Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

When Peter King talked about this book on MMQB, i had to pick it up, despite being a die hard Cowboys fan. Overall I found the book to be insightful into a season that I was very familiar with (besides being an NFC East rival I also now reside in NJ). Unfortunately, the main reason I picked this up was to see the nuts and bolts of being an NFL GM and I don't think this quite has it.

While you do get excellent stories on some of the bigger players (Plax, Shockey, Eli, Strahan) and coaches (Coughlin, Shottenheimer) in the game today, you don't quite get the feeling that you know what it would be like to run a team on a day2day basis.

Once you get past that, the book is thoroughly enjoyable, especially considering it chronicles a lot of Accorsi's life (which travels from Penn St to the Baltimore Colts, Clelevand Browns and NY Giants) and so many good tidbits from a tumultous 2006 NFL season.

A must read if your a big football fan, just make sure you understand the title is a bit misleading and should be more like, "Ernie Accorsi: Chronicles of a GM's life and his last season with the Giants"

After the first 67 pages of this book, I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping for more insight, more of a connection to the players, more inside the organization. It's obviously here, but not to the lengths that one might hope. Basically, I was hoping for the NY Giants version of "Feeding the Monster."

This book isn't that.

But once you accept that, this is a very enjoyable book. Ernie Acorsi seems like a class act, and it's fun to read about his history in the NFL. Some of his remarks are very candid, and I appreciate that. He's an interesting guy, and a worthy subject. You learn some interesting facts about the inner workings of an NFL franchise, even if it's pretty light on the drama. I thought the most interesting material was on Tom Coughlin. I won't spoil any of it, but it certainly gave me a new look at him.

I thoughly enjoyed the book. I agree with some of the other reviews that the book jumped around a bit and didn't really go into details on the job itself, but I loved the insights it did give. As a die-hard Giants fan, I enjoyed following the season from Accorsi's point of view. Personally, I came away from the book with a much greater respect for Accorsi and an even greater disdain for Coughlin!

By no means is this a bad book. It's actually a very well written book, however the title is misleading. This is not a book about the inner working of a general manger, but rather a recap of the '06 Giants season and some stories about the life of Ernie Accorsi. A must read for Giants fans as it gives some nice insight about many of the Giants higher profile players. NFL fans just looking for a good book about football should just wait for the paperback and enjoy the short and easy read. People looking for a book about the inner workings of a general manger, need not apply.

One of the best books on football that I've ever read. The writing is top-knotch - Callahan not only knows football, but unlike a lot of sports authors he can really write.

If you're a NY Giants fan, this book is worth the price just for the insights into players like Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress, Eli Manning, Sean O'Hara, Michael Strahan, and Tiki Barber; also, for Accorsi's surprisingly frank assessment of coaches like Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Jim Fassell, and Tom Coughlin.

There's also a lot here for football history buffs, including Accorsi's role in the John Elway and Eli Manning trades and some great stories about George Young, Joe Paterno, Johnny Unitas, the Mara and Rooney families, the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Colts, and lots more.

Very highly recommended.

Tom Callahan's THE GM follows Ernie Accorsi, general manager of the football NY Giant, in his last year on the post before retirement in 2007. Accorsi is charming, and there are some nuggets of insight, but overall the writing for whatever reason is not up to Callahan's reputation. My guess is that given the Giants 2007 success that the book might have been rushed to the printer.

After enjoying the author's book on Johnny Unitas, I was hoping for more of the same - interesting stories, gripping page-turning chapters.

What I got was a book that had some moments but seems to be going through the motions and was lacking that essential spark that makes a book ok and what makes a book great.

Perhaps the fact that the central character was about to retire had something to do with it, maybe someone who was newer to the role might add more fire and vigor to their actions than Accorsi seemed to.

There is nothing terribly wrong with the book, it just lacks the magic of the Unitas classic and it also lacks an element of interest.