Author Jesse Berrett's observations of the growth of the NFL in the 1960's and how it influenced American politics.
Pigskin Nation Book
Author Jesse Berrett shares his book Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Remade American Politics!Pigskin Nation by Jesse Berrett
Our guest in this edition of the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch is author Jesse Berrett. Mr. Berrett has written a very interesting book called Pigskin Nation, How the NFL Remade American Politics. We get into what that means in the podcast discussion. Jesse is not only a football historian but he has a PhD in the subject of History from the University of California, Berkeley. His bio in his book shares that besides writing books he has worked as a rock critic, Television columnist, a reviewer of books and a high school history teacher. We are excited to talk about NFL history in politics with Mr. B so let's bring him into our podcast arena, Jesse Berrett Welcome to the Pigpen! Get a copy of the book from the nice folks at the University of Illinois Press.
Jesse is quite the renaissance man according to his bioand has quite a large spectrum of subjects that interest him. Jesse expalins his background and what insprired him to write about the NFL and politics.
We also talk about his great book and its basic premise and what readers can look forward to.
Jesse tells us about the visionary Pete Rozelle and his role in changing the public's perception about the NFL and his part in turning the popularity of the game.
Richard Nixon is someone that is smack dab in the middle of the era written which is 1966 to 1974 and he is very much center stage in the political arena of that time period.
Jack Kemp's is another central figure brought up quite a bit throughout the book. Jack played Pro football between the NFL and AFL from 1957 all the way through starting 11 of 14 games on 1969. In March on 1970 he was running for the US Congress in the 39th District. What exactly was the former QB’s role in mixing politics with pro Football? Jesse shares this and more in the chat we had and even more great items in his book.
You can keep up with Jesse Berrett and his works and projects at his website JesseBerrett.com.