Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America’s Game

Smith, former executive director of the NFL Players Association, debuts with a no-holds-barred look at his tenure at the helm of the labor union. Smith was far from an obvious candidate; a former federal prosecutor, he was favored to be named the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., in 2009. To his surprise, given what he considered his lack of relevant experience, he was asked to apply for the NFLPA position. Smith researched what that entailed, concluding that NFL teams’ owners “ran roughshod over every federal, state, and local law that would otherwise protect its labor force.” Here, he describes his 2011 decision to temporarily dissolve the NFLPA so that players could sue the league for antitrust violations, and notes that throughout his 14 years with the union, he witnessed a shocking indifference to athletes. For example, when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed in 2023 after a tackle caused his heart to stop, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell dithered before calling off the rest of the game. Such heartlessness was typical, in Smith’s telling, and caused him to view the “greedy billionaires” running the league as “the same kinds of people who have traditionally accumulated power in the United States: rich, narcissistic, insecure.” This insider account hits hard. (Aug.)