Media Reviews
In their new book, James Holstein, Richard Jones, and George E. Koonce, Jr., discuss the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy as well as other physical problems that afflict former NFL players. Yet the most stunning finding of their research is not how life in football affects players' health, but rather how it affects their ability to find and hold a job, to maintain relationships, even to engage in basic social interactions...[A] candid look inside the 'bubble of NFL life and then the difficulties experienced by former players--men in only their late 20s and early 30s--when they leave that isolated, abnormal world. -Newbooksinsports.com
I'mnot quite ready to leave the game I love yet, but this is exactly the kind ofinformation I need as that time approaches. -Charles Woodson,Oakland Raiders, Heisman Trophy Winner, and Super Bowl Champion
The poignant fate of the former athlete, revered then forgotten, is a theme in Western literature that goes back to the ancient Greeks. The NFL today has created its own up-to-date version of that mythic figure-the millionaire football hero and celebrity at 25, a lost and bankrupt cripple ten years later-but also a more complicated reality, and that story has never been told more fully than in this deeply researched and insightful book. -Michael Oriard,author of Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport
The authors provide a unique perspective that is only possible through the combination of scholarly knowledge and the real-life experiences of George E. Koonce, Jr. and other athletes whose testimonials were used to illustrate their points. -PsycCRITQUES
We are used tothinking of NFL players as larger-than-life figures who do great deeds, earnhuge salaries, and-we're coming to realize-run terrible risks.But Is There Life After Football? reveals these men aslife-sized, as people who face tough choices throughout their lives. Thevarious ways they cope make fascinating reading. -Joel Best,author, Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype over Teen Sex
This is a book fans should read before the next game-or before they let their own son suit up. If you've ever wondered 'What ever happened to....?' then Is There Life after Football? is a book you shouldn't pass. -Real Times Media
It is timely considering the financial settlement the NFL reached in August 2013 with retired players for head injuries sustained at work, and the ongoing discussion over the physical dangers that football at all levels presents....Both sports enthusiasts and concerned readers can profit from the insights and lessons offered in this informative and prescriptive work. -Choice
Is There Life After Football? brings us inside the lives of NFL players to show why so many wind up in dire straits after their time on the field, from depression to debilitating lifelong injuries to catastrophic financial mismanagement. [...] The book seeks, among other things, to dispel the myth that everyone who plays in the NFL is financially set for life. -New York Post
Perhaps the cruelest irony of an athlete's life is that he must 'retire' just as most guys' careers are taking off. How they make sense of their life course, and sustain their masculine identity is the subject of this engaged and entertaining study. What emerges is a different question from the book's title: given the demands of time and commitment, the violence and injuries, and the sacrifice of anything resembling a normal family life that defines professional athletics, the real question is 'is there life during football?' -Michael Kimmel,author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era
The book is well written, with clarity and insights not available in similar popular accounts. It would be useful and of interest to students in sport studies classes, providing much material for discussion. -Journal of Sport History
Finallysomeone tells it like it is! This bookdoes an incredible job detailing the reallife of an NFL player. This is a mustread for every athlete, no matter the sport. -Tim Brown,Heisman Trophy Winner, NFL 1990s All-Decade Team, and AFC Champion
Three academics from Marquette University, one of whom (Koonce) is a former NFL player, apply some sociological techniques to analyzing the situations of ex-NFL players...[T]he information and insights engage in a rousing race for the end zone. -Kirkus
Is There Life After Football? offers fresh and insightful answers to a long-standing, difficult question, namely why some former NFL players languish while others thrive. The authors eschew oft-made assumptions and convenient explanations in favor of original, probing analysis based on thorough research and scores of interviews. Any examination of football, its joys, its ills, and the fate of its retired players would be incomplete without reading Is There Life After Football? -N. Jeremi Duru,author of Advancing the Ball
Entering the so-called real world after years in the bubble of special treatment and privilege is the focus of the authors' study, which draws on the experiences of many ex-NFLers, including co-author George Koonce, who spent nearly a decade with the Green Bay Packers. -Christian Science Monitor
A timely exploration that will be of interest to football fans looking to better understand the complex culture of the NFL. -Booklist
Is There Life After Football? provides a sobering and insightful view of this transition through the personal anecdotes of Koonce and the research of Holstein and Jones. Most jarring is Koonce's admission of a reckless act at the end of his career...the authors do a great job of distilling difficult material into a digestible form. It's also a treat to read for anyone who enjoyed watching those plucky Packers of the 1990s. -Ensuring Chapters
The trio of authors gives readers a detailed explanation-complemented by personal accounts from Koonce and other former players, coaches, and wives-about how lonely life outside the locker room and off the football field can be for NFL exes. -Pulse Magazine
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