Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL | John Feinstein

Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL | John Feinstein | If you know Feinstein, this is just as you would expect..

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Next Man Up : A Ye...

	Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL John Feinstein Little, Brown, and Company, 2005 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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Despite-or perhaps because of-its immense popularity, the NFL remains one of the most secretive sports in America. John Feinstein goes behind the scenes of this closed sport as he takes his readers through an NFL season-all the ups and downs, the procession from 100 degree heat in training camp to frigid cold in January, and the week-to-week pressures faced by the coaches and players-in an incredibly illuminating and entertaining look at the most lucrative sport in America. NEXT MAN UP highlights the Baltimore Ravens, one of the most watched and dramatic NFL teams in recent years. Like many teams, the Ravens have faced extreme obstacles-in their case, players in prison, under indictment, and injured-but they+ve still managed to play at an extremely high level, winning their first Super Bowl in 2001 against the New York Giants. From the first strategy sessions of a new season to the last down of the final game, John Feinstein reveals the intensity, spirituality, and near life-or-death drama of professional football as it+s never been revealed before.

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Another great work by Feinstein

John Feinstein cronicals a full NFL season with the Baltimore Ravens franchise, from the pre-draft meetings, through the ups and downs of the regular season, to the heartbreak of cleaning out your lockers the Monday after the final loss of the season. John does a great job detailing the professional and personal interactions of the whole orginization, from the owners (the Modell family, which happened to be in the last season of majority ownership of the Ravens during the book) to the front office of Ozzie Newsome, to coach Bilichk and the players. From this book, you can get a real feel as for what emotions players and coaches go through during their carrears, from draft day jitters, fighting for a roster spot, playing in a rivalary game, to getting the dreaded call of "bring your playbook to the office with you". I must read for any NFL fan.

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If you know Feinstein, this is just as you would expect..

I have now read 5 Feinstein books (Civil War, A March to Madness, A Good Walk Spoiled, The Open and this one)and they are all essentially in the same style. There is no technical discussion of the sports involved, Feinstein is more interested in the characters who play and coach the games and the environments they work in rather than how the games are played. This worked brilliantly in Civil War where the young men with no prospect of a professional career played for the honour of their service academies and the respect of their peers and losing with dignity was as important as winning. 'Character' was of vital importance.

In all of the other books this way of writing doesn't have the same impact because sports fans could care less about the early lives of proffesional golfers,football players and basketball coaches. They care even less about how Golfers or Sports coaches met their wives, which Feinstein seems to find endlessly fascinating. What they want to know about is playing and coaching philosophies, why teams play a certain way and how important in-game decisions are made. What Feinstein CAN do is take you into a losing locker room and give you some idea of the tensions and emotions that exist there, and these are some of the best moments in the book. With his insider access he could have been stronger on certain things like the Draft (although admittedly the Ravens had to settle for less than stellar options in every round). Compare his chapter on the NFL draft with Michael Lewis' chapter on the Moneyball draft and you can see that something is missing.

Overall though there are enough little snippets of information in here that you can't get just by reading your local beat writer's column every day that save it from being a total dud. Like Kyle Boller being considered just a tad below Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger in ability by the Raven's scouts and the teams bafflement that that ability has never manifested itself on the field. Brian Billcks ritual walk to the stadium from the hotel for home games accompanied by only one security guy, mingling with Ravens fans along the way was an eye-opener. Even the petty fact that ESPN's Len Pasquarelli will not do a training camp preview on the Ravens because of Billick's comments before the Superbowl in 2001 came as something of a shock.

Read it if you want some background filler on a supposedly typical NFL team, but not for any great insights into how Professional Football is played.

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About as In-Depth As You're Going to Get on Life in the NFL.

Given the fact that the NFL is as secretive, controlling, and vindictive as a Mafia family, Next Man Up is about as in depth of a look into professional football as you are going to get. You have to remember that this is the league that pressured ESPN over the fictional series "Players," has a "uniform nazi," and is meglomanical when it comes to negotiating/awarding television contracts. Do you honestly think that John Feinstein is going to risk his future access to the league by giving us insight into everything he saw? No; not so much.

What we have is a 500 pg. sports article. Next Man Up is well written to be sure, but nothing you won't learn anything in this book you don't already know if you are a fan of NFL football who faithfully reads the sports pages everyday.

Still, I came away with a new-found respect for Brian Billick. Feinstein does an excellent job of showing us the man behind the bluster. Billick is gritty, take-no-prisoners coach who knows how to win and who does not suffer fools gladly. He's a head football coach in the National Football League, not a Cub Scout den mother.

Despite the 3-star ranking, Next Man is still worth reading if you are a football fan. I would check the book out of the library or buy the book second hand, though. This is NOT a classic sports-work by any stretch of the imagination, but it is an entertaining read for those of us who enjoy NFL football. Feinstein's year with Baltimore's Ravens was an eventful one. Too bad we could not have gotten a true "inside" story.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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