Customer Reviews

The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches, and Moments in NFL History

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I picked this book up because I recognized Paolantonio from ESPN and liked his work. I hope that others won't make the same mistake.

Paolantonio offers up his opinion on a variety of topics, and at times it seems as if he's throwing out wild ideas just to get attention. He can't seriously believe some of the stuff he writes here, like saying that Barry Sanders was overrated and much of his success was due to playing indoors. Paolantonio argues that playing in warm weather makes it easier for running backs to rack up yards. Of course, that argument is weakened by the fact that the Hall of Fame is overflowing with backs who played in cold weather climates.... Jim Brown, Walter Payton, OJ Simpson, Jimmy Taylor, Marion Motley, Franco Harris, Thurman Thomas, etc, etc.

The book is overflowing with these kinds of dubious arguments. As a reader, you have to wonder whether he just doesn't know anything about football, or whether he simply made these arguments off the top of his head without thinking about them. Either way, this is a terribly disappointing book.

This book has an interesting premise, but its content is shallw, ill researched, and clearly written by a guy who analyses stats rather than actual game-play.

Some of the players in his lists are just foolish suggestions, backed up by little more than flawed statistical analysis. He often contradicts himself or misses obvious alternative causes for the stats he uses, and has clearly written the book just to promote controversy and get a quick buck.

Nothing in here you won't find on your average NFL internet forum, but this guy expects you to pay for the privilege of reading it.

A book such as this always opens itself up to controversy; it is primarily the main focus. However, when there are glaring factual errors, the book begins to take a tailspin. Case in point - Sal argues against Marv Levy's coaching acumen, stating he was out-manuvered by Barry Switzer in Super Bowl 28. The problem here is that Jimmy Johnson was the coach of the opposing Cowboys that day not Switzer, who would come in the next year. Making arguments against incorrect facts sets the book's entire integrity in question, and places otherwise interesting arguments in jeopardy as this book was obviously not fact checked at all.

Sal Paolantonio seems to have good insights to provide when he's covering the NFL. That would make one think that "The Paolantonio Report" would provide equally good views on professional football. Instead, it is one of the most poorly written, badly edited, laughably argued pieces of sports writing I have ever read.

It is almost like he wrote this in one afternoon while downing some beers at the local sports bar. There is no effort to do any fact-checking whatsoever. Some examples:

-.) Says Dan Fouts was the 1982 MVP. It was actually Mark Mosely. Fouts never won the MVP in his career

-.) Marv Levy lost to Barry Switzer in Super Bowl XXVIII. That was still Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys

-.) New England was the first team to win 3 Super Bowls in 4 years (the Cowboys were the first)

-.) Kurt Warner in 2001 (101.4) and Jim Kelly in 1990 (101.2) had highest regular season passer ratings of any Super Bowl starters. They actually have 7th and 8th highest, respectively.

This is the type of material you expect from the 10pm local sports talk radio shows that have former jocks and local wannabe radio personalities who just want to talk really loud and care nothing about actually knowing the facts about what they are ranting about. This may pass in that medium, but in a book like this, there is no excuse. 10 minutes of research would have corrected all of these glaring errors.

Alas, the poor facts are not where the failures end for this book. Paolantonio also enters fray on sports debates and comes up with some pretty atrocious arguments, such as his `overrated' and `underrated' players. However, the worst (and most laughable) is his assertion that an interception by New York Giants lineman, George Martin, in a 1986 regular season game somehow `saved' the NFL. This interception occurred in the 2nd quarter of a late November game against a Denver team that New York would later defeat in the Super Bowl. While it played a role in helping the Giants get points, it certainly wasn't the make or break play in that game. It was the type of play that only a rabid Giants fan would remember and try to attach significant importance to.

Somehow, Paolantonio suggests that this non-descript regular season interception is what allowed the Giants to go on to win the Super Bowl and, because of that, prevented the strike the following year from being much worse than it was. It's debatable that the interception had that kind of impact on his first assertion, but it's absolutely ridiculous to claim it had any impact at all on the subsequent strike.

While it is not uncommon for sports writers to attach their names to pretty bad pieces of writing, "The Paolantonio Report" is so appallingly bad that it even undermines his reputation when he's cover the NFL on TV. He should never have let this book see the light of day without considerably more effort.

It is obvious Sal Paolantonio is simply looking for attention with his outlandish, uneducated opinions. One shinning example of stupidity is underrating Barry Sanders as a running back. Honestly?

As any well-versed NFL fan can testify Barry Sanders played running back for the Detroit Lions throughout the 1990's. His offensive line was less than moderate and the team in general lacked a passing game for the duration of his professional career. This of course lead to opposing defenses keying in on the Detroit running game. Despite these setbacks Barry Sanders managed to have one of the most dazzling careers in NFL history with the stats to match. While truly overrated running backs like Emmitt Smith went on to Super Bowl victories and undeserved praise based solely on the talent of their strong offensive lines, solid quarterbacks and outstanding passing games.

This is simply one of the many "speak before you think" examples recorded in Sal Paolantonio's book. As you can plainly see, this author is not meant to be taken seriously.

I am normally not an insulting person but since this Mr. Paolatonio was insulting to some of the greatest players of all time I fell Ok about it. To be brief Barry Sanders had over 1,000 yards negative yards in his career which is higher than any of the other great running backs Smith, Payton. Yet after A 10 year career 3 shorter than Payton 5 shorter than Smith he amassed over 15,000 yards rushing which is still 3rd in the NFL it doesn't matter if he ran on turf, grass, snow or marshmallows you cannot do that and be overrated. Not to mention The Lions was and still is a sub par team. I could write a book just about this guys Barry Sanders comments. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but then there's facts and if you can say a man with 15,269 yrds carrying, 5 yrds per game carrying, 2,921 yrds receiving and 109 total touch downs after only a 10 year career is over rated you are either a genius because you are trying to sell books by infuriating people into thinking your and idiot or your an idiot.

