McSweeney’s, January 4, 2009
“Fatsis, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, spent the summer of 2006 trying out as a kicker for the Denver Broncos. This entertaining book documents his experience, while at the same time exposing the often brutal business of professional football. We’ll never look at kickers the same way.”
Sports Illustrated, December 22, 2008
In its year-end books roundup, SI calls AFSOP the most “fascinating inside look by an outsider” of the year. ”Fatsis gives an unflinching look at a life that’s stressful in ways most fans don’t consider. He’s a poor kicker, but his story has legs.” A “poor” kicker? I would have gone with “tenacious” or “determined” or “not-truly-horrible-for-an-old-guy.”
Sports Illustrated, December 8, 2008
SI’s venerable Peter King touts the book in his Monday Morning Quarterback column: “A must-read if you want to know what being inside a team is really like.”
Washington Post, December 7, 2008 AFSOP makes the Post’s Best Books of 2008 list.
Virginia Quarterly Review, October 19, 2008 AFSOP is “an unexpected wonder. Fatsis sets out to describe what it means to play in the pros . . . and winds up documenting how a group of men handle a work place riddled by paradox.”
Boston Globe, September 7, 2007
Another middle-age man seems baffled by–jealous of?–the book’s premise. NPR’s Bill Littlefield, whom I really do like, obsesses about the subtitle (did I or didn’t I “play” in the NFL?) and misses the point: that I couldn’t have achieved the reporting he praises without having put on a uniform.
Teenreads, August 27, 2008
“Fatsis is clearly the heir to the throne once occupied by Gallico and Plimpton.”
Sports Illustrated, August 11, 2008
“The best description of the mental and emotional challenges of playing in the NFL that I have seen in print,” former NFL player Ed Cunningham writes in a letter to the magazine about my essay.
McSweeney’s, August 2008
“We’ll never look at kickers the same way.”
The Eagle-Tribune (Lawrence, Mass.), August 5, 2008
“One of the most well-researched, exhaustive–and best–football books around.”
BookReporter.com, August 3, 2008
“A wonderful look behind the curtain that is maintained by the NFL to protect the image of its game.”
Daily Herald (Provo, Utah), July 31, 2008
“Fascinating…poignant…deeply felt…enlightending.”
Washington Post, July 27, 2008
Former political reporter Steven V. Roberts discusses his Little League statistics and accuses me of “dreamy self-glorification,” apparently because I didn’t stick to only reporting on football. Then he praises me for gaining the players’ trust and revealing what life is really like in the NFL. Which I could not have accomplished had I not become as much of an actual player–on the field and in my mind–as possible. Whatever.
Westword, July 25, 2008
“Fatsis splits the damn uprights,” says Denver’s alt-weekly.
Washington City Paper, July 25, 2008
“Stefan Fatsis has titled the first chapter of his new book, ‘I’m No Plimpton.’ … [A]fter finishing Panic, just about any writer will have to admit, ‘I’m no Fatsis.’ ”
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, July 13, 2008
“Remarkable…An unflinching look behind the curtain at America’s most popular professional sport and the men who play it.”
Parade, July 13, 2008
“A smart, savvy account of the author’s journey from aging sportswriter to NFL kicker.” Aging?
Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2008
“Plimpton’s true heir may well be Stefan Fatsis… [He] is able to penetrate the players’ psyches in a way that few sportswriters have.”
BroncoTalk, July 10, 2008
“A gem of a book…hilarious and entertaining.”
Tampa Tribune, July 9, 2008
“An eye-opening, entertaining and emotional look at pro football.”
Time, July 14, 2008
The newsmagazine gives AFSOP an A-.
Kissing Suzy Kolber, July 7, 2008
Who said hilarious can’t be astute? Soon-to-be-published author Drew Magary, aka Big Daddy Drew, summarizes the main characters, pulls out the best quotes and nails the book’s larger message. Drew gives the book four “Throwgasms.” He would have given it five but I said that kicker Matt Stover should be in the Hall of Fame.
Arizona Republic, July 6, 2008
“An engaging book by a gutsy guy.” Gutsy!
Rocky Mountain News, July 3, 2008
The reviewer weirdly concludes that I “actually believed” I could become a legitimate NFL kicker. But he does seem to like the book.
