A National Football League General Manger: The Ernie Accorsi Story

The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It
by Tom Callahan

Review

Being the General Manger of a National Football League team has to be one of the most fascinating and unique jobs.

I suspect if you did a story on all 32 General Managers (some of which are also the head coach, some of which have a different title) you would end up with 32 fairly unique stories with similarity in themes.

This particular book focuses on Ernie Accorsi, retired General Manager of the New York Football Giants.

I love reading about professional football because it is fascinating, so I did really enjoy this book, for the most part, but frankly the book is somewhat of mess.

It seems the author had a lot of material and didn't quite know how to put it together.

This book really is a mini-mini biography of Ernie Accorsi and a recap of the New York Giants 2006 season.

The title is very misleading.

It is not about "the inside story of a dream job" because it really does not give us a lot of inside stories about being a GM.

There is really very little about the real nuts and bolts of being a GM, from player evaluation, hiring and firing head coaches, managing up (the owners) and managing down (coaches and players), trade and personnel strategy, and drafting strategy.

There is, of course, a little bit on these things, but nothing in-depth nor particularly enlightening.

It's simply a book about Accorsi and the Giants 2006 season.

The book is also somewhat disjointed, jumping around in time or topics without a nice, steady flow.

In fact, while the book follows the 2006 Giants season, the drama of it beyond players, coach, and Accorsi comments gets somewhat lost.

The good thing about this book is it is an inside story of the players and coaches and Accorsi, but nothing in the book is particularly revealing or surprising.

For football fans, however, it's always great to get the story straight from the people involved without the manipulations of the print and electronic media that try to make controversy where none exists.

But, in the end, I would have to rate this book as below average for its misleading title and somewhat disjointed organization.

And a note for the copy editor—John Hannah is a Hall-of-Fame guard of the New England Patriots, not a tackle.

The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It