The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire Audiobook (Free)

The epic tale of the five owners who shepherded the NFL through its tumultuous early decades and built typically the most popular sport in America

The National Football Group is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $14 billion in annual revenue. But it was not always a success. In The Group, John Eisenberg focuses on the pioneering sportsmen who kept the league alive in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s,when its difficulties were many and its survival was not guaranteed. At that time, college football, baseball, boxing, and horseracing dominated America’s sports scene. Artwork Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell believed in pro football when few others did and ultimately succeeded only because at essential junctures each sacrificed the short-term success of his group for the longer-term great of the league.

At once a brief history of a sport and a remarkable story of business ingenuity, The Little league is an essential browse for any enthusiast of our true national pastime.