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A multibillion-dollar entertainment empire, the National Football League is a coast-to-coast obsession that borders on religion and dominates our sports-mad culture. But today's NFL also provides a stage for playing out important issues roiling American society. This updated and expanded edition of NFL Football observes the league's centennial by following the NFL into the twenty-first century, where off-the-field concerns compete with touchdowns and goal line stands for headlines. Richard C. Crepeau delves into the history of the league and breaks down the new era with an in-depth look at the controversies and dramas swirling around pro football today:  Tensions between players and Commissioner Roger Goodell over collusion, drug policies, and revenue, including analysis of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement  The firestorm surrounding Colin Kaepernick and protests of police violence and inequality  Andrew Luck and others choosing early retirement over the threat to their long-term health  Paul Tagliabue's role in covering up information on concussions  The Super Bowl's evolution into a national holiday Authoritative and up to the minute, NFL Football continues the epic American success story.

During the Raiders Case, the Commissioner went to Congress seeking an anti-trust exemption for the NFL that would be retroactive and could be used as a way out of the LAMCC suits against the NFL. This was ill-advised and failed leaving Rozelle weakened in the process. In the middle of all this the USFL was persuaded by Donald Trump to move from spring to fall competition and sue the NFL. The USFL won the case and the NFL was ordered to pay the USFL three dollars sealing the fate of the USFL. The Drug issue was growing in the 1970s and came to focus in San Diego where Arthur Mandell was hired as team psychiatrist. Mandell became a scapegoat in the San Diego case as it was manipulated by the NFL and Rozelle who treated drugs in the NFL as a public relations issue. Sports Illustrated in 1982 did a cover story on drugs and focused on the case of Don Reese. Cocaine became a serious problem in the 1980’s particularly in San Francisco. Rozelle announced a drug-testing program and was found in violation of the collective bargaining agreement. In 1988 Commissioner Rozelle discovered the longtime steroid use in the NFL in another public relations move. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported heart disease in NFL exceeded that in the general population. The NFL was found to have extremely low rankings on working conditions, income, and security. Rozelle’s control of the league was waning.

The Nineteen-Sixties was a decade of change and turmoil as, what David Zang, termed the “American One Way” was challenged on multiple fronts. Authority was challenged and in the NFL that meant a challenge to Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Rozelle was faced with issues surrounding gambling, drugs, and race. He was criticized for his handling of the NFL response to the Kennedy Assassination. Gambling involved players and owners. The issues involving race centered on segregation, the civil rights movement, and authority. The career of Jim Brown illustrated many of these issues. Joe Namath and Commissioner Rozelle faced off over issues of gambling, authority, and the counter-culture. Vince Lombardi became a national symbol for authority and discipline. This was also a decade when NFL Films--the creation of Ed Sabol--emerged as a powerful force for marketing the NFL and its values.

Television was a key to the growth and success of the NFL. It provided half of the League’s revenue, it was a marketing tool of great power, and the NFL came to dominate the television industry. Television played a key role in the success of the AFL while at the same time the NFL was developing its relation with CBS. The Blackout rule of 1953 and the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 were important developments in this relationship. Pete Rozelle was a marketing genius and cultivated a relationship with the networks and Madison Avenue advertising firms. The Merger set the stage for further television growth for the NFL and the creation of Monday Night Football produced a new bonanza of revenue as MNF became a cultural icon. The entrance of cable television, ESPN and Turner Sports, and the creation of the FOX Network provided more revenue opportunities. The NFL Network, Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, expanding tiers of playoff games, the emergence of the Super Bowl, and the televising of the NFL Draft, added to the power of the NFL economically and culturally. Technology aided and abetted all these developments including satellites, DirecTV, the personal computer, the internet, the wireless phone, electronic games, and multiple forms of social media, and all were absorbed and exploited by the NFL.

Roger Goodell was the best-prepared person to be the New Commissioner having served in every significant division of the NFL. Immediately he was faced with difficult issues starting with “Deflategate” and the New England Patriots. Then came player discipline issues involving Michael Vick, Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Ben Roethlisberger. Goodell faced heavy criticism in every case. These were followed by drug issues, general player health issues, and, most significantly, concussions. Goodell’s major mode of response to the concussion issue was denial. The case of Mike Webster and the work of Bennet Amalu was the first major development. This led to a book and motion picture with the title League of Denial. Court cases, major studies, and congressional hearings all dogged the NFL and Goodell. Junior Seau’s suicide and others repeatedly raised the issue and the NFL continued public denial. The concussion issue also expanded beyond the NFL to college football and youth football. Major research centers including that of Ann McKee and the Boston Group received donations of brains from NFL players for study posthumously. The dramatic retirement of Andrew Luck in 2019 refocused the public attention on the issue. A major problem for the NFL was that part of the appeal of NFL football was its violence, which it had marketed over the decades.

