The Football Game That Changed America: How the NFL Created a National Holiday

This entertaining history from Deninger (Live Sports Media), a former ESPN producer, traces how the Super Bowl became “the largest shared American experience of the year.” He explains how the American Football League’s 1960 launch threatened the National Football League’s monopoly, motivating the latter to initiate a 1966 merger that stipulated a “world championship game” between the top teams from each league. The Super Bowl got off to a shaky start, Deninger writes, noting that a third of the tickets went unsold at the first game in 1967, and that the NFL’s dominance over the AFL in the first two Super Bowls led the leagues to consider abandoning the matchups until the unexpected triumph of the Jets, an AFL team, at Super Bowl III. Elsewhere, Deninger discusses how the Super Bowl became an advertising bonanza and chronicles the evolution of the halftime show. He details mind-boggling statistics about the game (it provides a $41.9 billion annual boost to the national economy) and serves up plenty of amusing tidbits (the name “Super Bowl” was proposed in jest by AFL cofounder Lamar Hunt, who wrote in a memo, “We should coin a phrase for the championship game.... I have kiddingly called it the ‘Super Bowl,’ which obviously can be improved upon”). Football fans will find much to cheer for. (Sept.)