War Without Death: A Year of Extreme Competition in Pro Football - Softcover

Mark Maske is a Washington Post staff writer and sports columnist. He also writes The Washington Post Â’s NFL Insider blog and is a frequent guest on ESPN, ESPN Radio, and other sports media.

*Starred Review* Late National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle's vision for the league was parity, defined as a razor-thin distance from success to failure among the franchises season to season. His vision has been realized, and the result is an extraordinarily competitive environment in which it has been very difficult for any team to achieve extended dominance. Maske, a sports columnist for the Washington Post, trains his perceptive eye on the often bitter rivalries among the four teams constituting the National Conference's Eastern Division: the Washington Redskins, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New York Giants. His year-long examination of the quartet begins in January 2006 in an environment in which the fans expect success and view anything less than a Super Bowl win failure. He bounces between teams and profiles the owners—from the Giants' decades-long Mara family ownership to the aggressive meddling of Redskin owner and self-made billionaire Dan Snyder. He dissects the draft day strategies of each team, the cagey and delicate free-agent signings and the preseason training camps, which are brutal and Darwinian as physically gifted rookies push battle-scarred veterans into unwelcome retirement. Then, of course, there's the season, in which injuries are common and the teams that overcome them often have the most adaptable and fearless coaching staffs. Maske is a discerning and intuitive journalist who captures the broad-stroke machinations of the teams as well as the nuances of ego and personal relationships. A superb book that belongs in every serious football collection. Lukowsky, Wes