We are deep into the NFL 2018-19 season and the Chiefs and Rams have turned heads and life seems positive if you are the Commish. But in Big Game by Mark Leibovich, you go into the rooms where the owners and players and nugget miners work and you see a whole different portrait.
Leibovich is a veteran political reporter and he has chosen to write about another contentious world. This one he’s a fan of and despite his Patriot-ism, his writing is engaging and funny and world weary all at once. He is able to write about the aforementioned nugget miners, the journalists who once wrote columns who now compete to be the first tweet on who has been traded or fired or drafted.
Concussions loom large over this book and despite the growing mound of evidence, there seems to be little being done. This leads to somewhat repetitive passages where the PTE question comes up but is never really resolved. The same with Tom Brady and his health guru. While Brady is in great shape now, I don’t believe this is due solely to his program and the longer he plays, the worse off I think he will be when he hits 50 or 60 years old. Maybe that is a different book.
Leibovich is able to do the impossible and square the circle of being a fan while still dissecting the bad of the NFL office and the owners.
You gotta drink tailgate beers when you read this book and Flat Tail from Corvallis, Oregon does the Tailgater Kolsch. If you are in Wisconsin, Titletown beers would be a no brainer. But the basic choice would be something canned and something connected to Trump since that lying blowhard is in the book for his political chicanery and his failed bid to be an NFL owner, so maybe a can of Sam Adams 76 lager.
