Reviews on My Credibility, of My Book They Call It A Game

I sent this out to our retired players email community of 800+ after Upshaw said I was a bald face liar after Bryant Gumbel called him NFL Commissioner Paul Taglieabue's leashed pet.

Here is what a few literary critics had to say about a book I wrote and my credibility. It was a non-fiction autobiography. Since Mr. Upshaw has libeled me about my truthfulness I feel it is acceptable to answer, in part, his aspersions with testimony from other sources some of which you fellows will understand as trustworthy. Certainly there were those who didn't like my book but none said anything in it wasn't truthful. I can't think of anything I have said or written in my emails to all of you that I did not believe to be the truth and I have ask many times for any corrections of facts or figures. Mike Pyle an ex-Chicago Bear and insurance salesman's crusade for Aon Consulting's major shareholder (22 million shares & $5 mil in 2005 compensation) Executive Chairman-Chicago Bears owner Patrick Ryan is little more than a small irritation. But if it is proven that Ryan contributed money, that should have gone to our retirement plan as part of an employer contribution, to Northwestern University, we'll be asking for it back.

Bernie Parrish

I wrote the book They Call It A Game alone with editorial help and inspiration from my brother Charles a political science professor at Wayne State University.

They Call It A Game was on numerous best sellers lists including both The Boston Globe and The San Francisco Chronicle.

They Call It A Game was a Literary Guild Book of the Month Club selection for a Christmas edition.

The Atlantic Monthly, “Parrish’s description of professionals in training and in action, of the injuries and the doctors, of the punishment given and taken, and of the exhilaration of a winning team is the best that has been written...” Edward Weeks.

Newsweek, “...Bernie Parrish is highly effective in exposing the greed and dubious practices of club (NFL) owners...he is also interesting and emotional in his accounts of past football triumphs.”

Book World, “A book of grave allegations, good ideas, and inside nitty-gritty about America’s favorite form of sublimated violence...The book ought to be read-and Bernie Parrish thanked for a valuable service.” Joel Oppenheimer.

Saturday Review, “(Parrish’s book) affords an increased understanding of the battle lines that are being drawn to supervise the slicing of sports gigantic money pie...(it also) makes clear (that) money ranks first, players second, fans third, and sport-in the old sense of the word-not at all.” Keith Jennison, a former publisher, has for many years closely followed football and other sports.

New York Times, “Parrish was active politically within the National Football League Player’s Association, which he feels was secretly conceived by owners to “pre-empt a truly independent players’ association...He bases much of his attack on the integrity of the game itself, on the character of some of the games most carefully publicized personalities-Pete Rozelle, Carroll Rosenbloom, Art Modell. He spins a web of associates, including known gamblers and racketeers, and offers case histories of shady contract negotiations with players and some nasty little vignettes:...” Robert Lipsyte.

Sports Illustrated, “...candor and insights...Parrish brings a practiced eye to phony front office bookkeeping...questionable deals...and blacklisting...”

Library Journal, “Parrish writes intelligently, with well marshaled facts and statistics, of football as big business; of the greedy club owners with their blacklists, political henchmen, and duped players; of the hidden finances of the NFL; etc. In his final chapter, he recommends specific steps that would reform the game and free players from the “retarded” paternalistic system that “stupefies” them. Even the wildest TV fan whose fall weekend means 14 hours of viewing will find much to agree with in this book.” Rozanne Knudson, Department of English & Education, New York College of the City University of New York.

Pulitzer Corp’s Joseph Losos review of They Call It A Game said writes with “Hemingwayesque simplicity, the story of his rise from poor Florida boy to a successful cornerback for the Cleveland Browns. No more double standard, Parrish roars, and that is the key to the book. You can look at this as an autobiography, a labor history, or an economic manifesto, but above all it seems to be another tract of social liberation. No more dumb football players.”

Chicago News, “...a closely documented, restrained indictment of pro football management from the commissioner on down, with neither press nor television escaping...hard hitting...”