Just so people a

have something to compare to the number 4 all time rusher is Curtis Martin he has 14,101 yrds carring,4 ypg, 3,329 yrds receiving, and 100 total touch downs in 12 years. But he's probably overrated also.

This is a fun read and a great debate-starter for any follower of the NFL. A fan of Paolantonio and other NFL reporters who never played the game professionally (Chris Mortensen, John Clayton), a sports radio host myself (Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons) and lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I discovered another glaring error.

On page #251 (and again on page #252) while labeling Marv Levy as "The Most Overrated Hall of Famer of All Time"; Sal insists that Barry Switzer beat Levy and the Buffalo Bills in SB XXVIII. Not true. Switzer coached in only one Super Bowl (SB XXX, a 27-17 win over Pittsburgh). Jimmy Johnson was still the Cowboys head coach when they defeated the Bills in SB XXVIII.

I enjoyed this book but, as the reviewer from Texas noted, there is at least one glaring error and it is repeated 2 or 3 times. The Patriots were not the first team to win 3 Super Bowls in 4 years...as the Cowboys (unfortunately!) managed that feat in the 1990's which makes the error all the more shocking and inexcusable: ie. How can someone who covers the NFL for ESPN miss something so incredibly obvious that occurred within the last 15 years? I could understand if it happened in the 1930's or something but damn...

Anyway...I enjoyed reading the book even though it does seem at times that he has personal grudges to exact, and specific players to promote...I did learn some stuff and I would definitely recommend it as some great, light reading for diehard NFL fans...

one minor complaint from a native Pittsburgher

How can the 2005 Steelers be overrated? On the one hand no one ever compares them to the '72 Dolphins or the '85 Bears or states that they belong among the all-time great teams and I'm sorry but any team that wins 3 road games, something that had never been done, just to get to the Super Bowl CANNOT be overrated...I'm sure that had the Eagles or Giants done this they would have wound up in the "underrated" section

this book is rediculous. his facts are wrong, and it makes very clear he has a hatred for players who actually have accomplished great feats n the nfl, or who came from nothing to something. unlike the writer who will always be a worthless nothing. Brett Favre is a 3time nfl mvp, superbowl champ, to call him overrated....why don't you go ask gm's or scouts what they think. Tony Romo?? He worked his way up, whether he barely made the team or not. He made the team didn't he. Sal your obsession with only a few teams and your pathetic comments on espn and in your "book" are worthless and demeaning to the game of football.

This book provides a good jumping off point for a lot of debates about various overrateds, underrateds, bests and worsts in NFL history. Most of the arguments are sufficiently supported. However, some of the arguments ignore certain facts which go against the conclusions reached. Example conclusion: Warren Moon is one of the top five most overrated Hall of Famers ever. In support, the author tries to make it seem as if Moon is in the Hall of Fame for little other than four 4,000 yard passing seasons and 291 career passing TDs, despite his teams having a 3-7 playoff record with him as the starting quarterback, and despite the fact that clear non-Hall of Famers Boomer Esiason and Dave Krieg, contemporaries of Moon, had "similar" career numbers to Moon. However, not mentioned is that at the time of Moon's retirement after 2000, Moon was either 3rd or 4th all-time in NFL history in pass completions (3,988), pass attempts (6,823), passing yards (49,325), and passing TDs (291) - Krieg had 884 fewer completions, 11,178 fewer passing yards, and 30 fewer TDs than Moon; Esiason had 1,019 fewer completions, 11,405 fewer passing yards, and 44 fewer TDs than Moon; Moon's pass efficiency rating was top 25 all-time (less than .5 rating points differentiate Moon, Krieg and Esiason on a 158.3 point range for this statistic); Moon was a 9-time Pro Bowler with three different NFL teams (Krieg was a 3-time Pro Bowler, and Esiason was a 4-time Pro Bowler); Moon was a co-league MVP in 1990; Moon's 3-7 playoff record as a starter couldn't be attributable exclusively to his performance in those playoff games (e.g. 26-24 divisional round loss to Denver in the 1991 season; 41-38 wild card round loss to Buffalo in the 1992 season); and not least of all, Moon spent the first 6 years of his pro football career quarterbacking in the Canadian Football League (winning 5 Grey Cups with Edmonton), largely because the NFL in 1979 was far more interested in having promising black college quarterbacks wear uniform numbers from 20 to 49, or 80 to 89, in the NFL than numbers from 1 to 19. It was this way until the late 1980s success of Moon, Randall Cunningham, and Doug Williams in Super Bowl XXII (22) at the position, which was critical in paving the way for expanded opportunities for black college quarterbacks to compete for NFL jobs at the position from the early 1990s to present. So Moon not only had Hall of Fame passing statistics, but he also had a lasting significant impact on the look of the NFL at the quarterback position. Other conclusions which I felt were insufficiently supported were the underrated importance of the 1986 Giants winning Super Bowl XXI (21); the 1985 Bears, 1996 Packers, 1999 Titans, and 2005 Steelers being among the top 5 most overrated Super Bowl teams ever (for different reasons); and Barry Sanders being among the top 5 most overrated running backs ever. Probably the conclusion I agreed with the most was the 1972 Dolphins being among the top 5 most overrated Super Bowl teams ever.