Featured Conservative Authors
Conservative Book Zone
Conservative Classics
General Market Books
Shop our bookstore where you will find books for each conservative topic you are looking for!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback
| Our Price |
$ 14.00
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 17.95 |
|
| You Save |
$ 3.95 (22%) |
|
| Item Number |
775668 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
The modern classic that set the bar for sports writing. Author, journalist, editor, actor, and modern-day Renaissance man, George Plimpton (1927–2003) was perhaps best known for Paper Lion. Originally published in 1966 and today considered a classic, the book set the bar for participatory sports journalism, if not literature in general. With his characteristic insight and wit, the Harvard-educated Plimpton recounts his experiences in successfully talking his way into training camp—not as a reporter but as a player—with the Detroit Lions, practicing with the team, and actually taking snaps behind center in a preseason game. His breezy style wonderfully captures the pressures and tensions rookies confront in trying to make it, the hijinks that pervade the atmosphere when sixty high-strung guys are forced to live together in close quarters, and the host of football rites and rituals. One of the funniest and most insightful books ever written on the game, Paper Lion was met with both critical and commercial success, and inspired a movie starring Alan Alda. First published by The Lyons Press in 2003 with photos not seen in any previous edition—photos also included in this 45th anniversary edition—this book provides a classic look at the gridiron game through the lens of a true literary giant. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 357
Dimensions: Length: 1" Width: 5.5" Height: 8.5"
Weight: 1 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Sep 24, 2009
ISBN 1599218097
EAN 9781599218090
|
Availability 7 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 03:47.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Momence, IL.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
More About George Plimpton
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Living vicariously through George Plimpton Nov 12, 2009 |
| Watch Video Here: http://www.this site.com/review/R1T9SZQPI8NNZK A great way to get in the mood for Football season and get a sense of the history of the sport is to read this book. | | | | PAPER LION:CONFESSION of a LAST STRING QB Nov 17, 2008 |
I RECEIVED THE BOOK RIGHT ON TIME. IT WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.
I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS, ONLY PRAISES. THE PROCESS WAS VERY PROFESSIONAL AND EASY.
THANK YOU,
ROGER | | |  | Inside the Huddle Oct 29, 2007 |
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.
| | | | Non Fiction Sep 3, 2007 |
A talented journalist joins the Detroit Lions to get get a greater insight into what it is to be a professional American football player. Some amusing moments because of his ineptitude.
This was a top class team dominanting their opponents, so they wangled an agreement that if they got a big enough lead they could put George in as a last string quaterback.
Top quality sportswriting work here.
| | | | Paper Lion, Golden Writer Oct 27, 2006 |
Long before ESPN cameras and behind-the scenes television programs, George Plimpton went out on a mission to the magical world of the NFL, looking to bring back an original insight on the dream life of a professional football player. In Paper Lion, Plimpton arrives in Michigan for a month of training camp and a preseason scrimmage with the Detroit Lions, having brought a suitcase of clothes, some cleats, and a minimal trace of athletic ability. Though he was not a very skilled or successful member of the Lions, his role is an essential one for us as readers. Plimpton does a marvelous job of painting the picture of a profeesional football player with vivid details and intriguing technique, most notably simile. He details aspects of the training camp with clear references for the everyday reader. This helps explain feelings and strategies such as the Lions' kickoff coverage: " the downfield rush was straight, like a ruler sweeping crumbs off a table." (178). Plimpton also captures the emotions of the players during camp and reproduces them through simile as well: "When a player was hurt in a scrimmage, the others seemed to point their backs pointedly...as if an injury were communicable, like mumps." (194). Another example comes on page 253 when he compares the physical toll of football to "Bronco riding." These details and relatable comparisons are what help Plimpton to bring the reader into the setting and let him experience training camp as if he too were wearing shoulder-pads.
While Plimpton does an excellent job of depicting the setting and emotions that go along with training camp in the NFL, at times he seemed a little too out of place. Plimpton was a writer for Sports Illustrated and thus should have a keen sense on sports and what the players go through. However, there were times in the book where he approached the situation as if he had come from another planet, rather than a different occupation. Such is the case on page 180 when he asks a running back: "do you close your eyes when you run for the middle of the line?" As a sportswriter and an intelligent person it would seem that he would know that a professional athlete would keep his eyes open and not shy away from the contact of the line in a game situation.
George Plimpton's Paper Lion is a great read as well as an entertaining passageway to the world of sports. Plimpton's ability to accurate scenes and vividly detail characters makes a reader feel as though he has not so much holding a book but in fact his own personal uniform on the Detroit Lions. | | | Write your own review about Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback
|
|
