"Brief portions of this work, some in slightly different form, first appeared in The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-358) and index.

Football, in spite of itself -- Respite -- The Super Bowl without jock straps -- The monkey's ass -- Nuggets -- "Tom Brady here" -- "Beware the pissed off pretty boy" -- Garish fist ornaments -- Ballghazi -- Cheater -- No one buys tickets to watch a morality play -- Dings? -- Whuppings -- "We pay him damn well to be neutral" -- No broke dicks -- Roger and me -- The big splat -- Immortality gets old -- "Start blow-drying Teddy Koppel's hair 'cause this one's done" -- American carnage -- Patriotism -- Cheesehead elegy -- "We don't want you in Los Angeles" -- "I'm drunk, I'm stupid, I'm a Pats fan," the man told police -- The TV reporter in the Belichick underwear -- Clocks and sitcoms -- Turn-ons -- This man's liver belongs in Canton -- "Faith, family, and football ... probably not in that order" -- "We need a black Charlton Heston" -- Just compartmentalize, baby -- The last visit.

The "New York Times Magazine" chief national correspondent and lifelong Patriots fan presents a scathing analysis of professional football in the present climate of high success, dangerous injuries, and scandal.

"Like millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing were a Hail Mary at best, but Brady returned Mark's call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous. So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "peak football"--The high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear"--

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