Ernie Accorsi, invited Tom Callahan “inside” the Giants organization to experience a season—Accorsi’s last—from the front office, the locker room, the sidelines, and the tunnel. Tom made no promises, except that he’d bring to the project the same fairness and thoroughness that characterized his acclaimed Unitas biography, Johnny U. The result is a remarkable book that is at once a chronicle of a tumultuous season and the story of the NFL over the last three and a half decades, told through the eyes of a man who has dedicated his life to football.

The Giants started the season with high expectations, hoping to ride the talent of players like Eli Manning, Jeremy Shockey, and Tiki Barber to the Super Bowl, but the team quickly fell apart due to injuries.

The GM goes far beyond the specifics of a single season, though. In a marriage of two great raconteurs, one lobbing stories and the other neatly catching them, Callahan and Accorsi—writer and subject—show how the pro game (and the league that showcases it) really works, and the peculiar role of today’s general manager, who must be part seer, part accountant, balancing psyches and salary caps.

At its essence, The GM is the story of the job—of what it means to be the guy who makes the decisions . . . who’s second-guessed by fans and the media . . . who must deal with endless—and sometimes impossible—expectations.

Filled with the vivid anecdotes and storytelling that made Johnny U a surprise bestseller, The GM doesn’t just illuminate. It inspires with its portrait of a consummate football-personnel strategist who, over the course of decades, gave everything to the game he loved.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“It's a terrific narrative of the ebb and flow of a football season through the eyes of a general manager, Ernie Accorsi of the Giants. Accorsi, in his final season before retiring, gave Callahan access to everything he saw with the Giants last year, including the raw emotion that flowed from GM to coach. In so doing, Accorsi illustrated the real tension that exists in front offices, the kind you so rarely read about In the mainstream press. So don't think this is just a Giants book. It's not. It's an NFL book, and a book that helps you understand some of the complex relationships that define the game today.”
—Peter King, Sports Illustrated

“A vivid, focused account of a New York Giants season filled with hope but ultimately tainted by disappointment…Callahan also paints a wonderful portrait of Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi, [filling] the book with wit, wisdom and great stories.”
—Miami Herald

“Callahan’s book about the last year of Ernie Accorsi’s reign as general manager gives unusual insight into how a football organization is run.”
—Chicago Tribune

“A fascinating look at an NFL season by a true insider. Great tidbits abound.”
—Dallas Morning News

“The most interesting and topical [of the recently published Giants books] by far. The author was given extensive behind the scenes access and emerges with many juicy tidbits…Callahan deftly handles a poignant chapter on trainer Ronnie Barnes’ role in Wellington Mara’s final days.”
—Newsday

“Many surprising revelations…shocking.”
—New York Daily News

“The G.M. is perhaps the best book ever written about a pro football executive…Accorsi is a terrific subject.”
—Allen Barra, Washington Post Book World

“THE GM is one of the great sports books to come along in recent years, and that's not just a tribute to Tom Callahan, who wrote it, but also to Ernie Accorsi, the book's subject. It says a lot about someone when they have the confidence and self-esteem to open their lives that completely for published consumption. Good for Ernie. Better for us.”
—Mike Vaccaro, New York Post

"A compelling chronicle of Accorsi's career written adroitly by Tom Callahan, who was allowed to be a fly on the wall of the Giants' inner sanctums during their tempestuous 2006 season."
—Dave Anderson, The New York Times

About the Author

TOM CALLAHAN, a former senior writer at Time magazine and sports columnist at the Washington Post, is a recipient of the National Headliner Award. He has spent three decades covering everything in major league sports, from Sarajevo to Zaire, including hundreds of pro-football games, preseasons to Super Bowls. Callahan is the author of the New York Times bestseller Johnny U.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1St Edition edition (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307394131
• ISBN-13: 978-0307394132
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title, But Interesting for Football Fans, September 22, 2007

By 

C. Baker "cbaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It (Hardcover)

Being the General Manger of a National Football League team has to be one of the most fascinating and unique jobs. I suspect if you did a story on all 32 General Managers (some of which are also the head coach, some of which have a different title) you would end up with 32 fairly unique stories with similarity in themes. This particular book focuses on Ernie Accorsi, recently retired GM of the New York Giants.

I love reading about professional football because it is fascinating to me so I did really enjoy this book, for the most part, but frankly the book is somewhat of mess. It seems the author had a lot of material and didn't quite know how to put it together.

