The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange An American Football Legend by Gary Andrew Poole.

If you asked a 2008 high school recruit who the “Galloping Ghost” was, it would be interesting to see if they knew.  I knew who the Galloping Ghost was, I had seen those old videos of him running with the ball.  That seemed to be what defined him, running with the ball.  The Ghost, ran with the ball throughout the 1920′s and the early 1930′s.  Red Grange, the “Galloping Ghost”, was named the greatest college football player by ESPN.

In some ways football today is like football when Grange played, but in other ways, it is an entirely different world.  In The Galloping Ghost by Gary Andrew Poole, we get a history lesson in what is was like to be a football player during the 20′s and 30′s, and Poole doesn’t disappoint.  Mr. Poole was kind enough to send me a copy to read, and I will grateful for a long time.  It was one of the best sports books I have read a very long time, maybe ever.  His prose rates right up there with Jim Dent’s Twelve Mighty Orphans.  Indeed, Poole doesn’t just tell us about the facts of Grange’s life, he illustrates it for us describing in detail and taking us to the very scene as if we are standing there next to Grange and his never ending following of colorful characters including “Cash and Carry” C. C. Pyle.

As someone who has done graduate work and having had to write academic papers, I appreciate Poole’s style of detailed notes listed at the end of the

book.  Often in the popular reading world, publishers and editors decide to leave the notes off because, I am sure, they don’t think readers are

interested in that kind of work.  Well, I am.  Poole’s book uses a casual style of notation to list the notes in the back, but something, even casual, is way better than nothing for me.  He even includes a section in the

acknowledgments about his sources as well as a very detailed bibliography.

Poole retells the story of Grange, from the beginning, in a narrative style which most readers will appreciate.  Part I takes us from Grange’s birth to the beginnings of his pro career which was orchestrated by Pyle.  Part II tells of the whirlwind “barnstormer” tour in which Pyle arranged for Grange and the Chicago Bears taking them all throughout the country playing multiple games in a week to several sold out stadiums generating more profit for George Halas’ Bears than the NFL had ever seen up until that point.  The reader will understand the struggles in which the NFL had in its early years including the lack of respectability by most of the country including the college football world.  Most All-American caliber players went on to lucrative business careers forsaking anything the NFL had to offer as an un-pure reflection of the sport.

Poole works hard to bring us the story of Grange, the good, the bad, the dark.  Grange had a simple wisdom, but at times was a little too naive.  Grange’s professional career seemed to be too tied to Pyle’s shenanigans.  Later in life, Grange did separate himself from Pyle, worked hard to regain his respectability and get out of debt.  He married Margaret “Muggs” Hazleberg, a wonderful lady who helped Grange straighten out his affairs and took care of him at the end of his life.   If you still have someone on your Christmas list, and he or she is a football fan, Poole’s book, The Galloping Ghost, may be the right gift.  You buy a copy from the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore.

I wrote an article similar to this at Pegasus News which were only related to books about DFW area football.  For Collegefootballtopten.com, I am going to expand it beyond any geographic boundaries.  If you are compiling a “wish list” for the holidays, or if you are simply looking for a gift for your football-crazed fan, I am here to help.

1.  The Galloping Ghost by Gary Andrew Poole
This may be the best book I have read this year.  I have absolutely loved reading this book (I am not done yet) about a football player that most of us today do not know much about.  Poole has done a remarkable job of telling the story and the stories of Grange and the characters in his life such as his college coach Bob Zuppke and his agent C. C. Pyle.

2.  Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx
This book is about more than football.  It is about what it means to grow up and be a man and how that effects relationships.  Marx recaptured some of his youth when he went looking for members of the old Baltimore Colts team in which he was a ball boy.  Subsequently, he followed around Joe Ehrmann as he coached a high school football team and learned a few lessons for life.  It is a very inspirational book.

3.  Fourth and New Orleans by Benjamin Hochman and Chris Scelfo
What happens when one of the most devastating hurricanes in recent memory batters the town where you go to school and play football?  That is the story of the Tulane Green Wave football team in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.  Hochman along with then Tulane coach Chris Scelfo, recount the story which is heart-wrenching.

4.  Bowls, Polls, and Tattered Souls by Stewart Mandel
Want to know why we have this BCS mess?  Well Mandel answers the questions of the modern day dilemma in college football’s highest division.  He goes to great links to give you a historical perspective on the issues today which make Division I A football one of the most watched and controversal sports today.

