present at the creation

Reviewed by Richard C. Crepeau

20 april 2018 archive

Upton Bell's memoir of his NFL days is a valuable and entertaining addition to the literature available on the NFL during its formative years. Bell is the son of Bert Bell, NFL Commissioner from 1945 to late 1959. Upton Bell's NFL career formally began in 1964 as a scout for the Baltimore Colts, but he had been working in the Colts organization since 1960 when he took a summer job at the Colts training camp.

The following year he joined the Colts in Baltimore where he was assigned to the ticket office. He was also the chief errand boy for Colts owner, Carroll Rosenbloom. In 1964 he moved into the Scouting area and in 1966 he became Personnel Director, a position he held until 1971 when he became the General Manager of the Boston (New England) Patriots. He was the youngest GM in the NFL. He survived a dysfunctional organization until he was fired at the end of the 1972 season. He returned to pro football when he purchased a WFL franchise in 1974 only to have the WFL go under in 1975.

Upton Bell never returned to the NFL, not because he did not want to, but because people of influence in the NFL did not want him to return to the league. Despite his very strong record with both Baltimore and New England, Bell believed that he was blackballed by some powerful owner or owners in the NFL. Instead he moved into media where he was instrumental in the creation of sports talk radio. Bell began his 20 year career as a talk show host in 1978 while he also worked as color commentator, pre- and postgame host, and a variety of other radio and television assignments.

The focus of this memoir is his NFL days. Bell, as the son of the Commissioner, grew up inside the NFL, and his time with the Colts and Patriots meant he was a witness to many of the major developments and major personalities of the league.

Two of the strengths of Upton's memoir are his insight into scouting and his comments and views on various executives, coaches, and players, he met or worked with, or for, over the years.

There are two strong chapters on scouting and additional comments throughout the book on that subject. He examines the evolution of NFL scouting, the characteristics of good scouting, and the elements that scouts must identify. The challenges, including boredom and loneliness, are described in some detail, as are his own hits and misses. Bell offers names to go with the general descriptions.

Among coaches, Weeb Ewbank and Don Shula are at the top of his list, and indeed there is a list. Bell worked with both men and found them strong characters as coaches and admirable as human beings. He makes similar assessments of players he has known, and in this category Johnny Unitas is at the top of his favorites list and his quarterback list.

Perhaps the most fascinating character in Upton's NFL world was Carroll Rosenbloom. Owner of the Baltimore Colts and then the Los Angeles Rams after a franchise trade with Robert Irsay, Rosenbloom was known for his gambling, womanizing, and political and criminal connections. He was close to the Kennedys and moved with the high rollers. He could be generous and warm, but could be equally cutting and nasty. Bell quotes from Gene Klein who wrote of Rosenbloom, "He always gave you the feeling that if you crossed him, he was capable of slitting your throat, then donating your blood to the Red Cross." If fairness if should be added that the same might have been said of Klein.

Bell's comments on scouting in the South during the Sixties are very interesting. He did not find it an entirely hospitable place. More insightful are his views on race in the NFL and how the African American player transformed pro football. Indeed some of the most interesting observations deal with the transformation of the NFL culture over the years in the locker room, the front offices, and in ownership. All of these contributed significantly to the changing NFL from a personal to a corporate culture.

The NFL-AFL war years have gotten full treatment in many places and although Bell adds little that is new, his anecdotes confirm and reinforce, in sometimes colorful ways, what we already know.

Some of the more bizarre material is found in Bell's account of his time with the New England Patriots organization. When he arrived there the team was moving out of Boston to the suburbs, and the name needed to be changed from the Boston Patriots to a name with a wider scope. The choice on the table when Bell arrived was the Bay State Patriots. Bell pointed out what was apparently not obvious to those at the helm of the Patriots, that this was likely to be turned into the "B.S. Patriots" in the fan culture of the NFL. Wisely the team became the New England Patriots.

The level of dysfunction in leadership of the Patriots, and the pettiness of the ownership group, are an amazing story unless of course you begin to compare them to other ownership groups. Bell is, in fact, quite kind in his treatment of those who buried him in Boston.

There are weaknesses of style and some inaccuracies of content in this highly readable and entertaining memoir. Overall however it is worth your time, if have more than a passing interest in the National Football League and the cast of characters that peopled it between the end of World War II and the mid-1970s.

to the top of this page