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Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL | 
 enlarge | Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $7.72
You Save: $18.23 (70%)
New (9) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $4.14
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 51508
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.5
ASIN: B000GRU1MO
Publication Date: October 17, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
America's favorite sportswriter lifts the shroud of secrecythat envelops the NFL to give us the most intimate look we have ever hadinto the workings of a professional football team. Feinstein follows asingle team through an entire season, capturing a vast spectrum ofexperience and emotion, from the owner's goals to the coach's day-to-daytravails to the feeling of the sleet-soaked ball in the hands of areceiver. Anyone who loves football--any team, in any era--will savor thedetails revealed here about the most sensational sport in America.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 About as In-Depth As You're Going to Get on Life in the NFL. November 17, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
If you know Feinstein, this is just as you would expect.. November 14, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
 Dreadfully Tedious November 7, 2007
How Feinstein managed to take an intriguing team (the Ravens) and an exciting subject (football), and turn it into an absolute snoozefest is a complete mystery. He is endlessly descriptive about the most uninteresting minutiae. He is also overwhelmingly apologetic regarding the less than stellar moral character of a lot of the Ravens. Avoid at all costs!
 See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil May 24, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
WebViking writes a wonderful review of this book. I really agree with his part that says what is missing from the book, you really get a very limited feel of the players and the administrative people.
What really bothered me about halfway through the book is the way Feinstein fawns over the people he is covering. Brian Billick is not arrogant, just misunderstood. Ray Lewis should be deified as the greatest middle linebacker to play the game. Feinstein repeatedly defends Ray Lewis and Jamal Lewis from the legal problems they had.
But Feinstein makes a big error with Ray Lewis. Ray went on public record saying he was a terrible 3-4 linebacker. Others said similar, that Lewis was only a star in a 4-3. The 3-4 was the defense that the Ravens played in this book. So it is apparent that Feinstein spent little time with Lewis despite the fawning.
Feinstein appears frequently on TV where he shows he can do something beyond kissing up to the people he covers. He needs to put some of that into his future books, it was sorely needed in this one.
 Behind the Scenes with the Baltimore Ravens April 12, 2007
Take the media out of the picture of your favorite NFL team. This book delves into the background of the Baltimore Ravens. Even if you're not a Raven fan, you'll gain insight into your own team.
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