5.  Meat Market by Bruce Feldman
Do you want to know how those top teams land those prized recruits?  Feldman takes us inside the “war room” of former coach Ed Oregeron’s Ole Miss program to see how he almost landed prize recruit Joe McKnight and several other stars.

6.  Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
This is another inspiring story of how a high school football team made up of orphans who were undersized dominated North Texas football and regularly competed for a shot at the state title in the highest division in Texas during the 30′s and 40′s.  It reads like a story with short chapters.  Dent has captured the story so well that some have decided it should be a movie.

7.  Rose Bowl Dreams by Adam Jones
Jones tells the heartwarming story of how he went from growing up on the campus of West Texas State University to being one of the biggest Texas Longhorn fans in Austin.  Jones retells the story of Texas’ run from that of mediocrity to national champions under the guidance of one Vincent Young.  Substitute your team, and this could be your story.

8.  Tarnished Heisman by Don Yaeger
In the middle of one of the greatest runs in college football in recent history by the USC Trojans is the story of Reggie Bush.  Yaeger researched the story, and the results are published in this book complete with some transcripts and a website to boot.  Did Reggie Bush get paid to play?  Pick up the book and decide for yourself.

9.  Top Dawg by Rob Suggs
Instrumental in the return to power in college football for the Georgia Bulldogs is head coach Mark Richt.  Suggs recounts the downturn in the Georgia program following the years of Vince Dooley, and how Richt brought it back to national relevance.  Important to the story and to Rich is the inspiriation of his family and faith.  This is another good inspirational read.

10.  For Dallas Cowboy Fans
I will mention three books for Dallas Cowboy fans, two of which are recent releases.

A Cowboy’s Life by Bob Lilly
Hall of Famer Bob Lilly recounts his times as a football player for the TCU Horned Frogs and the Dallas Cowboys.  Rober Staubach writes the Foward.

Texas Stadium by Mac Engel
The 2008 season is the last for the Cowboys as Texas Stadium, and Engel captures some of its greatest memories.  Engel covers the Dallas Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and also is an adjuct professor at the Bob Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University.

Tony Romo by Mac Engel
This book earns the distinction of being the first ever book written about Romo after his rise to become the Cowboy’s new star at quarterback.  The recounts Tony’s journey from the small town in Wisconsin to the bright lights of the NFL.

As a Razorback fan, it might be blasphemous to read a book about an obsessed Texas Longhorn fan, but I enjoyed Adam Jones’ foray into the world of college football writing.  Jones is the humorous author of the Jones Top Ten blog, and someone had enough sense to recruit him to write a book.  The “official” title of the book is Rose Bowl Dreams:  A Memoir of Faith, Family and Football.  I discovered his site a year or so ago when I began entertaining the thought of securing a domain for my blog.  I was posting a blog, with a top ten, and my name was Jones.  It was natural I would come across his blog.  Interestingly, I had a high school classmate with the same name and wondered for about five seconds if it was him.  Of course not!

Some reviewers are uncomfortable with Jones’ use of faith, recording his conversations with God (real or imagined) and general recalling of church life.  However, for those of us who grew up in a culture in which faith was intertwined in all of life, we understand the importance.  Truth be known, those of us in Arkansas who are religious have our own belief about God being a Razorback.  After all, our coaches have been known for their great work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  Doesn’t that qualify?  While Jones grew up Presbyterian with a Baptist background, he is now a lay leader in the Methodist church.

Jones grew up in the West Texas town of Canyon.  Canyon was the home to West Texas State University, now West Texas A&M.  West Texas State was the beloved school of his family of whom his grandfather was a legendary coach and dean for the school.  The Buffaloes were known more for the emergence of professional wrestlers than football stars, however, with one last hoo-rah in Division I football, Jones retells of the upset of Oklahoma State in Stillwater.  But, Jones’ destiny was in Austin, TX.  After attending a game while visiting his brother who was a student at the University of Texas, Jones fell in love with the Longhorns.  Jones became a certified fan when he too, became a student at Texas.

While Jones became an obsessed Texas Longhorn fan, the football team did not understand the importance of winning a national title in his honor.  Year after year, the Longhorns suffered in mediocrity until Jones left for graduate school in “Nawth Kalina.”  Upon returning to Austin, Jones and his young son embarked on the long road of single dad and football fans.  Jones’ reason for optimism began to increase with the hiring of Texas coach Mack Brown.  However, the Longhorns continued to underachieve leaving Jones grasping for hope.

