One of the best parts of becoming a young journalist is that he or she gets to sit around and talk with older journalists about their jobs. Most do so happily, asd they are story-tellers at heart. Chances are good that they wouldn't be in the business if they didn't fit that qualification. Those veterans are happy to talk about experiences in the past and present, and wrap them up in bows with the perspective that comes with many years on the job.
That brings us to Peter King. He's been lucky enough - and he'll admit to that - to have been in the right place at the right time to collect such stories. Peter started working for newspapers, but eventually graduated to Sports Illustrated magazine when its influence was huge. Then it was on to NBC Sports near the end of his formal career. Therefore, he was perfectly placed to go to places even the average reporter didn't have the chance to see.
Now he's gone back into his files and paperwork - his professional life, really - to examine those stories and bring them up to date. The result is "The Game" - a book that checks in at about 592 pages, and every single one of them is entertaining (at least if you follow follow even semi-closely).
Yes, King had some professional advantages at certain points along his career. When someone from SI called requesting an interview, chances are good that the message was returned rather quickly. When he had an idea to do something unusual, the concept was at least considered.
In this review of his personal football history, every year from 1984 to 2023 gets a chapter - with a main story and a sidebar included. Add it up and you get a chatty, user-friendly history of pro football in that time period. It wouldn't be fair to call it the "modern era" (that probably should go back to at least 1967), but certainly it covers a period of spectacular growth.
He starts out with this days with Sam Wyche, then coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, who was one of the great characters of the football business. Wyche was nice enough to leak the names of the guys who the Bengals would take in that year's NFL draft. King wound up giving two of the top picks a ride to the team's offices from the airport.
Ride with John Madden on a coast-to-coast bus ride? Check. Spend time with Deion Sanders in his playing days as he outlined his philosophy about publicity? Yup. Watch the Cleveland Browns prepare to leave their longtime home, and see Reggie White prepare as a free agent to leave Philadelphia and wind up in, of all places, Green Bay? Of course. Listen in on a team's work during the NFL Draft? Watch an NFL quarterback prepare for a game? Be with a head coach as he puts together a gameplan? All that too. You get the idea.
There are even stories about people you don't know about. That includes the woman who has done considerable research into football players and their brain injuries, and the people behind the rise of NFL Films. As mentor Paul Zimmerman told King early in his career, "Stay away from the crowds."
If that weren't enough, King even puts plenty of work into his appendix (the end of the book, that is to say). He has his list of the 100 most important people in NFL history, starting with George Halas, Pete Rozelle, Paul Brown, Joe Carr, and Vince Lombardi. The reasoning seems solid. By the way, O.J. Simpson checks in as the top Buffalo Bill on the list at No. 45, while Bruce Smith is No. 67. OK, I might have switched Buck Buchanan and Deacon Jones from their spots of No. 99 and "just missed," but it's a close call.
King also comes up with a list of favorite locker room moments - bumping into Richard Nixon in one in the 1980s tops that list - and his nominees for the five most underrated players. Bills' fans will be happy to know that Steve Tasker tops that list, and perhaps surprised that Antoine Winfield Sr. of the Bills made it too.
In the "best game I saw" section King opens by writing "Apologies to the Bills' 1992 wild card comeback from a 35-3 deficit, which is too easy." But he compensates by picking the Bills-Patriots game that was right after Damar Hamlin's injury in January 2023, highlighted by Hyheim Hines's two kickoff returns for touchdowns. King quotes Sean McDermott from that day: "When people can put their agendas aside for the greater and common good, how good we can be when we do that."
There's even a crossword puzzle in here. King likes crossword puzzles. A lot. They are a little tough to do on a Kindle version of a book.
If you like books from superb sports reporters that serve as the valedictory address of their careers, we've got a couple of really good ones coming in the fall. Baseball's Peter Gammons was almost sweet in its love of the game. "The Game" from football's King is more scattered in its approach, but even more entertaining. You can count on both books being in my "best of 2026" list at the end of December.
Five stars
Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money from qualifying purchases.)
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