NFL Century: The One-Hundred-Year Rise of America's Greatest Sports League

From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL’s 100th anniversary season.
 
“I can think of no one better qualified—or more enthusiastic—to chronicle the National Football League’s century-long history than Joe Horrigan.”—Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach

The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the hundred years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges—the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights and competition from rival leagues—to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football.

Advance praise for NFL Century

“Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years—the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It’s a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old.”—Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius
 
“There is no one—and I mean no one—who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its one hundredth season, it’s appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey.”—Gary Myers, New York Times bestselling author of Brady vs Manning

Joe Horrigan began his long career at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 as the museum’s curator-researcher and capped off his career as its executive director, administering the Hall of Fame’s annual enshrinee selection process. Now retired after forty-two years with the organization, he is regarded as the foremost historian on professional football, and has authored, co-authored, and edited several books on the subject, including The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 50th Anniversary Book: Where Greatness Lives. Co-host of the popular weekly national radio show Pro Football Hall of Fame Radio, on SiriusXM, Horrigan has been featured in numerous NFL Films presentations and sports documentaries.