Then, with hope all but gone, a miracle showed up in the form of quarterback Vincent Young of Houston, TX.  Game after game matured Young as he became a fearless leader leading the Longhorns to a Rose Bowl victory over the University of Michigan with all the college football world watching.  Young unmistakenly predicted that the Longhorns would return to the Rose Bowl to play in the national championship game.  With all of his will and natural leadership ability, Young proved his prediction true leading the Longhorns to the long awaited national title game to play against the much heralded USC Trojans who sported two Heisman Trophy winners.  You know the rest of the story.

Is this book only for Longhorn fans?  One could argue that, but college football fans, while extremely different, have one thing in common.  They are passionate about their teams.  Adam could simply subsititute any team for the Longhorns, and the book would appeal to religious-type, church-going, college football fans anywhere.  Well, almost.  Maybe each college football team has an Adam Jones, and maybe he (or she) will share his story too.

I haven’t made a “Short, Short List” in a while.  I have read and reviewed a few books since my last one in May.  This list is not quite as short as I have reviewed a few more books.

1.  Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job? by Don Yaeger and Jim Henry.  The authors delve into the controversy surrounding the potential gifts that Reggie Bush received his last two years as a student athlete at USC.  Here is my review of the book.

2.  Hero of the Underground by Jason Peter.  This book is a memoir by former Nebraska Cornhusker defensive lineman and Carolina Panther Jason Peter about his journey to heroin abuse and back to sobriety.  It is a tough book to read in which Peter describes the lifestyle in which he was entrenched, and I don’t recommend it for young teenagers.

3.  Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx.  A good inspirational and encouraging book about a couple of high school football coaches who are seeking to make a difference in the lives of young men more than they are trying to win games.  But, they win the games too.  Here is my review, in two parts.

4.  Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football by Rob Suggs.  If you were watching Gameday on ESPN this morning, you saw the moving segment on Mark Richt and his wife who adopted two children from the Ukraine.  Mark Richt is one of the reasons that Georgia Bulldog football is a top ten program once again.  This book by Rob Suggs captures the unique revival that Richt brought to the ‘Dawg program.  Here is my review.

5.  Walk-On:  A Memoir by Thom Gossom, Jr. This book is a memoir by the first African American athlete to graduate from Auburn University.  Gossom went on to excel in many aspects including a film and TV career.  Gossom does a terrific job of describing the hardship he endured as one of the few African American students at the rural southern school.  Gossom holds memories of pain and joy from his days at Auburn.  Here is my review of the book.

Currently I am reading Rosebowl Dreams by fellow blogger Adams Jones (no relation), and I will be reading The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange, an American Football Legend by Gary A. Poole shortly.  I will do reviews of these books in the next couple of months.  At that point, I am thinking of reading something Christmas through the holidays.  What do you think?

Previous Short, Short Lists

Short, Short List number one
Short, Short List number two

Walk-On:  A Memoir by Thom Gossom, Jr.

My friend Doug Bigelow has created a new award to honor those student athlete football players who show the inspiration and courage to be a contributor for his football team minus the scholarship.  The award will be named the Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf Trophy.  You can learn more about the award by visiting www.collegefootballwalkon.com.

Thom Gossom, Jr. was a walk on football player at Auburn University from 1970-1975.  But Gossom wasn’t just a walk on at Auburn, he was an African American walk on.  Gossom had made a promise to himself, a goal really, to play football for Auburn as a boy growing up in Birmingham, AL.  Goals were encouraged by his father on New Year’s Day, and Gossom made that goal even though most boys would have wanted to play football for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Gossom describes with detail the clash in cultures as a young black man who attended a college with very little integration in the rural south and dominated by the culture of the southern whites.  The barriers were plentiful, but Gossom managed to secure a student loan to pay for the first year.  As a walk on, Gossom had to live in a small apartment just off campus failing to have some of the luxuries of the scholarship athletes including the dining hall which the scholarship athletes had access to.

Gossom’s work ethic, and raw talent eventually earned him a scholarship for the legendary coach “Shug” Jordan and an opportunity to contribute to the famous 1972 team nicknamed the “Amazins.” Gossom had a kind of love-hate relationship with Jordan, a man he admired and greatly respected but who had trouble understanding many of Gossom’s cultural experiences.  Jordan also struggled with the changing cultural in society at large as well.  Somehow, through the misunderstandings and cultural changes, the two men respected and admired one another.

