Present at the creation : my life in the NFL and the rise of America's game

Present at the creation My life in the NFL and the rise of America's game

Upton Bell

Book - 2017

"To understand how the NFL became the sports phenomenon it is today, you can study its history as an active participant. Upton Bell grew up at the knee of the NFL's first great commissioner, his father, the legendary Bert Bell, who not only saved the game from financial ruin after World War II but was one of its greatest innovators. Coining the phrase "On any given Sunday," Bert invented the pro football draft and proposed sudden death rules. Present at the Creation details Bell's firsthand experiences, which started as he watched his father draw up the league schedule each year at the kitchen table using dominoes. There he learned the importance of parity, which is a hallmark of the league's success, and also ...how to create it. Over the past fifty-three years, Bell has been an owner, a general manager, a personnel executive, a scouting director for two Super Bowl teams, a television commentator and analyst, and a talk-radio host. He has seen the NFL from the inside and has experienced many of the most important moments in NFL history." --

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Subjects
Bell, Upton.
Bell, Bert, > 1894-1959.
Baltimore Colts (Football team)
National Football League > History.
Football managers > Biography.
Sportscasters > Biography.
Sports administration.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press 2017.
Language
English
Main Author
Upton Bell (author)
Other Authors
Ron Borges (author)
Physical Description
382 pages, 22 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-382).
ISBN
9781496200396
  • On any given Sunday
  • A long ride to Baltimore
  • Welcome to the Colts
  • The great ticket heist was my kickoff in Baltimore
  • A scout's life is for Kit Carson but not for everybody
  • The making of an NFL scout
  • Spy vs. spy settles NFL-AFL war
  • The South is burning!
  • Running my own show in Baltimore
  • Worst loss in the history of losses
  • Some things can't be fixed
  • Why did you ever come here?
  • Everybody's got to serve somebody
  • A new league, a second chance
  • No more fish in the sea
  • Scouting for QBs, the most important position in sports
  • Only one Moses wore a whistle
  • Out of the frying pan, into the fire
  • Epilogue.
Review by Library Journal Review

Bell's father, Bert, was NFL Commissioner in the postwar era, when the league made great strides in catching up to baseball as the nation's most popular sport. After Bert died in 1959, 22-year-old Bell began his football career as an equipment manager with the Baltimore Colts in 1960. He worked his way up from ticket sales to scouting to heading the personnel department, later becoming general manager for the New England Patriots and an owner in the short-lived World Football League. In 1976, he moved into journalism, facilitating the first broadcast of the NFL draft in 1977 on Boston's PBS station and working for local TV and radio outlets. Throughout his life, Bell's career intersected with athletes and U.S. presidents but always seemed to come back to football. This delightful memoir is filled with telling and colorful anecdotes that shed light on the last 60 years of the sport as well as Bell's opinions on many matters, including the greatest quarterbacks and coaches he has seen or worked with. VERDICT A highly enjoyable book that should be on every football fan's reading list. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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