America's Game
by Michael MacCambridge
Mentioned once across 1 show · first heard Jan 2026 on Acquired.
The general take
David Rosenthal calls America's Game the definitive biography-style history of the NFL, crediting it as essential research for understanding the league's story. He sees it as a thorough and authoritative work that goes beyond surface-level sports history.
About
It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence.
Who said what
David Rosenthal👍 Recommends
…sourcing research materials for the NFL history episode
“We have some sports thank yous to Michael McCambridge, author of America's Game, which provided much of the research for this episode. And it's just like the definitive biography-style history of the NFL.”
Acquired — The NFL (2026 Update)at 05:11
Listener reviews
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