While Gossom was not the first African American to play football at Auburn, or even the first African American in the entire athletic department at Auburn, he was the first African American athlete to graduate.  Gossom equiped himself well to be in the communications industry taking a class in theatre and journalism.  Gossom even worked as a reporter for the school newspaper getting the opportunity to interview Mohammed Ali.  Gossom went on to be an actor and an enterpreneur.  Gossom had roles in such films as Fight Club and TV shows In the Heat of the Night and Boston Legal.  Gossom is the Principal and founder of Best Gurl Entertainment.

I feel very honored to have been given the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football by Rob Suggs.  I want to thank those who contacted me and sent me a copy of the book for this opportunity.  The book is about the revival of the Georgia Bulldog program under the leadership of Head Coach Mark Richt.  Coming into the 2008 football season, the Bulldogs were ranked number 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll as well as many other preseason polls (number 5 in the CFTT preseason poll).  The Bulldogs ended the 2007 season as one of the hottest teams in the country including their 41-10 thumping of Hawaii in the BCS Sugar Bowl.

For the readers of Collegefootballtopten.com, I highly recommend you buying and reading this book.  I have been told that it will be released on September 9.  You should be able to order a copy from the Collegefootballtopten bookstore, your local Borders Books or any other book store.  The book is published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher, and Suggs has written primarily about matters of faith.  In this book, Suggs manages to peek inside the doors of a top level Bowl Championship Subdivision football program as well as inside the faith that inspires, empowers and shapes Mark Richt, the man who leads that program, all at the same time.

Rob Suggs is a Georgia Bulldog fan.  He is up front about that.  He explains his own history and how it intersects Georgia football.  Growing up a Razorback fan, I understand and appreciate that, and I am sure Longhorn fans, Rebel fans, Crimson Tide fans, Buckeye fans, Wolverine fans and countless other fans across the country will understand that too.  He was proud in the early 1980′s when Vince Dooley and the Junkyard Dawgs were winning SEC titles, a National Championship, and Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy.  However, like many Bulldog fans, he suffered through the period of time when Georgia football was just one of many in the SEC finishing in the pack behind Florida and Tennessee.

The book begins with a pivotal game against Tennessee in Knoxville, TN on October 6, 2001.  Georgia rallies to win the game and the players and fans begin to believe that the Bulldogs can be a top caliber program once again.  From there Suggs, jumps back into time, leading us on a journey of Mark Richt, his disappointments along with his new dreams and the inspiration of his new-found faith.  Suggs also leads us on a parallel journey of the decline of the Georgia program, setting up the need to find a new leader who will lead the Dawgs into the promised land.

From this point, Suggs bring the two together.  One of the interesting parts of the book is the description of the mat drills which Richt brought to Georgia from Florida State via his friend and Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave Van Halanger.  Mat drills is Van Halanger’s creation, a hodgepodge of exercises, drills, etc. inspired from “such elements as the obstacle course in military boot camps and the ropes course in programs like Colorado’s Outward Bound.”

The real test was not necessarily physical, but mental.  The drill were designed to strengthen the team’s mental toughness and create bonds from among the players.  For starters, they held the mat drills at 5 AM in the morning.  The players were grouped according to position types in groups of four.  You are recorded, by two cameras, and graded for the next morning’s mat drills.  Are you still with me?  Each group must perform a particular drill at one of five stations.  Each person in the group must execute the drill perfectly.  If anyone does not, the group performs the drill again.  And again, for each misstep.  Until all members of the group executes each drill perfectly.  I nearly cried reading about the drills.  The grading put you in a group the next morning with a similar grading.  If you were a player who did not do so well, the next morning your group would be with fellow players who also did not do so well.  Eternity can be a long time!  These drills exhibited an intensity in Mark Richt that some might be surprised to learn.

Richt earned the love and respect of his former players.  One player, D. J. Shockley, actually wrote the forward for this book.  Shockley played four years as a back up behind fellow QB David Greene before getting his shot to be the starter in 2005 as a Fifth-Year Senior.  His willingness to be patient in a time when QB’s will simply transfer to play somewhere else quicker is a testament to the love he felt from the staff and Coach Richt.  Nevertheless, Richt exhibits a certain amount of intensity and demands it of his staff and players as well.

