Four days to Playmakers – ProFootballTalk

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It’s coming soon. It’s nearly here. The moment of truth.

Playmakers officially debuts on Tuesday, March 15. The Ides of March. (I used to carry around a paperback copy of The Ides of Mad when I was a kid. I had no idea what it meant. I also had no idea how to properly pronounce “Ides.”)

Nearly 50 years later, my own book is coming out. It was a ton of work, with most of it coming before I actually started writing it. Three years or so ago, I began shopping the general concept to an agent. Finding an agent who would handle the project took time. (I got very lucky when David Black agreed to represent me.) Crafting a concept and outline took plenty of time. Preparing it for shopping to a publisher took plenty of time. Getting it sold went far more quickly and smoothly than I thought it would, frankly.

Then came nailing down the approach. At one point, I got frustrated. I decided not to do it. (For pretty much everything I’ve ever done, I went through at least one moment at which I firmly decided not to do it.) Then, once we worked out the approach and cleaned up the outline and everyone was happy with it, I started writing.

From early November 2020 to mid-January 2021, I carved out two or three hours per night to cobble together the 100-plus essays contained in Playmakers. Then came editing, re-writing, proofreading, editing, re-writing, proofreading, editing, re-writing, proofreading, green beans, green beans, f–king green beans.

Last night, when I pointed out that the Packers recently sold only 198,000 of 300,000 shares of stock, someone one Twitter quipped that I’ve sold fewer than 300,000 copies of Playmakers.

That’s entirely accurate. The vast majority of books sell in not-big numbers. So far, we’ve done pretty well. But we can do better. If the people who regularly visit PFT and enjoy the content decide to buy a tangible memento of their daily online habit, we’ll give 300,000 a run for its money.

Ultimately, that’s up to you. Do you like what so read here? The writing style? The ideas? The periodic chuckles. (It’s not The Ides of Mad, but what is?) The subject matter? If so, you’ll like Playmakers. And you’ll have something that’s basically as valuable as a share of Packers stock.

Actually, a copy of Playmakers is arguably more valuable than a Packers share of stock, because you actually own something that has true, inherent value. Besides, you can eventually re-sell your copy of Playmakers. And there are way more words in the book than there are on the stock certificate. Most importantly, Playmakers costs significantly less than the $35 handling fee that the Packers charged for each share of stock sold.

Currently at Amazon, you can get Playmakers for only $24.95.

It’s your call. I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make it enter its credit card information. If you buy it, I think you’ll like it. You’ll learn something about the sport you love. You wouldn’t be reading the final words of this article if you didn’t love football. And you wouldn’t be reading the final words of this article if you didn’t like the writing that we use here.

So go ahead. Treat yourself. It’s Friday. It’s only $24.95. Help me get to 300,000. I’ll definitely settle for a lot fewer than that.