Fatsis (Word Freak) is dwarfed by any of the NFL athletes who put their bodies on the line each Sunday. But that doesn’t stop him from asking to attend the Denver Broncos’ training camp in hopes of learning “one very specific athletic skill”—that is, placekicking—and not to become an NFL-caliber kicker, but to become a “credible one.” Fatsis is treated like any rookie, from having to sing his alma mater’s fight song minutes after stepping into the locker room to carrying the team’s duffel bags and bunking in the hotel with all the other rookies. But his vibrant enthusiasm for improving his kicking ability helps his Bronco teammates accept him as one of their own. With that, the reader gets a glimpse of the true NFL, in the tradition of George Plimpton’s Paper Lion. We see the crippling injuries that are kept secret for fear of losing playing time; the heartbreak of standing on the sidelines in camp, just aching to prove one’s worth; the tears that come when the NFL dream could be over. Fatsis, too, has his own personal highs and lows through camp, enduring the long days, the trainer’s visits and the sting of failure in front of coaches and players. It’s an incredibly fascinating read for football fans, squashing the notion that the life of an NFL player is always glamorous.
Kirkus Reviews, April 20, 2008 Channeling George Plimpton, a sportswriter dons pads and becomes the first journalist in more than 40 years to take the field alongside an NFL team.
Attempting a modern take on the classic Paper Lion could very easily have backfired on Wall Street Journal reporter Fatsis (Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players, 2001, etc.). He wins readers over, however, with his upfront acknowledgement of Plimpton’s feats and his engagingly self-deprecating prose. Despite being an aging weekend warrior with two bad knees and no organized football experience, the author began contacting NFL teams, seeking to join one as a kicker during training camp so that he could live and experience each day as a player. After considerable effort, he finally hooked on with the Denver Broncos, one of the league’s model franchises. Fatsis quickly found that his cursory understanding of how to kick was no match for the place-kicking expertise of the Broncos’s Jason Elam. Even more engrossing than his quest for proficiency, however, is the author’s insight into the modern NFL locker room. It’s a world of haves and have-nots: Bonus babies and superstars are the only ones who enjoy even a modicum of job security; fringe players fight through devastating injuries they don’t disclose for fear of losing their ever-tentative jobs. While it’s no secret that big-time sports are replete with homophobia, relentless hazing and testosterone both natural and artificial, the players’ fragile psyches and management’s everyone-is-replaceable mentality may surprise and unnerve even hardcore fans. It’s those revelations, and the author’s humanizing treatment of his larger-than-life teammates, that keep interest high—not the anticlimactic chronicle of his attempt to kick in a preseason game.
Less groundbreaking than Paper Lion, but more perceptive and almost as entertaining.
Early Praise:
“It would take a writer of extraordinary talent and a man of great fortitude to immerse himself in the NFL and come out with a story that captures the true essence of pro football. Stefan Fatsis is that man. He has gone where no writer has ever gone before, surpassing the great George Plimpton and taking readers into the deepest, darkest corners of the NFL experience.”
—Tim Green, former Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman and author of American Outrage and The Dark Side of the Game
“There are several reasons to adore this book. 1: It is a hilarious romp. 2: It is a fascinating journey deep inside the subculture of an NFL football team. 3: It is an inspiration to all us couch potatoes who watch sports and wish we could be who we are watching. 4: With enough training and perseverance, a 43-year-old man can actually hit one from 40 yards! 5: Just read the damn thing because it’s a breeze and a joy.”
—Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August
“Fatsis takes fans to places that are forbidden to them: onto the field, into the locker room, and, most important, into the minds of the players and coaches we observe, admire, and judge from afar. I played fourteen seasons for the Broncos, but even I learned from this thrilling book.”
—Tom Jackson, ESPN analyst and former Denver Broncos linebacker
“It took enough guts for Stefan Fatsis to report to camp with the Broncos, but a whole lot more for him to try to follow in the tradition of the legendary George Plimpton. He has wondrously accomplished both feats, with great good humor and insight.”
—David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered and Rome 1960
“Fatsis’s unlikely personal NFL adventure is certainly entertaining. But his sharp eye for detail and genuine empathy for his teammates make A Few Seconds of Panic exceptional.”
—Bob Costas, NBC and HBO Sports
“A smart, funny, and relentlessly entertaining look at the strange, scary world of professional football. My heart raced every time the ball was snapped to the holder and Fatsis prepared to kick.”
—Will Leitch, author of God Save the Fan and editor of Deadspin
“Fatsis is the first to say that he’s no George Plimpton. But he performs a literary stunt worthy of a latter-day Plimpton, getting a taste of life on the field in the NFL and, just as revealingly, a finger on the pulse of the culture inside a pro football team. As both a kicker and a writer, he ends with a make.”
—Michael MacCambridge, author of America’s Game
“Captures the inner workings of an NFL team that fans and writers don’t get to see. Of course, it’s from a kicker’s perspective, which no normal human being could understand.”
—Cris Collinsworth, “NBC Football Night in America” analyst and former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver
“Stefan Fatsis is a sportswriter who puts his body where his mouth is.” —Sally Jenkins, Washington Post columnist and author of The Real All-Americans