As a Razorback fan, I almost found myself rooting for Georgia to win the National Title this year.  The story is compelling, and Suggs does a great job of taking the reader on the journey of how Mark Richt and the Georgia Bulldogs football program converged.  In an age when so many major college football programs are shrouded in negative actions, both by players and coaches, this story is refreshing because, while no one is perfect in the Bulldog program, Richt emphasizes positive behaviors from those in his program and leads by example.  Mark Richt is someone you can root for and feel good about it.

Below is a Sample Chapter of Top Dawg

Read Chapter One of Top Dawg

Continued from Part I

In a time when young men struggle to know what it means to be a man, this book is so poignant.  For decades, it seems as if other men in society have been urging boys and young men to grow up and “be a man.”  Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx faces the question of what it means to be a man head on.  It seems as all cultures have some kind of ritual which signals the end of boyhood and the beginning of manhood.  At this point in time, in the United States of America, it seems that we, as a society, have no definition of what it means to be a man.  Unless, you look at the society as a whole, to Hollywood, traditional stereotypes, etc.  Some seem to find the changing in a young man’s life marked by that of conquest:  sex, money, fame, etc.  But is that really the definition of being a man?

Marx began the journey when he had heard that the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium was being torn down in the Winter of 2001.  Marx had served as a ball boy in the 70′s for the old Baltimore Colts team which had played in the stadium.  Marx wanted to see it one last time.  In this context, he decided to find as many of those football players as he could.  The search led him to a small private school in Maryland, Gilman High School.  There, Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colt defensive lineman, was serving as a volunteer assistant football coach.  Ehrmann and his head coach, Biff Poggi were coaching Gilman to conference championships while teaching their football players how to become men:  Men Built for Others.

Marx decided to stay a while.  He decided to follow the Gilman football team for a season, and to see what Ehrmann was spending his time doing.  Ehrmann was a “life of the party” type person during his time with the Colts until he experienced tragedy when his little brother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and passed away before attending college.  Ehrmann began to seek answers to the meaning of life, and, after beginning a relationship with God, attended Dallas Theological Seminary during his offseasons.  Erhmann became a minister and started a ministry called The Door in inner city Baltimore.  Eventually, Ehrmann served as the preaching pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Baltimore.  Along with his wife, Paula, Ehrmann founded Building Men and Women for Others, an organization which strives to empower men and women to be their best for the sake of others.

Through Ehrmann and Poggi’s work with Gilman, they instilled the principles derived from Ehrmann’s Building Men for Others Ministry.  Even though the coaches were dedicated to helping the team achieve success on the field, the purpose for the boys was something entirely different.  Marx related the ritual in which the coaches would ask the team, “What is our job as coaches?”  The boys would answer in unity, “to love us.”  Then the coaches would ask, “What is your job?”  “To love each other,” they would respond.  This ritual was delivered with the enthusiasm you would expect from a football team getting ready to take the field.

Each game day, hours before the game, Gilman players would head to “chapel” where Ehrmann would lead them in Building Men for Others 101.  The coaches shared stories, often from the Bible, to help the boys identify areas in which they could help others.  Ehrmann explains that what society teaches as becoming a man is really false masculinity.  Instead of defining masculinity in terms of athletic abilities, economic success and sexual conquest, masculinity should be defined in terms of relationships and having a purpose bigger than one’s self.  This is underscored to the players through Gilman’s code of conduct.  Each player is to accept responsibility, lead courageously, and enact justice on behalf of others.  The coaches encourage their players to never let another boy sit alone at lunch.

One story in the book (p. 53) highlights the importance to the coaches of building these boys to be men for others.  After a scrimmage, at a team cookout, one of the parents of the boys asked Coach Poggi how successful he thought the team would be.  Poggi responded that he didn’t know.  He said he would know in about 20 years when he sees how good of a father, husband, member of the community they will be.  The parent, of course, was talking about that season.  Biff was talking about the rest of their lives.

Marx followed the team thoughout the whole season.  During the season, he shared regular visits with Ehrmann to learn more about the concepts involved in Building Men for Others.  The journey led him to explore his own relationship with his father.  In the end, he decided to do something about it before it was too late.  The principles he had learned from Ehrmann and Poggi as they coached the boys from Gilman High School, ultimately became principles that would cause him to make a decision and act upon it.  The last chapter, a visit with his father, was very moving.

