A quick read....

Ended up checking out a book yesterday called THOSE WHO HIT THE HARDEST about the Pittsburgh Steelers/Dallas Cowboys rivalry during the 1970s. It's a mixed success, but hard to put down. The authors should probably admit a Burgh bias, it is about 80% about the Steelers. They attempt to tie in the rise and fall of the steelworkers union with the story of the Steelers, but it doesn't mesh and the labor stuff seems like something that was inserted from another book. Still an interesting story.

It is funny to think of how little the players made back then, the salaries changed during this period but even then superstar draft picks could only command a few hundred grand over the life of their contracts.

I am a sort-of football fan, the game makes for great storytelling and I love to read books about the various personalities. I seldom watch an entire game, and prefer college to pro football [another interesting tidbit---until the late Sixties, college football was overwhelmingly more popular than the pro game, the time period chronicled in this book was more or less the point where the tide turned] but even then I follow the game more as a story that unfolds each week--I'll watch the highlights on ESPN but generally only tune in for some of the bowl games in January. I have teams I dislike, and have a nominal allegiance to teams where I've attended school or from my home state, but in the end I'm more interested in the drama of it. For example, I am hoping the most popular team in my home state doesn't make it to the national championship game this year because they tend to get dominated in big bowl games [heh heh, any savvy college FB fans will probably have narrowed it down to two possible schools!] and I always want the best matchup possible.

Anyway, I ended up reading the whole book this morning. Not as good as the Bear Bryant bio I read last month, but worth a read mainly just for the story of the Steelers. Another great football book is WHEN PRIDE STILL MATTERED about Vince Lombardi, and my overall favorite which I mentioned several months back is A CIVIL WAR by John Feinstein, about the Army/Navy football rivalry.