What’s made football great are the players and the fans. What players and fans tend to understand the least are the owners and I think to a certain extent, they kind of wrap themselves up as kind of a grandfatherly group of people who, you know, they just want everybody to enjoy football. And I think the more that they have control over football, the more it separates the fans and the players from what makes the game great.
– DeMAURICE SMITH
DeMaurice has written a terrific and insightful book, TURF WARS: The Fight for the Soul of America’s Game
More than just a story of labor battles and legal fights, TURF WARS situates the NFL’s controversies within a larger cultural and historical framework, revealing how the league’s meteoric rise reflects America’s own struggles with race, power, and economic disparity.
DeMaurice is the ultimate insider – for fourteen years, he led the NFLPA through some of the league’s most contentious crises—including Colin Kaepernick’s protests, Deflategate, a lockout, and two collective bargaining agreements—standing as the players’ fiercest advocate against a system designed to silence them.
Now, for the first time, Smith pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the league and the billion-dollar machine that profits off its athletes while keeping them in check.
Comments