Before I begin, I want to give a little history on my relationship with this book.  First, I work in a bookstore.  I have seen this book before.  In fact, I think someone may have recommended it once.  Customers are always recommending books, but most of the time I just nod and say, “O.K.”  I don’t have time to read every book in the store, and there are some really interesting books.  I check some customers out so often at the cash registers that they wonder if I live at the store.  I joke and tell them that I have an apartment in the back and that I drink coffee and read after the store is closed.  Even if I did that, I still would not have time to read every book that I would like to.  Anyway, because I run a college football website, my manager asked me to make a display on football since season is almost here.  She gave me a very prominent spot in the periodical section with a large end-cap where I can display magazines and books.  I put up the display about a month ago.  The picture above is of the display taken by a co-worker (Amber) on Saturday.

Now about the book.  One week, when I came to work, somebody kept putting Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx, the book I am reviewing, on my display.  Now, it wasn’t my idea, and I wasn’t the one who put it up.  And, I don’t think that a co-worker did it.  Each time I found the book on the display, I would grumble and remove it.  This happened about two or three days in a row.  The last time it happened, I grumbled again and took a peak at what someone thought was such a great book that they kept putting it–without permission I might add–on my football display!  I thought, maybe it’s a good book.  Someone sure thought so.  So, I read the jacket cover.  It seemed to have an inspirational ring to it.

Now, if you visit my website/blog regularly, you know that I value telling the positive side of things in college football.  There are enough people out there that talk about the negative things:  arrests, scandals, academic problems, etc.  I don’t need to rehash that stuff.  I am looking for positive, inspirational type of things to talk about.  So, I thought the book might be a good read to review for Collegefootballtopten.com.  I had just finished Hero of the Underground: A Memoir which was dark and difficult as Jason Peter retold the story of his heroin addiction.  I thought that Season of Life might lighten my mood a little bit, make me smile.

So, there you have it.  Someone–I don’t know who–kept putting this book on my display.  Maybe it was some kind of divine inspiration.  Maybe God wanted me to read this book.  Maybe it was just a big coincidence.  I don’t know.  It seems rather divinely initiated.  A book that I was upset with at first–for being on my display–was one of the best, most inspirational reads of the year for me.  If you work with boys, coach youth football, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc., I would ask you to strongly consider reading this book.  If you are a man and struggled in your relationship with your father, please consider reading this book also.

Continue to Part II

In this book by former Nebraska and Carolina Panther defensive lineman Jason Peter about his journey to heroine addiction and back to sobriety, Peter is candid about the life he lived, the drugs he used, the pain he caused his family and the struggle to become a productive member of society again.  If books had a rating system like the movies do, this book would be rated R, and a strong R at that.

Peter begins his story briefly in high school, explaining that he was somewhat of a late bloomer, not playing football until he was a Junior in high school.  He became convinced that he wanted to play ball for Nebraska like his older brother, but starting football so late left Peter with no scholarship to Nebraska.  To solve this problem, Jason retook his senior year at Milford Acadmy in Connecticut after failing his senior year in high school in New Jersey.  The extra year got Peter noticed, and he won the scholarship to Nebraska.  Peter then retold how much of a rush it was to be a member of the Nebraska football team in the mid 1990′s when the Cornhuskers were such a dominant team.  The rock star like status the players enjoyed nurtured Peter’s addiction to the rush of playing the game and being cheered by 78,000 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.  He also introduces the readers to his friendship with Grant Wistrom.  Together, the two of them formed a force on the defensive line for the Huskers and became 1st round draft choices in the NFL after winning the national title their senior season.

After being drafted by the Carolina Panthers, Peter endured a change in culture which caused him some loneliness.  Playing with players who were much older in some cases and men who had already started families left Peter with few people he could call good friends.  He reveals the friendship he had with two players, one in which he partied, and one in which he was mentored.  While in Carolina, Peter struggled with injuries.  He was having multiple surgeries every year on his neck and shoulders.  He played in pain, and ultimately his career was shortened.  While struggling with the injuries, Peter learned to get by on strong pain medication which he had access to.  He discovered that the pills took away the pain, not just the physical pain, but the emotional pain as well.

After his career was cut short by injuries, Peter began the long descent into his darkness and addiction.  Ultimately, Peter entered rehab multiple times before he finally found a solution that worked best for him.  This is a testament to the truth that healing is not a “one size fits all.”  And, Peter knew that, and, despite his continued abuse of drugs, searched until he found the right solution.  Today, Peter is sober and working as co-host of The Spread, a show on ESPN radio in Lincoln, NE.  He is married, and he attributes much of his sobriety to the love of his wife.  Peter is also a shell of his former self which at one time was about 6-4 and 285 lbs falling all the way to 225 lbs.