This book really is a mini-mini biography of Ernie Accorsi and a recap of the New York Giants 2006 season. The title is very misleading. It is not about "the inside story of a dream job" because it really does not give us a lot of inside stories about being a GM. There is really very little about the real nuts and bolts of being a GM, from player evaluation, hiring and firing head coaches, managing up (the owners) and managing down (coaches and players), trade and personnel strategy, drafting strategy, et cetera. There is, of course, a little bit on these things, but noting in-depth nor particularly enlightening. It's simply a book about Accorsi and the Giants 2006 season.

The book is also somewhat disjointed, jumping around in time or topics without a nice, steady flow. In fact, while the book follows the 2006 Giants season, the drama of it beyond player, coach, and Accorsi comments gets somewhat lost.

The good thing about this book is it is an inside story of the players and coaches and Accorsi but nothing in the book is particularly revealing for surprising. For football fans, however, it's always great to get the story straight from the people involved without the manipulations of the print and electronic media that try to make controversy where none exists.

But, in the end, I would have to rate this book as below average for its misleading title and somewhat disjointed organization.

And a note for the copyeditor - John Hannah is a Hall of Fame guard of the New England Patriots, not a tackle.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting look at the travels of an NFL GM; probably a must read for big NFL fans, September 22, 2007

By 

Mark Greenbaum (South Orange, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It (Hardcover)

"The GM" is an interesting, albeit fairly short, story about Ernie Accorsi, who was until his retirement last year, the General Manager of the New York Giants and the longest serving GM in the sport. Tom Callahan, the talented author of several other sports books, was granted unfettered access by Accorsi to follow him and the Giants around throughout the star-crossed 2006 season. In the end, the book is not so much about the day-to-day duties of an NFL General Manager, as it is about the long football life and experiences of Accorsi, and the many fascinating people he met along the way.

I think Callahan got a lot more than he had envisioned, as the Giants endured a massive collapse during 2006, falling from title contender to also-ran in a matter of weeks. But this book goes beyond chronicling a NFL season in turmoil, and is filled with hundreds of short stories and anecdotes from many conversations with Accorsi, who has spent a lifetime in the NFL. Accorsi's tales about his long tenure in the NFL are probably the best parts of the book. Throughout his career, Accorsi got to work with and learn some of the biggest names in the history of football: Johnny Unitas, Pete Rozzelle, Joe Paterno, Wellington Mara, and others.

Part of what makes this book good is Accorsi's witty and humanistic retellings and Callahan's seamless writing and recounting. It is obvious that Callahan spent many hours just listening to Accorsi's great stories, and has sprinkled them liberally throughout the book with ease. Callahan is a great writer, and his descriptions of people, places, and events that have shaped football in recent history are a joy to read. I have heard from several people that his last book -- a biography of Unitas -- is fantastic, and after reading "The GM", I look forward to picking it up.

Additionally, the book spends a great deal of time on the 2006 Giants, framing them of course as the final note of Accorsi's long career. Callahan spoke to Head Coach (and tyrant) Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, Michael Strahan, Jeff Feagles, and other Giants in delving into the Giants' collapse and exploring how the players coped with the losing and why they continued to play the game year after year. In the end, the Giants turbulent season -- they finished 8-8 and made the playoffs, but lost in the divisional playoff -- serves as a good metaphor for Accorsi's career: some highs, some lows, but a strong love of football always.

"The GM" is a really fun and quick read, though for just under 270 pages the price tag may a bit high for some. If you are interested in current pro football or just the history of the game, then I think you'll enjoy the book.

Four stars.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love the Giants, sort of liked this book, October 13, 2007

By 

Bliss (New Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It (Hardcover)

My obsession for all things New York Giants is the only motivation I had to continue through this book. Knowing that juicy nuggets of information were buried in the pages ahead was what kept me going. Because, in my opinion, the writing was horrific. I do not know who Tom Callahan is, but he is probably the on of the worst writers I've ever read. Or perhaps his copyeditor is to blame. I've never seen anyone use prepositions so haphazardly, that they leave you scratching your head. Also, many passages in the book lack coherency. He will just jump from one subject to another with no apparent reason. I found this incredibly frustrating, as I searched for "why," and there was no answer. There were some other glaring factual errors, for instance, fullback Jim Finn went to Bergen Catholic HS in New Jersey, not "Burton Catholic." There is no such thing as Burton Catholic, it is not as if the two were confused.

Anyway, I still recommend purchasing this if you are a Giants fan. You will find incredible stories about Parcells, Tiki, Eli, Wellington Mara, Coughlin, Plaxico, Shockey, Reese, Fassel, Toomer, and more. Information that sports media outlets like ESPN cannot hope to report in their wildest dreams. This is the inside story from an inside man.

So, my final thought is it is worth the read, you will learn a ton of interesting things, learn more about the character of certain players and management, but bring a couple of Advils with you as the writing style will give you a headache.