Tim Green is proof that all football players aren't meat-headed Neanderthals. Green, an ex-player who has made his mark as a commentator on National Public Radio and the Fox Network, shows both his love of the game and his insights into its problems in this collection of some 70 essays on his experience in the National Football League. From the physical brutality of the sport -- he suffered 12 concussions as a player -- to the use of performance enhancing drugs, to the sport's connections with the mob, Green writes clearly and evenly about the dilemmas and deals the most professional football fans know nothing about -- the dark side to America's favorite pastime.


From Publishers Weekly
A former player for the Atlanta Falcons and now a TV broadcaster on the Fox network, Green (Titans) has an enduring love for football, but that does not prevent his seeing the unlovelier aspects of the sport. Chief among them are the physical tolls the game exacts: every player, he stresses, suffers discomfort in every game of every season. The injuries are usually temporary but are sometimes permanently disabling, including concussions (Green had 12 during his career). There are the hardships of training camps and exhibition games, which sap athletes' energies even before the regular season starts, violent players and team doctors who urge even wounded players to stay on the field. Enemies may be teammates, since offensive and defensive units each have special bonds. Other obstacles include performance drugs, artificial turf, rowdy fans and the media, resented because reporters have never played pro football and, in Green's view, don't know what they are writing about. The author also provides insights into good and bad venues, superstitions, agents and the realities of play: "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." Eye-opening for grid fans. Available as a Time Warner AudioBook. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Green, a former football player for the Atlanta Falcons and current announcer, provides listeners with a behind-the-scenes look at playing in the National Football League. He includes his views on defense, drugs, and Deion (Sanders). These high-interest topics are abridged into easy-to-digest segments that will satisfy most football fans' insatiable appetite for NFL analysis. With the forceful tone of a hard-hitting football player, Green, as reader, adds punch to his outspoken commentary. Consider this an additional purchase for public libraries with sports collections.?Mark P. Tierney, World Bank, Washington, Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Library Journal, John M. Maxymuk
Ultimately, football fans will devour this.


From Kirkus Reviews
Ex-jock and TV commentator and novelist (Titans, 1994, etc.) Green offers a mostly cautious and apologetic look at the behind- the-scenes world of pro football. Green offers many stories about a whole raft of ills plaguing the sport he loves--such as AIDS, drugs, and violence. But rather than study the problems in a detailed manner and propose solutions shaped by his unique vantage point, he dismisses many kinds of indiscretions by players, coaches, reporters (and even referees) as mere examples of ``boys being boys.'' He admits that, yes, as a result of football's ever-present physical pounding and psychological pressure, even he used and misused painkilling drugs and sleep aids--``but nowhere to the point of abuse.'' Other examples of pulled punches include a mash piece to the widely disliked coach Jerry Glanville. He admits that individual and institutional racism still exist in the NFL; he insists that groupies aren't as common as we believe them to be (and, besides, he asks, what kind of guy would want to go out with a groupie, anyway?). Green is more persuasive in describing the day-to-day toll the game exacted from his body, although his description waffles between the pedantic and the folksy. But when he chooses a safe target (as, for instance, the league's arcane and silly uniform policy), Green really lets loose, and the results are truly amusing. Green the football raconteur is tempted to bite the hand that fed him--but Green the television sports commentator doesn't seem to want to draw blood. (Author tour; TV satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Millions watch it. Billions are spent on it. Yet few fans know what really goes on inside the NFL. In this book former Atlanta Falcon defensive end Tim Green, an eight-year veteran of the game and now a commentator for the NFL on Fox and National Public Radio, lays it on the line. Here is the explosive national bestseller whose shock waves ripped across the media, revealing for the first time the dark side of the game -- the pathos and the horror, the abuses and the wonder of the sport they call professional football.

FROM THE CRITICS

Washington Post

NFL people would be wise to read this book.

St. Petersburg Times

Pro football has finally found a competant, literate voice.

Buffalo News

Enlightening, intelligent, serious, honest...always interesting and frequently fascinating.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING