Players

The Story of Sports and Money - and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution

By: Matthew Futterman

Narrated by: George Newbern

For fans of Michael Lewis, the astounding untold story of how professional sports transformed, in the span of a single generation, from a cottage industry into a massive global business.

In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of higher salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet. Roger Staubach, for example, made only $25,000 in his first season as the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys and wound up selling commercial real estate in the summer. Today, when Fortune reports that every athlete on its Top 50 list makes more than $20 million per year, it's clear that a complete reversal of power occurred under our eyes.

Players is the first book to chronicle the astonishing business story behind modern sports - a true revolution that moved the athletes from the bottom of the financial pyramid to the top. It started in 1960, when a Cleveland lawyer named Mark McCormack convinced a golfer named Arnold Palmer to sign with him. Within a few years, McCormack raised Palmer's annual income off the course from $5,000 to $500,000 and forever changed the landscape of the sports industry.

Futterman introduces a wide-ranging cast of characters to tell the story of athletes, agents, TV executives, coaches, and owners who together created the dominating and multifaceted industry we know today. Players is a riveting, fly-on-the-wall account of the creation and rise of the modern sports world and the people who fought to make it happen. From landmark moments such as the 1973 Wimbledon boycott and baseball pitcher Catfish Hunter's battle to become MLB's first free agent to the outsize influence of companies like IMG, Nike, and ESPN, this fascinating book details the wild evolution of sports into the extravaganza we experience today and the inevitable trade-offs those changes have wrought.

©2016 Matthew Futterman (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

Starts slow...

This starts slow going all the way back to explain the history of how it all started but it gets better as it goes. I enjoyed it.

Weak Effort

There is some good information in this book if you're a sports fan. Perhaps a bit more minutiae than was actually needed to tell the story but not at all bad. The author is supposedly a New York Times sportswriter but his level of knowledge isn't particularly impressive. As for the narrator, once again the person picked to read the book has evidently never watched any games or even ESPN. The number of mispronunciations by reader George Newbern indicated futile attempts at phonics which really didn't work out all that well. If you're a sports fan and this book is ever offered as Audible's Daily Deal it's a good deal, but not worth a credit.

Outstanding# So much better than expected

I'm so glad I found this book. I learned a lot about the history of significant changes in sports. The writing was good. The reader was good. I'm so pleased with this book. And I'd be very interested in Reading other work by the author.

Fantastic read!

Any sports fan will love this book, especially if part of your life was spent in the era of more modest money in sports. It would also work for non-sports fans who wonder how sports got so big. AWESOME BOOK!

Very thorough, but felt a bit too long...

There were some issues with pacing and pronunciation of names and it felt like the whole book could have done with another series of edits, but the content is absolutely fantastic, if a bit disjointed. If you are truly looking for the history of the big-time monetization of sport and its growth at the hands of stars and those with foresight and insight behind the scenes with nods to some of the unsung heroes and battles that were fought to pay athletes like the professionals they are... pick this up. You won’t be disappointed!