Q&A with John Feinstein: What Really Goes on Inside the NFL

October 31, 2005

For his new book, Next Man Up, John Feinstein persuaded the National Football League's Baltimore Ravens to give him unfettered access to all aspects of the team, from executive management down to towel-boys. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Feinstein. "For as long as I can remember, the National Football League has had an aura around it," he writes, describing the boundless enthusiasm for football that prompted him, as a child, to spend all of Super Bowl III pacing back and forth in front of the television. More recent evidence of the passion Feinstein brings to his work came last month during a radio broadcast of a Naval Academy football game. Feinstein, who had been a color commentator with Navy for nine years, reacted to a non-call by officials with a decidedly un-journalistic exclamation: "Fucking referees!" Shocked by his own words, he immediately took himself off the air, offered to resign (Navy refused) and went back on to apologize to viewers. -NFL Football-

The upfront style with which Feinstein handled the gaff—winning him praise from fellow journalists and allowing him to resume his job—also comes through in his books. The sportswriter made his name with A Season on the Brink, a behind-the-scenes account of the Indiana Hoosiers' 1985-86 season that provoked a harsh reaction from fiery head coach Bobby Knight, and has since not shied away from treating his subjects honestly. It is a quality, he says, that renders figures like Knight more sympathetic, whether they like it or not. It also sells books: Season on the Brink began with an initial run of 17,500 and has sold over a million copies to date. -NFL Football-

We spoke with Feinstein about the difficulties of keeping one's emotions out of the public eye and asked him what he'd learned from getting an inside look at a company as secretive as the NFL. -NFL Football-

The Book Standard: Your comment during the Duke-Navy game is something lots of fans were probably thinking. Does that make you feel any better about it? -NFL Football-

John Feinstein: Saying that was inexcusable. It was one of those out-of-body experiences, where you look around and think, "Who said that?" And everybody in the booth was staring at me. When you're on the radio, frustration is for fans. I was frustrated about a lot of things that day, but there's no excuse for what I did. It's not like it was my first time on live radio. -NFL Football-

TBS: You've now written several books in which you become very intimate with a team. Is it hard to remain objective when you are so close to your sources for such a long period of time? -NFL Football-

JF: I try to look at myself as an outsider on the inside. That was the view I took with Season on the Brink. It would be a lie to say you remain completely detached. Regardless of the subject, you bring some kind of bias to it and you need to be aware of your biases to be fair. The irony of Season on the Brink and Knight's reaction, was that if I'd just written him a love letter, the book would have sold 12 copies in Indiana and that would have been it. But because [I] showed both sides of him, it gave the book credibility—but it also gave Knight credibility. -NFL Football-

TBS: How did you end up doing this project? -NFL Football-

JF: I really wanted to do [a book on the] NFL at some point because it is such a cultural monolith in our country. I could have gotten a media credential and shown up all over the country, and gone right through until the Super Bowl. But because there is such limited access for the regular media I didn't think I could have discovered much more than someone reading a daily newspaper. -NFL Football-

TBS: Why is the NFL so secretive? -NFL Football-

JF: Because they can be. I'm not saying that to be a wise-guy. When one coach says, "No one can talk to my [assistant coaches]," and he’s successful, then everybody copies that. -NFL Football-

TBS: Is it just an extremely well-run business? -NFL Football-

JF: The NFL is run with cut-throat efficiency. You have these guys signed to make sure players' socks aren't too high; or that the towels aren’t too long; or that they’re wearing the right color shoes; or that everyone is going to get in line, and say the same things, and do the same things and sound alike. -NFL Football-

TBS: In discussing the NFL’s clout in the book, you mention that ESPN’s Playmakers, a racy TV drama about players' off-the-field lives, was taken off the air at the league's request. Having lived through a season with real NFL players, can you tell us if Playmakers is accurate? -NFL Football-

JF: It's accurate in the sense that everything portrayed has happened at one time or another, not just in the NFL but in all of professional sports. Do professional athletes womanize? Yes. Do professional athletes use drugs? Yes. Do professional athletes sometimes hit their wives? Yes. Do professional athletes sometimes get women knocked up? Yes. But that happens in society too. If I had been [running] the NFL I wouldn't have blinked at it. But the NFL wants you to believe that players spend their entire careers doing United Way commercials and digging people out from the rubble of New Orleans. -NFL Football-

TBS: Ray Lewis, one of the Raven's stars, went on trial for murder several years before you began the book. Why do you think the team stood by Lewis (who was eventually acquitted of all but an obstruction of justice charge) when the accusations were so serious? -NFL Football-

JF: My sense is that the people who run the team believed that Ray did not commit murder, and that was one reason why it wasn't hard for them to stand behind him. And as happens with every great athlete in every city, the people are going to stand behind him unless there's video evidence. But what resuscitated Ray is that he is such a great football player. He came back and continued to build his legacy as a linebacker. He is absolutely the unquestioned leader of that football team. -NFL Football-

TBS: Out of all your sources—players and management—who was your favorite? -NFL Football-

JF: Frequently the people I tend to get close to aren’t the big starts. For some reason, in football I have always gotten along well with offensive lineman. -NFL Football-

TBS: Why offensive linemen? -NFL Football-

JF: Maybe because what they do is so unglamorous. The only time they get noticed is if they get called for a penalty or give up a sack, and I think it gives them a different approach to the game. They’re not doing it for the glory, because there is no glory.