1959 was a milestone year for football and the NFL. Vince Lombardi became head coach at Green Bay; the national media gave increasing attention to the NFL with a Time cover story and CBS’s “The Violent World of Sam Huff” leading the way; and Pete Rozelle was chosen the New Commissioner following the death of Bert Bell. Lamar Hunt and “Bud” Adams announced the formation of the American Football League in 1959 and a battle to sign players followed. The signing battle was costly to both leagues and put great pressure on all teams to settle. The AFL was aided in its survival by television contracts and their millionaire owners. The AFL moved to sign African-American players and this accelerated the desegregation process. The AFL played a different style of football and that helped attract fans. Key developments included the signing of Joe Namath by the New York Jets, expansion of both leagues, and wild spending on bonuses in 1965. In 1966 Lamar Hunt and Tex Schramm began secret negotiations on a merger. The settlement in 1966 was complicated but did include the agreement for an AFL/NFL Championship game and a retention of separate leagues until 1970. The merger approval by Congress involved political maneuvering including the creation of the New Orleans franchise in exchange for Congressman Hale Boggs’s work on the legislation. Between 1966 and 1970 the details were worked out by a Merger Committee representing both leagues. The final obstacle was divisional realignment necessitating some NFL teams moving from the National Conference to the American Conference. This was settled when Cleveland, Baltimore, and Pittsburg agreed to a move. In the meantime the Super Bowl was already becoming a major event aided by Joe Namath’s guarantee of a Jets victory in Super Bowl III.

Paul Tagliabue was a logical choice to succeed Pete Rozelle as Commissioner given his two decades as chief legal advisor to the league. It took fifty hours of debate by the search committee, four owners meetings, and eleven ballots to reach this logical decision. His first major achievement was coming to a labor settlement with Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA. Al Davis was instrumental in this process. This set the stage for the next round of television contracts netting $33M/team/year over the next four years and an expansion of network coverage and DirecTV. Then came expansion and relocation of franchises. Tagliabue moved to expand NFL involvement in public issues including moving the Super Bowl out of Arizona over the MLK Day controversy. Internal issues included the revenue sharing policies that were under threat by Jerry Jones and Dallas. The market was also expanded with the creation of NFL Properties led by Sara Levinson from MTV and a direct appeal to women fans. NFL Revenue increased significantly. Race continued to be a major issue. There was an increase in black quarterbacks, but no significant change in coaching and executive ranks. A Diversity Committee was created in 2002 and the Rooney Rule was adopted I 2004 with initial promising results but it was not sustained over the next 15 years. In March of 2004 Tagliabue announced his retirement amidst great praise for this time as Commissioner. The one issue that he failed to address was that of concussions and head injuries.

The fifteen years following World War II were a period of prosperity and technological innovation on a scale that transformed American society and produced a consumer driven economy. The NFL rode this wave of change to unprecedented heights. As the war came to an end Arch Ward, Paul Brown and others founded the All-America Football Conference taking professional football to the West Coast and opening a battle with the National Football League. Brown’s success in Cleveland led Dan Reeves to move the Rams to Los Angles, and that move led to the desegregation of the NFL. Player salaries increased and the league became more competitive. The merger of the two leagues with the Browns, Colts, and Forty-Niners joining the NFL came in 1950. The professionalization of all facets of the game both on and off the field was led by Paul Brown, who transformed coaching techniques and dominated the AAFC and the NFL with such players as Otto Graham and Dante Lavelli, and by virtue of the desegregation of his team as he signed Marion Motley and Bill Willis. The New NFL caught the eye of the public and under the leadership of Bert Bell used, and then dominated, television to became a major force in American sport. The rise of television and the rise of the NFL went hand-in-hand and reached a crescendo when the large television audience watched the NFL Championship Game of 1958 go into “sudden death” overtime. The NFL’s growth also coincided with the start of Sports Illustrated and the magazine bet its future by focusing its coverage on the NFL. The other element of success was the NFL’s emphasis on a macho philosophy and the violence of the game. Players like Sam Huff and Bobby Lane were lauded in the media for their toughness and their off-field lifestyles.

