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Summary
Summary
Drawing on rare access to an NFL teamas players, coaches and facilities, the author of The New York Times bestseller Word Freak trains to become a professional-caliber placekicker. As he sharpens his skills, he gains surprising insight into the daunting challengesaphysical, psychological, and intellectualathat pro athletes must master In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis infiltrated the insular world of competitive ScrabbleA(R) players, ultimately achieving aexperta status (comparable to a grandmaster ranking in chess). Now he infiltrates a strikingly different subcultureapro football. After more than a year spent working out with a strength coach and polishing his craft with a gurulike kicking coach, Fatsis molded his fortyish body into one that could stand upabarelyato the rigors of NFL training. And over three months in 2006, he became a Denver Bronco. He trained with the team and lived with the players. He was given a locker and uniforms emblazoned with #9. He was expected to perform all the drills and regimens required of other kickers. He was unlike his teammates in some waysamost notably, his livelihood was not on the line as theirs was. But he became remarkably like them in many ways: He risked crippling injury just as they did, he endured the hazing that befalls all rookies, he gorged on 4,000 daily calories, he slogged through two-a-day practices in blistering heat. Not since George Plimptonas stint as a Detroit Lion more than forty years ago has a writer tunneled so deeply into the NFL. At first, the players tolerated Fatsis, or treated him like a mascot, but over time they began to think of him as one of them. And he began to think like one of them. Like the otherBroncosalike all elite athletesahe learned to perfect a motion through thousands of repetitions, to play through pain, to silence the crowdas roar, to banish self-doubt. While Fatsis honed his mind and drove his body past exhaustion, he communed with every classic athletic typeathe affable alpha male, the overpaid brat, the youthful phenom, the savvy veteranaand a welter of bracingly atypical players as well: a fullback who invokes Aristotle, a quarterback who embraces yoga, a tight end who takes creative writing classes in the off-season. Fatsis also witnessed the hidden machinery of a top-flight football franchise, from the God-is-in-the-details strategizing of legendary coach Mike Shanahan to the icy calculation with which the front office makes or breaks careers. With wry candor and hard-won empathy, A Few Seconds of Panic unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise as no book ever has before.
Author Notes
Stefan Fatsis is a staff reporter for the "Wall Street Journal" & a regular commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered". He has written for the Associated Press, the "Village Voice", & "P.O.V." magazine & has appeared on "Good Morning, America" to discuss the 2000 National Scrabble Championship. In search of a story idea in 1997, Scrabble amateur Fatsis challenged the head of the National Scrabble Association to a game & won. He has since traveled the country playing in Scrabble tournaments & achieved "expert" status, & he currently ranks in the top 10 percent of tournament Scrabble players nationwide.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fatsis (Word Freak) is dwarfed by any of the NFL athletes who put their bodies on the line each Sunday. But that doesn't stop him from asking to attend the Denver Broncos' training camp in hopes of learning "one very specific athletic skill"--that is, placekicking--and not to become an NFL-caliber kicker, but to become a "credible one." Fatsis is treated like any rookie, from having to sing his alma mater's fight song minutes after stepping into the locker room to carrying the team's duffel bags and bunking in the hotel with all the other rookies. But his vibrant enthusiasm for improving his kicking ability helps his Bronco teammates accept him as one of their own. With that, the reader gets a glimpse of the true NFL, in the tradition of George Plimpton's Paper Lion. We see the crippling injuries that are kept secret for fear of losing playing time; the heartbreak of standing on the sidelines in camp, just aching to prove one's worth; the tears that come when the NFL dream could be over. Fatsis, too, has his own personal highs and lows through camp, enduring the long days, the trainer's visits and the sting of failure in front of coaches and players. It's an incredibly fascinating read for football fans, squashing the notion that the life of an NFL player is always glamorous. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Fatsis, who took up competitive Scrabble for Word Freak (2001), shows again that he's no slouch at participatory journalism. Like George Plimpton (Paper Lion, 1966), Fatsis decides to try out for an NFL team (as a kicker for the Denver Broncos) and then write about the experience, but he soon finds that pro teams today aren't as ready to let a journalist take the field. The NFL has become much more concerned with public image and security, and athletes are altogether more imposing now than they were back in the day. Still, he has a good (if sometimes painful) time in his stint with the Broncos, and the book, like Word Freak, is more about personalities than the game itself. Fatsis' journey from a curiosity to a teammate is rocky at first, becoming smoother as he demonstrates he isn't just some writer guy but someone who is committed to performing, if briefly, as a fellow athlete. Not just a modern-day Paper Lion (though it holds up admirably by comparison), this book stands on its own two feet as an insightful and entertaining glimpse behind the scenes of the NFL.--Pitt, David Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Fatsis trades in Scrabble (Word Freak) for the rigors of National Football League training and even manages to join the Denver Broncos. With a five-city tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Prologue: Martin Gramatica's Dad | p. 1 |
1 I'm No Plimpton | p. 5 |
2 Chippin' and Skippin' | p. 16 |
3 I Go with 9 | p. 32 |
4 There's No Sorries | p. 50 |
5 I Just Lost My Punter | p. 61 |
6 Toddworld | p. 77 |
7 There It Is | p. 93 |
8 Someone Else's Game | p. 116 |
9 A Few Seconds of Panic | p. 140 |
10 Here's Your Rope | p. 158 |
11 Groundhog Day | p. 171 |
12 The Bottom of the Trickle | p. 192 |
13 If It's In, It's In | p. 210 |
14 My Dogs Adore Me | p. 223 |
15 Nice Form, Though | p. 236 |
16 The Gladiators March into Battle | p. 248 |
17 How Far Was That? | p. 258 |
18 It's Part of a Sickness | p. 275 |
19 One from Here for Everything | p. 290 |
20 This Ain't Good-bye. This Is Life | p. 300 |
Epilogue: No, I'm a Bronco | p. 312 |
Author's Note: Among Giants | p. 334 |
Sources: Secrets of Kicking the Football | p. 339 |