I admit it, I was hoping for something else in this book.  I new that Peter was now sober.  I was hoping he would attribute it to the Twelve Steps or faith in God or a relationship with Jesus or something like that.  The reality is that some people beat addiction without using the means we would have liked.  In the end, Peter did not hold out any nuggets of wisdom to others who struggle with addiction, he simply told his story and how he was able to come clean.  He dismissed much of the popular ways of dealing with addiction as not being right for him.  I respect that.

The book read like he was telling his story in a locker room full of guys, which makes sense because he spent so much time there.  The language was, at times, graphic and brutally honest.  He recounts his anger with former Notre Dame Lou Holtz (p. 35) for the way he failed to care about his younger brother, an Irish recruit who was paralyzed in a freak simming accident.  He does not give out grand platitudes for others to take into their lives to become better people.  I would have preferred that, but that was not his style.  His story does serve as an inspiration to others in that he was able to find a way to become sober.  Indeed, the love of his family is the driving force behind his sobriety.

I want to say thanks da Wiz for letting me know about this book.  I am happy to have gotten the book on its release date and be able to read within a couple of weeks.   Next up on my list is Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx.

Don Yaeger and Jim Henry have put together the book which recounts the explosive allegations of the Reggie Bush scandal. Bush is the 2005 Heisman Trophy winning running back from The University of Southern California and first round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints.

In Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job? Yaeger and Henry use investigative journalism to piece together what is arguably the biggest college football story in the past three years, dating back to the season in which Reggie Bush won his Heisman Trophy. Yaeger and Hill depend on court testimony, public documents, eye witness testimony, recorded conversations, as well as personal interviews. Personal Interviews were largely conducted with those who implicated Bush in the receiving of improper benefits during his third year at USC as those who could defend Bush did not return requests for interviews with the authors.

Although the authors use personal interviews from its main accuser, Lloyd Lake, they acknowledge the biases that are inherent. They state that every journalist wishes that their source had the character of Mother Teresa, but the reality is they do not. Lloyd is a convicted felon who has been characterized as a career criminal. To their credit, they piece together their evidence, as if they were creating a mosaic, to paint a picture of Reggie Bush and his parents as taking out a loan on Bush’s future success in the NFL during his Junior year at USC. I am not sure why, but some of the evidence that is extremely damning, like a lease agreement between Bush’s family and a businessman, are posted at the book’s website rather than featured in the book. They do offer some of the transcripts of tapes made by Lake when he had conversations with Bush and his step-father, LaMar Griffin.

Much of the story revolves around New Era Sports & Entertainment, a sports agency that was to use the signing of Reggie Bush for the 2006 NFL Draft as a cornerstone to market itself with other professional athletes. Lake, the founder of the agency, alleges that the Bush family was involved in the development of the agency. In fact, as the book points, it was even Reggie Bush’s idea as a way to recoup some of the fee money required by those who would represent him. As a part owner, some of the fees for representation would return to the family, thereby saving costs and receiving a return on Bush’s value.

The authors, probably understanding how difficult it can be to keep up with all of the characters, offer a Cast of Characters addition in the back of the book with names and descriptions of all who were involved in the story. Also included is a Timeline of Events in which the events of the story unfold including those that pertain to New Era Sports, the failed sports agency which tried to sign Reggie Bush for the 2006 NFL Draft. Finally, there is an addition to the end of the book entitled A New Era of Spending which outlines the alleged payments to Reggie Bush and his family beginning in December 2004.

The bigger picture involved in this story is the poverty of athletes. Some might call it a perceived poverty. For their work on the football field, whether they score a touchdown or not, scholarship athletes in football receive a free education and room and board. Many have called for athletes to be given stipends or some form of payment to help with living expenses as many are from very poor families and can not afford certain expenses. Some believe that athletes such as Bush generate even more revenue for the school than it normally would have gained. Therefore, why should athletes struggle financially while the network executives and school officials enjoy the fruit of the athlete’s labor? This is a debate for another post, however, one must remember that college athletics, even if the schools and TV networks are getting richer because of their performances, are an amateur sports. The athletes are allowed to work during the summers to save money for those expenses during the school year. Cool cars and expensive apartments off campus probably should not be considered necessary expenses.

You can buy a copy of the book at my bookstore. Under the browse by category click on My Picks.