Players: How Sports Became a Business

In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of bigger salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s, elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season - while today Fortune reports that every athlete on its Top 50 list makes more than $20 million per year. It's clear that a complete reversal of power has occurred right before our eyes, and Matthew Futterman's Players is the first book to tell the astonishing narrative behind that shift - a true revolution that moved athletes from the bottom of the financial pyramid to the top.