The NFL is a cartel and has been able to use that power reality in a number of ways to enhance its economic success and in turn increase its power. The Stadium Game comes in many forms but essentially involves using promises and extortion to get new stadiums for its franchises. Expansion is another element in the process. Movement of franchises was restricted until Al Davis and the Los Angeles Municipal Coliseum Commission won their court case to move the Raiders to Los Angeles. There also were struggles over ownership rules pitting Edward Bennett Williams of Washington against the Commissioner. The argument was settled in the court of appeals in NASL v. NFL. These cases opened up an era of movement that further enhanced community exploitation. Among those moving were Baltimore to Indianapolis and Cleveland to Baltimore. Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys took a different and effective route to a new stadium, while others like the Minnesota Vikings threatened movement to get a new stadium. On the other hand, Leonard Tose in Philadelphia is an example of how one could actually drive an NFL franchise to ruin while enriching oneself. These changes diminished the power of the Commissioner.

This chapter briefly examines semi-professional and professional football prior to 1920 including nature of the players, teams, and fans. Describes the founding of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) in 1920 and the change of name to The National Football League (NFL) the following year. George Halas and Commissioner Joe Carr played key roles in the formation and early history of the league. Red Grange and C.C. Pyle provided new visibility for the NFL and the Grange Tour exposed the league to fans across the nation. Franchises came and went with frequency throughout the 1920s, and one of the notable franchises was the Duluth Eskimos whose fame increased with the signing of Ernie Nevers.

This chapter examines the evolution of the league from one centered in small and medium sized cities, to one made up of larger population centers with the exception being Green Bay. This change was the result of a strategy and was aided by the economic impact of the Great Depression. The Chicago Bears led by Bronco Nagurski was one of the powerhouse franchises of the NFL in the 1930s along with the Packers, Giants and Redskins. The decade saw the segregation of the NFL as the league succumbed to the wishes of the owner of the Washington Redskins, Preston Marshall. There was a steady growth in the interest in the league and media coverage moved beyond local coverage. By the end of the decade the league was on the brink of major status among American sports. World War II disrupted these developments and some franchises such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (Steagles) were combined. NFL Players and coaches joined the war effort as the league displayed its patriotism. Paul Brown became the coach of the football team at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center a powerhouse of wartime football. By wars end, there were predictions that professional football was the game of the future.

The Super Bowl has become a Mid-winter National Festival, a celebration of excess that somehow keeps growing. It is best spoken of in terminology created by Thorstein Veblen in his examination of the lives of the new rich in America’s Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Such phrases as Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste, and Pecuniary Emulation seem to have been created for the spectacle of the Super Bowl. There are a multitude of measurements of superness including television ratings, television production techniques, corporate parties, and advertising costs. This chapter chronicles the growth and development of these indicators from Super Bowl I to Super Bowl LIV. Cities and States spend excessively, as indeed required by the NFL, to get the right to host a Super Bowl that allegedly brings get wealth and notoriety to that location. Individuals spend excessively to attend the game or to stay home and host lavish or modest parties. The amount of food and drink consumed on Super Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving Day. The use of Roman Numerals gives an Imperial touch to the occasion. The Super Bowl occupies growing space on the internet and in social media adapting to every new wrinkle in e-technology. The commercials for the game have become a mini-film festival and for many have become the main interest of the Super Bowl, not the game. Gambling on the game has spread worldwide along with television broadcasting, and every possible bet imaginable is made on and around the game. There is high interest in the parties and for some, particularly the Playboy and Maxim parties, attendance is a sure method of conspicuous leisure. There is two weeks between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl to allow sufficient time to binge on the event. In the end, it is growth in everything even remotely related to the Super Bowl that marks this National holiday that excessively celebrates excess.

Two things affected early labor relations in the NFL, a unified ownership hostile to unions and the paternal character of the coach and player relationship. NFL salaries dropped after the merger with the AAFC and stayed depressed in the 1950s. There was an attempt to form a union led by Dante Lavelli of the Browns and Creighton Miller that was basically a failure. While the NFL was losing in court in the Radovich Case and failing to get an anti-trust exemption, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell maneuvered around the NFLPA and the House Judiciary Committee. The coming of the American Football League and Commissioner Pete Rozelle in the Sixties changed the relationship between the NFL and the players. Rozelle fought against the NFLPA under its various leaders, with some success by among other things violating labor law. Bernie Parrish, John Gordy, and John Mackey in turn led the NFLPA with various lawyers serving as director. The coming of Ed Garvey as council and subsequently Executive Director, working with John Mackey, resulted in a major conflict between the NFL and the NFLPA. Several strikes were called and failed and in effect the NFL defeated the NFLPA. Then the players disbanded the NFLPA and turned to the courts for redress where they had some success. The Mackey Case and subsequent collective bargaining agreements were landmarks along the way, but in the end success only came in the courts. Ed Garvey emerged as the prime villain and was under constant attack from the NFL, and in the end he was undermined by the League and by his own errors and resigned his position. For the most part the press supported the NFL against the players and helped turn the fans against the players. Labor turmoil continued and Commissioner Rozelle was incapable of achieving a labor settlement, while Garvey alienated the owners and some of the players. Both had to go before a settlement could be reached. Garvey resigned in June of 1982 following the failed strike. One more strike in 1987 led to Pete Rozelle’s retirement as he was tired of the struggle. The use of strike breakers moved some of the press away from ownership but again the strike failed. When the NFLPA went to court again they found that the courts would not allow them to sue because they were suing over a bargained issue. The result was a decision to decertify the NFLPA and then return to court to sue as individuals. This is where things stood as the Search Committee began looking for a new Commissioner.