Life, “The anger of the pupil against the teacher who has failed him, the rage of the combat soldier against the corrupt general, the fury of the dedicated man against those who lead him to question his dedication-all these come bursting from Bernie Parrish like the forearm blows which professional football players fire against all who endeavor to slow their progress.
Eight years of playing and nine years of activity in the players union have convinced him that the hierarchy of the NFL is a basket of snakes. As St. Patrick swept Ireland clean of wriggly reptiles by flinging his bell at them, so Parrish hopes to change the leadership of the league by brazen clangor of a no-holds-barred book, They Call It A Game.”
...in the early chapters the book recounts, with what some will find rather dreadful relish, how he slammed his way to All Pro Status as a cornerback for the Cleveland Browns.
He has always loved the fierce competition of games, and like the bull who asks but never gets, a fair shake from the mantador, hates what he thinks of as the capework of accountants, press agents, sports writers and all the cuadrilla of management.
...The strength of his tract is the specific nature, buttressed by what appears to be strong arithmetical support, of his charges. His pages bristle with names and dates...This is not the sort of book that can be dismissed by picking bits of the bad bark off the battering ram. If Parrish proves to be wrong by a day or a dollar, it is not an answer to the meat of his indictment.
In all the struggles between professional athletes and management, which have become increasingly steamy as TV has poured millions into sport, the public has tended to be impatient with what seem to be greedy musclemen demanding huge sums for playing games, sums to be paid by good humored, put-upon men who operate franchises at a return below the rate of government bonds because they are sportsmen.
If Parrish is right, a professional football franchise makes a diamond mine look like a coffee-and-cruller concession in a fraternity house. It is by his figures, a cornucopia which pours its treasures on almost everyone who doesn’t wear a football jersey. (save a chosen few)
If Parrish is right players who make too much fuss about the inequities of professional football are by secret agreement blacklisted from the game...
...Admittedly zealots are tiresome with their shrill insistence on their universal rightness, and admittedly a large percentage of them are firing feathery bullets of paranoia. Florence Nightingale with her endless and unappetizing talk of pus, or William Lloyd Garrison droning on about slavery, are obviously not proof positive that inside every crab shell is a saint, but Bernie Parrish and his financial tables, his reports of Byzantine conversation and executive operations which would make Long John Silver drop his crutch in admiration, ought to be answered.
If Parrish is wrong it is to be hoped that the football establishment will not try to fend him off with its old weapons, “unbelievable”, “unsportsmanlike” and “un-American.” Heywood Hale Broun, sportswriter and CBS newsman, wrote A Studied Madness, a book about sports and theater.

Business Week, “...They Call It A Game will leave permanent scars on pro footballs carefully protected image, and Parrish’s charges may send owners, league officials, players, and congressmen scrambling for their lawyer’s offices...the old pro has some sound proposals that should rate some serious thought, even by league owners. First of all is disclosure of all financial data on the game. This seems a small price to pay for the authorized monopoly. He calls for blood tests of players to protect them and the game from drug abuse. Finally, he joins with the millions who have ever wagered a “pound” on their hometown team on Sunday, by calling for legalized gambling on pro and college games.
Once in a while Parrish strays out of bounds in his attack on the “sportsmen” who own the football clubs, but his playing-field view of the pro football hierarchy offers incurable football addicts and curious nonsports fans alike a new perspective on America’s favorite “game.” William G. Flanagan, A “pretty good defensive end” in his semi-pro days. Contributing Editor Bill Flanagan has remained a footballnik and has been a season ticket holder at New York Giants games for more than a decade.

Kirkus Review, “The most important sports book yet written.”

You didn't expect me to show you any bad reviews did you? Critics look for mistakes and lies and I came through them in pretty good shape. This book was first published in 1971 but it is still in print and can be bought through all the .com booksellers including BarnesandNoble.com, booksamillion.com., amazon.com, iUniverse.com.

What do you guys think of Upshaw saying in print, "Bernie Parrish is a bald faced liar with every statement he makes."? How does one do that “every statement”? I tried to do that today but the truth kept slipping out. Suppose that is libel?

Upshaw attempted to prove his credibility by saying he received supporting phone calls and emails from “Taglieabue and Goodell and several owners and players.” With such folks as these vouching for Upshaw’s credibility he will probably be canonized.

These statements appeared recently in and article entitled “Upshaw finally starts barking, but not at Bryant Gumbel.”