Rozelle: Czar of the NFL [Hardcover]

Jeff Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2007

The definitive biography of the powerful commissioner who masterminded the Super Bowl and changed professional sports forever

Pete Rozelle built a sports empire. He invented the Super Bowl, tripled the size of the NFL, and turned football into a billion-dollar business. Before he came along, Monday was just another weeknight. Rozelle was the archetype of the modern sports commissioner and one of Time magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th century.

In Rozelle, critically acclaimed biographer Jeff Davis goes deep into the extraordinary life of this legendary figure. Showcasing exclusive interviews with more than a hundred of Rozelle’s family members, colleagues, admirers, and detractors, Davis weaves a compelling narrative fabric that masterfully spans Rozelle’s life from childhood through his days as an executive with the L. A. Rams, to his triumphs as commissioner of the NFL and his everlasting impact on the American way of sport.

(20071115)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pete Rozelle is often considered the greatest commissioner in sports history. Under his nearly 30-year regime as commissioner of the National Football League, Rozelle essentially turned the NFL from a well-organized recreation league into a business empire. Most sports fans would relish a well-reported look at a man who changed the American sporting landscape, but they won't find it here. Davis (Papa Bear: The Life and Legacy of George Halas) inexplicably devotes entire chapters to events that Rozelle had little involvement in—the controversial death of Eugene Big Daddy Lipscomb, the Heidi game—and goes on numerous tangents about other people while Rozelle makes only cameo appearances in his own biography. Failing to condense rambling quotes from many of his sources, Davis even inserts his own reminiscences into the narrative, crippling the momentum. There are some revelations (especially on Rozelle's rocky first marriage and his abilities as a father), but they are not enough to make this either a clear picture of a monumental sports figure or an entertaining read. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Davis, author of the well-received George Halas biography Papa Bear (2004), turns to another NFL icon, late commissioner Pete Rozelle, who reigned for 29 years. A surprise choice in 1960 by the 12 owners on the twenty-third ballot—"he hadn't offended anybody yet," said the son of one owner—Rozelle turned out to be arguably the most effective sports commissioner of all time, overseeing with quiet but effective diplomacy and incredible marketing savvy the joining of football with American pop culture and technology. Davis details, at times a little too exhaustively, the context out of which the modern game emerged, from the postwar band of hard-boiled owners (Halas being preeminent) to the growth of TV sports to key games that moved the sport forward (including the 1967 Packers-Cowboys championship game and the 1969 Joe Namath Jets–Colts Super Bowl). Pete Rozelle the person might still remain elusive to readers—he was famous for shunning the limelight—but not his critical effect on American sport and culture. Moores, Alan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (July 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071471669
• ISBN-13: 978-0071471664
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,547,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rozelle was a winner, but this book certainly isn't, October 15, 2007

By 

Mac the Knife (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rozelle: Czar of the NFL (Hardcover)

Rozelle: Czar of the NFL alleges to be a biography of the former NFL Commissioner, but instead it is a meandering, disjointed, almost unreadably round-about tale of certain aspects of the NFL's history. It provides remarkably little, if any, true insight on the man who served as the league's Commissioner from 1960 to 1989, relying heavily on interviews with Ernie Accorsi and Rozelle's daughter for its material but oddly enough not providing any true insight from these sources.

What do I mean by meandering? Well for instance, after 250 pages of the book I've learned through the book's contents that Marlboro cigarettes were originally marketed as a "women's" brand... but I don't know what Rozelle's mindset was when the AFL came along, I don't know anything about his relationships with owners other than Dan Reeves of the Rams, and I know absolutely nothing as to what possessed the owners of the NFL to elect him as their Commissioner beyond the fact that he was a compromise candidate.

Simply and bluntly put, this book is worthless to anyone wanting to learn about its subject. Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Jeff Davis in an effort to get my money back?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Time And Money, September 6, 2007

By 

T. Maher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rozelle: Czar of the NFL (Hardcover)

Not only is this book full of errors, but half of the book isn't even about Pete Rozelle.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I wish I had read the first reviewer, December 25, 2007

By 

T. W. Friedberg "Big Guy" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rozelle: Czar of the NFL (Hardcover)

This isnt a book...it's an awful run-on sentence. This is a worthy subject nonetheless....hopefully someone who knows how to write will take on the subject someday. This is nothing but as told to Jeff Davis "kerflooey"...a word that was actually used on page 24

Jeff Davis should have stayed dead with the confederacy....he devalues his Northwestern education with this...can the university give him an honorary defrocking for this. In sum...this book wa neither written nor edited......just bad journalism.