Tough Luck traces two simultaneous historical developments through a single immigrant family in Depression-era New York: the rise of the National Football League led by the dynastic Chicago Bears, whose famed owner George Halas convinced Sid Luckman to help him turn the sluggish game of pro football into Americas favorite pastime; and the demise--triggered by Meyer Luckmans crime and initial coverup--of the Brooklyn labor rackets and Louis Lepkes infamous organization Murder, Inc. Filled with colorful characters--from ambitious district attorney-turned-governor Thomas Dewey and legendary columnist Walter Winchell, to Sid Luckmans rival quarterback Slingin Sammy Baugh and pro footballs unsung intellectual genius Clark Shaughnessy; from the lethal Lepke and hit men like Tick Tock Tannenbaum, to Sids powerful post-career friends Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio--Tough Luck memorably evokes an era of vicious Brooklyn mobsters and undefeated Monsters of the Midway, a time when the media kept their mouths shut and the soft-spoken son of a murderer could become a beloved legend with a hidden past.