In the short span of a half-century the Super Bowl has grown from a modest championship game between two football leagues into an outsized mid-winter holiday co-produced by the National Football League and the combined efforts of the American advertising and television industries. It has grown from a one-day into a two-week festival featuring a vast range of events, parties, and a championship football game. Fifty years on, half of the population of the United States and a worldwide television audience participate in Super Bowl activities and festivities either live or virtually. Television, marketing, and a wide range of media platforms have aided and abetted the growth of this celebration of football and consumption. Although there are many ways to describe the Super Bowl it is the nineteenth century vocabulary of the economist Thorstein Veblen that best captures its essence. In Veblen’s words it is a case of ‘conspicuous consumption’ now running on steroids.

In Greek mythology the god Pan was a half goat---half god creature noted for his simplicity and love of riot. One can only wonder if some descendant of Pan, a half goat--half man wearing a Cubs cap and earphones to cover those ears, was in the stands at Wrigley Field along the left-field line late in game 6 of the NLCS. The goat and the Greek connections to the events at Wrigley Field are certainly suggestive, and the riot of runs that followed the simple act of trying to catch a foul ball fits Pan's modus operandi. But then curses are not real, and Dusty Baker doesn't believe in the relevance of history. Oh yeah! As Mike Wilbon of the Washington Post screamed from my radio the following morning, "Dusty just doesn't get it!" Dusty Baker didn't know it, but he was about to be launched on his way up the learning curve. Some collapses come quickly; some are prolonged. Any Cub fan having experienced the post--black cat weeks of 1969 can attest to that. In game 6 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field the collapse came about as fast as one can come, at least within the scope of a baseball game or the limits of the time-space continuum. When the foul ball failed to reach the glove of Moises Alou and Steve Bartman achieved eternal infamy matching or exceeding Leon Durham, I knew the Cubs were cooked. The sight of Alou banging his glove in frustration and Mark Prior standing on the mound screaming told me more than I wanted to know. What followed now seems inevitable. I have watched several replays of those moments and still find the lightning quickness of this collapse nearly incomprehensible. I know I experienced something close to vertigo at that moment. I am also sure I saw some sign of a goat down that left-field line. Laughing! As a veteran of Cub pratfalls why would I have let this season sucker me into the notion that Baker, Wood, Prior, and Sosa would end the long century of Cub futility? As someone who can still hear Leo Durocher say confidently, "This is not an eighth-place ball club," only to see those Cubs finish tenth in the expanded National League, why would I think this is the year? Did I not watch those National League playoffs of 1984, when Rick Sutcliffe played the role filled by Mark Prior this year? Didn't I remember 1989? None of this stopped me, although all of it was always there in the back of my consciousness waiting to rush forward upon the first signs of Cub reality. When the Cubs went up 3 games to 1 and were on the verge of clinching the first trip to the World Series since 1945, I began to believe. When references of events were being made to 1945 and even 1908, I was enticed by fantasy. When I read stories about Cub fans who hoped that the NLCS would return to Wrigley so the Cubs could win it there, I was amused. When Josh Beckett pitched his masterpiece in game 5, I wasn't fazed in the least. And even after the events of game 6, when Kerry Wood hit the home run to tie up game 7, and then Alou put the Cubs ahead with a home run to make it 5-3, I inexplicably allowed a glimmer of hope to creep back in, even though I knew better. Why? Why? Why? Because I am a Cub fan. Because I am still a believer in the face of reality. Because, despite all my cynicism, I continue to hope. Because I continue to hope when there is no hope. Because the Cubs are loveable losers and I cannot resist them. Because Wrigley Field is the womb of baseball. So few Americans know how to savor losing. This American nation of winners needs more Cub fans. Winning Isn't the Only Thing; Losing Is. Lombardi had it backward. The end of life isn't a ticker-tape parade; it is death. As I watched the final moments of the telecast in which FOX focused on Cub fans, I was struck, as I always am, by the people at Wrigley Field. The old, the young, the middle-aged. Cub fans all. As I looked at the young Cub fans caught in their first episode of disappointment, I could only think how lucky they are to have been there. …