Kevin Bryant - Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage

Kevin Bryant is an army veteran with more than 20 years of experience safeguarding and gathering information for the Department of Defense, including 13 years as a special agent during which he conducted national security investigations and instructed federal agents in training. Kevin graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) with a BA in history, and graduated with top honors from American Military University with an MA in intelligence studies and an MS in sports management. During his senior year of high school, he was selected to the East-West Ambassadors National Select soccer team, composed of elite high school players from across the United States, and in college he played NCAA soccer for UCSC.

The first systematic and detailed examination of espionage tactics, techniques, and procedures continuously used by NFL teams to gain the game-day competitive advantage against their opponents. Kevin Bryant provides the only comprehensive review of the extreme measures NFL teams owners, coaches, players, and managers take to collect information, steal play signals, and to disrupt opposing NFL teams to win at all costs. This original work gives us insights into what our favorite NFL teams will do to win on game day, with dirty tricks, cheating, bribery, deception, lies, coercion, and betrayal that would rival the most thrilling James Bond movie. This thorough and lucid book is indispensable for NFL fans. David P. Garey, former deputy director of counterintelligence and human intelligence for headquarters, U.S. Army, European Theatre of Operations

Kevin Bryant has drawn on his experience as a former special agent and his years of experience collecting and protecting information for the Department of Defense to research this fascinating look into the cutthroat world of NFL espionage. Very detailed and vivid and one hell of a read. John Willis, retired intelligence officer

Spies on the Sidelines is a well-researched examination of the measures taken by professional sports organizations, in this case some teams in the NFL, to achieve success commercially and on the field. In doing so, Kevin Bryant has opened possibilities and interest of similar work relating to high-value sports, an underresearched area. M.Hanif Majothi, assistant professor of intelligence studies, University of North Georgia

In Spies on the Sidelines , Kevin Bryant takes a deep dive into the murky waters that pro footballs millions of fans never seethe effort by teams to gain an advantage by any means. SpyGate and DeflateGate are just the most notorious examples of the sign stealing, clandestine information gathering, and other nefariousness that goes on behind closed doors. Bryants guided tour is a total page-turner. John Eisenberg, author of The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire

Kevin Bryants Spies on the Sidelines is the single most revealing book about espionage in professional sports. Brian Hooper, former associate director for WMD Terrorism Threats, U.S. Department of State

A great book! I learned during my career that great teams that cheat arent unbeatable, but they sure are more difficult to beat, especially in the postseason. Cam Cameron, former Dolphins head coach and Chargers and Ravens offensive coordinator

Sports story or true crime story? Kevin Bryant nails it. Its both. Professional football is actually just a big business. Profits rise on wins and fall on losses. As in any business, spying for competitive advantage isin the endabout stealing money. With incidences compiled and documented in a fascinating read, the true scope of espionage materializes. Football is definitely not only a game. Kevin D. Murray, corporate counterespionage specialist and technical surveillance countermeasures consultant for NFL teams

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com

86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom

Copyright 2022 by Kevin Bryant

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: Bryant, Kevin, 1975, author.

Title: Spies on the sidelines : the high-stakes world of NFL espionage / Kevin Bryant.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: The first book to fully explore the arsenal of methods NFL teams use to spy on their opponents and the countermeasures used to deter them, Spies on the Sidelines includes incredible stories of covert surveillance, encryption, radio frequency jamming, stolen documents, and moreProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021052815 (print) | LCCN 2021052816 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538166376 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538166383 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: National Football LeagueCorrupt practices. | FootballCorrupt practicesUnited States.

Classification: LCC GV955.5.N35 B78 2022 (print) | LCC GV955.5.N35 (ebook) | DDC 796.3326406dc23/eng/20220104

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052815

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052816

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

To my dadfor your help with this book and for being a great father.

I am grateful to a great many people who helped make my dream of publishing this book a reality. I would not have crossed the finish line without their generous support. Literary agent Jacques de Spoelberch was kind enough to provide his valuable advice for an early draft of the manuscript that was not yet ready for prime time. His suggestions resulted in ditching three chapters, stripping out tens of pages of older anecdotes, reading 15 more books for research, adding about 50 pages of newer material, and including the whatever it takes theme. I may have used his name as a curse word for about a year because of how long all this took, but his advice was unquestionably spot on, and I likely would have never been published without it. Thanks, Jacques!

I also want to thank my agent, Steve Schwartz, and acquisitions editor, Christen Karniski, who were willing to take a chance on a debut author with no preexisting social media sites or followers. Additionally, I owe a big thanks to the wonderful team at Rowman & Littlefield. Christen and her assistant, Erinn Slanina, held my hand through the publishing process and patiently answered the endless stream of emails I sent, and Kellie Hagan and team did a fantastic job correcting all my mistakes while editing the book.

Additionally, I wish to thank everyone who took the time to read the book in various versions of draft form and offer their constructive criticism. I am also grateful to Jennifer Mayes, who let me bounce a ton of marketing ideas past her on a regular basis and took my photo for this book (yes, I know I need a better iPhone and that Im cheap).

My parents, Mike and Linda Bryant, are wonderful enough to have always supported my dreams. I will never be able to thank them enough. My dad spent endless hours helping me with this book as a consultant, assistant writer, editor, project manager, and cheerleader (the pom-poms were weird). What an awesome father-son project this turned out to be!