Paper Lion : Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback

by George Plimpton

• ISBN13: 9781599218090
• ISBN10: 1599218097
• Edition: Anniv.
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2009-09-24
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

The modern classic that set the bar for sports writing. Author, journalist, editor, actor, and modern-day Renaissance man, George Plimpton (19272003) was perhaps best known forPaper 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 campnot as a reporter but as aplayerwith 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 Lionwas 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 editionphotos also included in this 45th anniversary editionthis book provides a classic look at the gridiron game through the lens of a true literary giant.

Author Biography

George Plimpton was the best-selling author and editor of nearly thirty books, as well as the cofounder, publisher, and editor of the Paris Review. He wrote regularly for such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Esquire, and he also appeared numerous times in films and on television.

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Excerpts

"I still think quarterback. It's the position everyone would want to read about."

 

"You'll be standing right at the edge of the pit--just teetering there," said Wilson, grinning.

 

"I'll back away quick enough," I said. And I'm not going to run into it. What's that fine dictum of Van Brocklin--that a quarterback only runs out of sheer terror?"

 

Wilson did not give me much time to change my mind. On the fourth or fifth day or practice--the backfields running  throu play patterns without contact from the defense--Wilson suddenly called out: "OK George. In you go. Let's have the twenty-three roll. You've got it in your playbook. You know how it works."

 

I dropped my notebook.

 

Ididknow what to do from the class the nght before--that is I knew how the play was supposed to be run, but I had no idea where my hands were supposed to go, exactly--as I stood up behind the center to receive the ball. I had never stood in against a center, my hands groping under his backside, in the odd near-coupling stance of the T-formation quarterback.

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