The Meat Market: The Inside Story of the NFL Draft [Hardcover]

Richard Whittingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1992

A journalist and ex-football player reports from a front-row seat in the Chicago Bears office about the elaborate scouting process that leads to the selection of new players on draft day.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Only the most diehard pro football fans will want to read this analysis by sportswriter Whittingham ( What a Game They Played ) of the NFL's draft system, in which the team with the previous year's worst record gets to pick the best player from the college game and so on through the league, with the current league champions picking last. The goal is to ensure that all teams are competitive. One of the teams most successful at selecting college gridders has been the Chicago Bears, and Whittingham concentrates on them, showing how the team's coaches and management make use of BLESTO, a kind of clearinghouse of information about undergraduate players; their own scouts; the NFL scouting camp, where potential draftees are put through their paces; and Plan B, in which a team can pick up players not "protected" by another squad (usually overage or overpaid athletes). Finally come "D-Days," when the 28 NFL teams pick the 336 footballers they want, each one a gamble despite all the advance planning.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Since 1935 the National Football League has drafted each year's best college players. Whittingham ( How They Played the Game , LJ 11/1/84) relates the story of the 1991 draft from the view of the Chicago Bears. With a look back at previous years' winning and disappointing selections, he describes the pre-draft scouting, the draft itself, and the 1991 results for the Bears and the remaining 27 teams. In 1991, only three percent of the eligible players were selected, and even fewer managed to remain on NFL team rosters. As perhaps the first detailed look at the draft, this should appeal to students of the game, especially in Chicago, and their libraries.
- Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp. Medical Lib., Tucson
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (August 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0026276623
• ISBN-13: 978-0026276627
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,348,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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