First published 2018
The United States Football League made the NFL nervous for three wild seasons in the 1980s. Eighteen teams competed across the country, television networks paid millions for broadcast rights, and fans packed stadiums to watch future legends play spring football. Jeff Pearlman interviewed over four hundred people to tell the complete story of this audacious experiment. The league featured drug-fueled excess, innovative gameplay, and massive financial gambles. Fortunes appeared and vanished as quickly as the league itself. At the center of the collapse stood Donald Trump, the bombastic New York businessman whose ego and scheming ultimately destroyed what could have been a lasting alternative to the NFL. Pearlman reveals the untold stories behind one of America's most captivating sports ventures, showing how ambition and excess brought down a league that briefly challenged football's established order.
Genres: 20th-century, business, sports, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ambition, excess, underdog
Setting: United States
Period: 1980s
Audio CD · Dreamscape Media