Never Ask "Why"
Football Players' Fight for Freedom in the NFL
by Ed Garvey
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Pub Date Jan 13 2023 | Archive Date Jan 20 2023
BooksGoSocial | Temple University Press
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Description
When pro football players formed a union to stand up against the NFL for their own interests, they chose lawyer Ed Garvey as their Executive Director. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), would take on the NFL over player contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and antitrust suits. It lobbied for players’ free agency, contract rights, and impartial arbitration of disciplinary disputes. Garvey navigated strikes, lockouts, scabs, stooges, lies, as well as the sports media complex—to maintain players’ dignity. According to the league, the players were to take what they were given and “never ask why.”
In Never Ask “Why,” journalist Chuck Cascio presents the late Garvey’s rich account of the early years of the NFLPA, taking readers among the players as they held the league accountable to play fair. Learning from their mistakes, the NFLPA would succeed in curbing commissioner Pete Rozelle’s disciplinary power and striking down the Rozelle Rule’s absolute control over free agency.
Garvey tells the intimate stories of how pro football players, rivals on the field, rallied together to stand up for themselves. He worked tirelessly to change a system that exploited players and even controlled the media. In the end, Garvey shows how the NFLPA transformed the state of pro sports leagues today and how, even still, they work to keep down the players on whose backs they profit.
Advance Praise
From Library Journal: "This book is highly personal and contains detailed stories of (Ed Garvey's) and many of the players’ experiences in dealing with the deceptive and often illegal tactics used by owners to force players into submission. This approach often led to bigger paydays for the owners. The book also accurately foretells the related struggles many professional athletes and others working for leagues like this still face today. This is a very important and easy-to-read work that will shed light on the many previously misrepresented accounts given by the owners and commissioner-controlled public communication. It has the potential to change the business world."
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781439923153 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 234 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Lance S, Reviewer
In today’s sports world, players in nearly every team sport can pretty much pick whatever team they wish to play for after their contract expires. That has not always been the case for every sport, especially in the National Football League (NFL) where for many decades, rules existed to keep players from moving to different teams in order to keep salaries low.
One of the more restrictive rules was called the “Rozelle Rule”, named after the commissioner of the league at the time, Pete Rozelle. Briefly, if a player switched teams, the team that lost the player was entitled to compensation that would be determined by Rozelle. Usually, this was so cost-prohibitive that players very rarely would change teams. Because of this restriction, the players formed a union and it was led by attorney Ed Garvey. This book, written by Garvey before his death in 2017 and edited for publication by Chuck Cascio, tells of the struggle of NFL players to not only form that union but of their strikes in 1974 and 1975 to gain more freedom for players. The strike in 1974 lasted two weeks during the preseason and ended when many players decided to play instead of picket. In 1975, a few teams, led by the New England Patriots, went on strike for one game. This one was more to illustrate the poor treatment of players by management more than to gain leverage in negotiations.
While fans of a certain age may remember these strikes during pre-season games in those two years, readers of all ages will learn much about the labor climate of the NFL during that era. The title of book is a good indicator, as a player was to never ask “why” when it came to salaries or movement. Garvey also talks about the iron fist that Rozelle used with members on his staff and sending them out to have meetings with Garvey and other union representatives.
Even while keeping in mind that the book is written from the point of view of the leader of a union that was in contentious talks with the NFL, it was very shocking to see some of the lengths Rozelle and some NFL owners went to try to ignore the union or even destroy it. Some of the tactics are comical, some are aggravating and some, as it turned out, were illegal. The famous case of Mackey v. NFL is detailed well in the book and eventually led to the end of the “Rozelle Rule.” Reading this made me respect these players and the risks they took in order to benefit not only themselves, but future players.
I wish to thank Temple University Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Corey M, Reviewer
A good read for anyone who wants an understanding into the NFL and NFLPA. It's not fair, it's not fun, and it's relatively impossible to get the NFL to "play fair." The players will always been a pawn in the NFL scheme which seems to get worse and worse every year. Power to the PA!
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