Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback
by George Plimpton
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Book Summary Information
Author: George PlimptonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 1599210053
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Book Reviews of Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback
Book Review: Inside the Huddle
Summary: 4 Stars
During the summer of 1963, Plimpton became a rookie for the Detroit Lions, after joining their preseason camp as a 36-year-old rookie quarterback wannabe. He ended up sticking with the club through an intra-squad game before the paying public a month later. He traveled from the east coast to Michigan where he spent four weeks at the Lion's training camp learning how to call plays and take snaps. He ran formations, dressed in thick layers of padding and tried to tackle his opponents. He played cards with the coaches, played pranks on the players, bunked in the dormitories and debriefed in the locker room. Wearing the number zero, he finally was put in the game in a scrimmage, managing to lose yards on each play.
Throughout his book, Plimpton describes the grueling physical aspects of this sport, and through conversations with many of his teammates, he also captures the mental training these players go through. But, because he immersed himself so deeply into this culture, Plimpton also captures a sense for who these players are. He listened to their stories, learned about their backgrounds and became one of them. This memoir sticks out for its insights into the personalities of the players and the coaches. Compared to a memoir like The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer, Plimpton sticks to his journey to make the team, rather the venturing off about his life. He's not afraid to take detours, such as explaining who Harry Wismer is and his failure as the owner of the AFL team the New York Titans. Reading this classic work of literary nonfiction today, the reader sees that Plimpton not only captured a sense for what football was like in 1963, but what the world was like back then.
Summary of Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback
This paperback edition commemorates the 40th anniversary of the original publication of this sports classic.
Through the course of a long and distinguished career in letters, George Plimpton has crafted an art form from participatory journalism, and Paper Lion is his big touchdown. In the mid-'60s, Plimpton joined the Detroit Lions at their preseason camp as a 36-year-old rookie quarterback wannabe, and stuck with the club through an intra-squad game before the paying public a month later. What resulted is one of the funniest and most insightful books ever written on the game; 30 years later it remains a major model of what was then blossoming into New Journalism. Plimpton's breezy style wonderfully captures the pressures and tensions rookies confront in trying to make it, the hijinks that pervade the atmosphere when 60 high-strung guys are forced to live together in close quarters, and the host of rites and rituals with which football loves to coat itself. Of course, Plimpton didn't make it as a football hero; he barely accounts himself with dignity on the field, which is just as well. You don't have to be a lion when you've got a typewriter that can roar.
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