ONE GIANT LEAP

After his sterling performance in 1991's football classic, New York Giants quarterback Hostetler doesn't have to win another Super Bowl right away—and he doesn't need to write another book for a while either, because this autobiography packs more punch than one might expect. Hostetler's tale is one of a very long uphill fight, of frequent bad luck, and of a certain kind of plain faith that is so manifestly positive and workable that cynicism dies on the vine. It's not about football, really; it's about a family not giving up. Chicken-farming in Appalachia afforded Hostetler a uniquely funky start in life, and with it came a rural hell of misfortune for his family—loss of crucial land to an intrusive highway and of a barn to fire, along with his father's sudden, inexplicable loss of strength in midlife and his mother's serious illnesses. The bad luck continued for Hostetler: after he left Penn State as ``a passed-over quarterback,'' he spent seven long years on the Giants' bench, sent into oblivion by the grindingly effective traditional football-style of coach Bill Parcells and the sparkling talents of consummate quarterback Phil Simms. Meanwhile, Hostetler fathered a son with a near-fatal cardiopulmonary birth defect. And even after the 1991 Super Bowl, a few knocks came: not until the next day did Parcells allow that it had been a ``nice game,'' and when Hostetler's mother died shortly thereafter, Parcells said nothing. Hostetler's life echoes a vintage America where you go to church, don't drink, work real hard, and mind your parents—and, at least in his inspiring case, eventually attain the golden ring. (Eight pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)