Out of Their League

wonderfully-written book about the dark side of sports. highly recommended for people who care about football and want to know the inside story. also, be sure to read --out of control - by hollywood henderson.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's there were two revolutions in professional sports. The first was the rapid growth in the salary levels. This was due to the growing power of the players relative to the owners as they finally were able to overcome the legal and institutionalized restrictions that kept them in a degree of servitude. The second was the stripping of the facade of the players as mighty and pure men, where they were revealed as much less than the supposed ideals. This change was largely due to the appearance of tell-all books that described what really went on in the sports. In major league baseball, the initial book was "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton and in the National Football League (NFL) it was this book. When both first came out, the authors were severely chastised for their statements, yet subsequent revelations have all supported their claims. Shortly before he died, Mickey Mantle spoke out about how his consumption of alcohol damaged his career and his body, something Bouton wrote about. Meggyesy talks about the tremendous racism in the NFL in the sixties, the brutality and the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs. He also describes the tremendous hypocrisy of college football, where rules violations were routine and also common knowledge. Every subsequent statement by ex-players has upheld his statements, with many arguing that it was even worse that what Meggyesy claimed. As you read the book, you clearly see that Meggyesy is an intelligent man in an area where acting intelligently was discouraged. Football players were to be seen on the football field and heard only through the violence of their on-field actions. Expressing an intelligent political opinion was considered "action detrimental to the sport and the team." The only flaw in the discourse is that Meggyesy's political views sometimes taint his discussions about football. It would have better if he had avoided going in that direction.

David Meggyesy is one of America's true unsung heroes. Working as a pro athlete at a time when the pay was less that of a trash hauler, with no benefits or job security, and the only guarantee a lifetime of pain and disability, Meggyesy exposed deep hypocrisy in America's hero worship at a time when the nation was at war, and the rich were getting richer at everyone else's expense, and to speak out was to be condemned as a pariah. In other words, things haven't changed one iota except for the salaries of the players, and this, ironically and significantly, is also Mr. Meggyesy's doing, in large part. As founder of Athletes Against the War back then he took on the establishment. As co-founder and Western Director of the NFL Players Association he continues to take it on to this day. A great book by a great man, for all its rough edges.

I just finished reading this book and found it to be quite insightful about the exploitation of professional football players. As a pro-football player, Dave Meggyesy is one of the rare players who not only finishes college but constantly questions everything that's going on around him. ... Dave is pretty articulate and has a lot of character substance. Against the backdrop of the 60s, Dave traces his intellectual and political development which is cool. This is the 6th sports autobiography that I've read for my professor at UH and it's so far my favorite. When is the last time you heard a white football player make a political statement about racism in the 60s?The book left me wondering what Dave Meggyesy is doing today.