Blazing Trails

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Ten NFL seasons. Five Pro Bowl selections. Two Super Bowl appearances. One Super Bowl ring. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Blazing Trails: Coming of Age in Football\'s Golden Era by John Mackey with Thom Loverro reveals how the former Pro Bowler revolutionized more than just a sport.

Never before had any player possessed the combination of strength, size, speed and skill that today is associated with the position. Mackey\'s playing-day size (6-foot-2, 225) combined with his strength and speed led to his nickname \'Mack Truck.\'

But it wasn\'t on the field that Mackey made his biggest impact. Like his counterpart in professional baseball, Curt Flood, Mackey forever changed the way professional football was run by challenging free agency rules. Mackey\'s successful lawsuit against the NFL in 1973 was the beginning of the current era of free agency where players have control over their careers.

Blazing Trails chronicles Mackey\'s life as a lightning rod for attention throughout the 1960s. Mackey refused to remain silent on any topic he felt strongly about - especially anything dealing with justice. He fought for racial equality in Baltimore (he was one of the city\'s first famous African-Americans) and battled for legal equality for pro football players of all color as the first president of the newly merged NFL and AFL National Football Players Associations.

More than affecting the freedom of his football-playing brethren, Mackey was a major factor in using his sports fame to change the world around.

What Muhammed Ali was to boxing, Arthur Ashe was to tennis and Bill Russell was to basketball, John Mackey was to football - an African-American star who proved that the world (not just sports) was going to become a better, more colorful place.

About the Authors
John Mackey was only the second tight end to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992. A native of Roosevelt, New York, Mackey played for the Syracuse Orangemen from 1960-62 and is considered to be one of the best players Syracuse ever produced. In 1963, Mackey was a second-round pick of the Baltimore Colts, where he played for nine seasons before playing his 10th and final season with the San Diego Chargers. During his tenure in Baltimore, Mackey was elected to five Pro Bowls, played in two Super Bowls, caught a 75-yard touchdown in the Colts\' 16-13 win against Dallas in Super Bow V (1970) and was named (in 1969) as the tight end of the NFL\'s 50th Anniversary Team. In 1968, Mackey was chosen as the first president of the newly unified NFL-AFL Players\' Association. Mackey was the first player to fight the NFL\'s restrictive free agency rules that didn\'t allow players a realistic chance to have a voice in their own careers. Mackey filed a successful lawsuit against the NFL in 1973 that directly led to the free agency that football enjoys today. Mackey\'s lawsuit was a landmark decision in sports law and many historians equate what Mackey did to Curt Flood\'s situation in Major League Baseball. Many football historians have said that Mackey\'s aggressive stance against the management of the NFL kept the former tight end out of the Hall of Fame until his 15th and final year of eligibility. After his playing career was over, Mackey served as an agent representing players, eventually becoming president of his own company, John Mackey Sports. He has served on the Board of Advisors to the Leukemia Society of America, the Syracuse University Business School and the Board of Directors for the Syracuse University Alumni Association. The John Mackey Award is presented every year to the best Division I tight end in the country by the Nassau County Sports Commission. Mackey is the father of three and has two grandchildren. He currently lives in the Baltimore area with his wife, Sylvia.