What goes into the ``X's'' and ``O's''—the art and the science—of football? That's the subject of King's workmanlike exploration of the intellectual and emotional makeup of those who play and coach the game. Through interviews with, and off-the-field observation of, quarterback Boomer Esiason, Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson, Buffalo defensive end Bruce Smith, Detroit running back Barry Sanders, and others, King (The Season After, 1989) presents an interesting—and not always flattering—psychological profile of the pro footballer. Esiason claims that brazen self-confidence and lust for power are necessary to the quarterback, player of the ``hardest position in American sports.'' Being the ``field general'' means being able to ``read'' a defense, to know where everyone is on the field (regardless of where they're supposed to be), and to make a rational decision—all in 1.5 seconds. It is, Esiason says, like trying to learn Chinese ``with people running at you trying to knock your ass off.'' Smith, the NFL's premier pass-rusher, states that ``pass-rushing is an art. It's also a car accident.'' King analyzes Smith's prowess on the field and finds speed, reflexes, intelligence, instinct, experience, and sheer aggression at play. Meanwhile, Sanders is ``the best runner in the game,'' with his pass-catching and blocking ability making him one of the great ``multidimensional backs'' to play the sport. King attributes the development and necessity of multitalented backs to rule changes that opened up the passing game. Moving on to coaching, King contends that Johnson, who climbed into the Cowboys' saddle in 1989, is obsessive and domineering—traits perhaps required to maintain control over muscular, egotistical, well-paid athletes. When a backup player goes down with a serious injury, Johnson merely shrugs: ``Is feeling sorry for [him] gonna help us win? No. And remember something: My whole life revolves around us winning.'' A bit uneven, but fun for those who love the game.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-671-74704-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Smith offers a straightforward account of the heady world of professional football as he describes his recent seasons as the premier running back of ``America's Team,'' the Dallas Cowboys. In telling how a poor Florida boy became a multimillion-dollar star, Smith shows that modern football plays many roles in America today: It's an art, a thing of magic, a way of life—but most of all a gritty and competitive business (and for stars like Smith, a lucrative profession). Smith talks about his sandlot heroics, his childhood dream of becoming a star for the Cowboys, and the constant doubts his size raised about his ability to compete (in childhood he was too big, as a pro too small, said his detractors). Smith's account of his football career is, however, a success story from the beginning: He was a standout in high school and at the University of Florida. Dismayed, he says, by the instability of the Florida program, Smith left prior to his senior year in order to participate in the NFL draft. Picking Smith in the first round, Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson signed him for $3 million for three years (throughout Smith's account, stories of his numerous contract negotiations loom as large as his tales of on-field feats). With the Cowboys, Smith emerged as a player of big words and big deeds, making cocksure comments but placing first among rookie rushers his first season, subsequently leading the NFL in rushing, becoming the youngest player to rush for 1,500 yards, appearing in three Pro Bowls, and leading his team to consecutive Super Bowl victories. Smith's account, written with the help of Delsohn (coauthor of John Wayne, My Father, not reviewed) culminates in his amazing 1993 season, when he won the rushing title, the season MVP award, and the MVP award for the Super Bowl. A pleasant, absorbing look at life in the NFL—from the top. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59985-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
The athletes and their story deserve better.
An American doctor covers the trials of the men who bioengineered East Germany’s champion swim teams.
Ungerleider, a sports doctor and consultant who obviously knows his way around international athletics, sets out to document the prosecution of the East German officials responsible for plying hundreds of teenage athletes with steroids during the cold war. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, the East German state developed a program of “supportive measures”—a euphemism for drug and doping treatments—that were used to turn promising teenagers into überathletes who dominated Olympic and international competitions. In addition to broad backs and low swim times, however, the drugs also led to exaggerated male sexual characteristics in women, devastating psychological traumas, serious long-term health problems, and a rash of birth defects. Now, led by Professor Werner Franke, a crusading scientist, and Brigitte Berendonk, a former swimmer, many of the doped athletes are bringing civil and criminal suits against the doctors and trainers who gave them the little blue pills in the first place. Ungerleider has a great story: a tragedy with ties to the Holocaust, communism, nationalism, science, justice, feminism, and the other epic themes of the 20th century. Unfortunately he botches it terribly, and the end result is little more than an overblown, repetitive magazine article with no apparent organizational principle and writing so bad one wonders if it was just shoddily translated from German. The legal context of the trials is never explained, the narrative is nearly impossible to follow, and even the medical science dissolves into static. It makes things only worse that the babble is interspersed with snippets that strive for the heroic and fall miserably short.
The athletes and their story deserve better.Pub Date: July 20, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26977-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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