"After four decades inside the NFL, Peter King has stories no one else can tell." ―Troy Aikman "[A] joyful, insightful, colorful, remarkable look at the modern rise and reign of the NFL through the lens of football’s greatest chronicler and storyteller." ―Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author From the legendary football writer, an extraordinary front-row-seat to the modern NFL, chronicling the defining moments, teams, controversies, and more. For forty years, Peter King has gotten the stories no one else could. From riding the Madden Cruiser cross-country with John Madden, to slipping into Tom Brady’s Montana hideaway after his greatest Super Bowl comeback, to standing a few yards away as a young Patrick Mahomes stunned teammates with throws that defied belief, King’s unmatched access, curiosity, and passion have made him synonymous with the NFL for generations of fans. Now, in The Game , King has produced his masterwork: A sweeping, story-filled “football bible” that reveals the sport as never before. Moving from the mid-1980s, when the NFL went head-to-head with baseball in popularity, to the present, when it dwarfs every other entertainment in America, King goes beyond the headlines, capturing the costs men pay, and the glory they sometimes find, when they devote their lives to professional football. With his signature mix of sharp opinion and unforgettable anecdotes, King offers nothing less than a biography of the sport itself. 1 illustration "Peter King’s The Game is The Book. It’s a joyful, insightful, colorful, remarkable look at the modern rise and reign of the NFL through the lens of football’s greatest chronicler and storyteller." ― Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will be Boys and The Last Folk Hero "I always thought what Peter did better than anyone―certainly better than the hot-take people you see all over the media today―was tell vivid stories. It’s a complicated game, and the little details he reports matter so much. When you read him, you’re getting the real thing. Peter built bridges between players and fans with his work." ― Richard Sherman, former All-Pro cornerback and current Amazon Prime football analyst "I got mad at Peter for something once. I said to him, ‘The problem with you is that you always think the story is God.’ That’s what he thought for the years he covered the NFL. Readers of this book will be glad that’s how he treated the job." ― Bill Parcells "I come from the same generation as Peter King and there is no chronicler of the NFL better than him in the last 50 years." ― Chris “Mad Dog” Russo "After four decades inside the NFL, Peter King has stories no one else can tell. The Game brings the league’s evolution to life through intimate, behind-the-scenes moments―shared with clarity, honesty, and a deep love for the sport." ― Troy Aikman, Hall of Fame quarterback "Peter King has written a masterful book: a history, treatise, inference, travel guide, and memoir, from 40 years of unparalleled access and insight to superstars during the NFL’s unprecedented rise. Hilarious, heartfelt, brutally honest, and endlessly curious, The Game is the truest offering into why professional football is so much more than just a game, while never losing sight of the people, moments, and stories that made us fall in love with it in the first place―and stay in love, yet." ― Seth Wickersham, ESPN senior writer and New York Times bestselling author Peter King wrote for Sports Illustrated from 1989 to 2018, including the weekly multipage column Monday Morning Quarterback. He is the author of five books, including Inside the Helmet , and has been named National Sportswriter of the Year three times. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.