A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL | 
 enlarge | Author: Stefan Fatsis
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 5974
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1594201781
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.449796092
EAN: 9781594201783
ASIN: 1594201781
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
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Product Description
Drawing on rare access to an NFL teams players, coaches and facilities, the author of The New York Times bestseller Word Freak trains to become a professional-caliber placekicker. As he sharpens his skills, he gains surprising insight into the daunting challengesphysical, psychological, and intellectualthat pro athletes must master
In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis infiltrated the insular world of competitive Scrabble players, ultimately achieving expert status (comparable to a grandmaster ranking in chess). Now he infiltrates a strikingly different subculturepro football. After more than a year spent working out with a strength coach and polishing his craft with a gurulike kicking coach, Fatsis molded his fortyish body into one that could stand upbarelyto the rigors of NFL training. And over three months in 2006, he became a Denver Bronco. He trained with the team and lived with the players. He was given a locker and uniforms emblazoned with #9. He was expected to perform all the drills and regimens required of other kickers. He was unlike his teammates in some waysmost notably, his livelihood was not on the line as theirs was. But he became remarkably like them in many ways: He risked crippling injury just as they did, he endured the hazing that befalls all rookies, he gorged on 4,000 daily calories, he slogged through two-a-day practices in blistering heat. Not since George Plimptons stint as a Detroit Lion more than forty years ago has a writer tunneled so deeply into the NFL.
At first, the players tolerated Fatsis, or treated him like a mascot, but over time they began to think of him as one of them. And he began to think like one of them. Like the other Broncoslike all elite athleteshe learned to perfect a motion through thousands of repetitions, to play through pain, to silence the crowds roar, to banish self-doubt.
While Fatsis honed his mind and drove his body past exhaustion, he communed with every classic athletic typethe affable alpha male, the overpaid brat, the youthful phenom, the savvy veteranand a welter of bracingly atypical players as well: a fullback who invokes Aristotle, a quarterback who embraces yoga, a tight end who takes creative writing classes in the off-season. Fatsis also witnessed the hidden machinery of a top-flight football franchise, from the God-is-in-the-details strategizing of legendary coach Mike Shanahan to the icy calculation with which the front office makes or breaks careers.
With wry candor and hard-won empathy, A Few Seconds of Panic unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise as no book ever has before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 a summer of glory October 3, 2008
The book begins at a Denver Bronco mini-camp in May, 2006. Stefan Fatsis has been practicing with the team as a kicker and is trying to find his place on the team. Al Wilson, the middle linebacker, calls on Fatsis to dance in front of the team because, as he is later told, "you know you are a rookie" (38). This is his second foray into the world of participatory journalism - "Word Freak" is a hilarious and in-depth look at the world of competitive Scrabble (it was used as the basis for the documentary "Word Wars").
Fatsis wanted to experience camp and the accompanying thoughts & emotions like a regular NFL player. Rejected previously by a number of NFL teams, he finally finds a willing partner in the Broncos, who prove to be an accessible and open organization. He has extensive conversations with Pat Bowlen (the owner), Ted Sundquist (the GM) and Mike Shanahan (the long-time, all-powerful head coach).
Fatsis spends a lot of time with the kickers and punters, who describe their camp experience as "eat, play video games, go on the computer" (40). Jason Elam, co-holder of an NFL record 63-yd FG completion, is described as "the kid in high school who gets along equally well with the jocks, the brains, the geeks and the slackers, and influences their behavior." (113) Elam is a right-wing Christian who hunts in Africa, writes Armageddon-based novels and gives friendly advice (and roots for) Fatsis. Micah Knorr is a journeyman punter who is brought in after Todd Sauerbrun is suspended for 4 games because positive test for ephedra. Todd lives in "Toddworld," doesn't like football anymore, and he gives a cynical perspective about life in the NFL.
Fatsis attends a rookie orientation with 14 other players. When asked the age that the average NFL career ends, Jay Cutler guesses 27. "Twenty-six," (72) is the correct answer. Life in the NFL is brutal, and except for Sundays, not at all glamorous. Fatsis compares Ben Hamilton's fingers to "cracks in a shattered windshield. Not a single digit remotely straight." (116). Players don't report little injuries, and more often than not, they don't seek treatment. Players live in fear of getting cut or replaced, and most of the 70+ players that report to camp each summer do not make much money.
Ian Gold describes football as just "a money making machine" (203) and that "they're looking for your replacement the day you step foot in this door." (203) Chapter 12 describes the experiences of Kyle Johnson (back-up fullback), Gold (starting outside linebacker) and Adam Meadows (an offensive lineman who came out of retirement for another shot) at length. While grateful for the opportunity and the money, all of them have had some trying experiences.
Shanahan thrusts Fatsis into the spotlight in the middle of practice one day: "He's going to kick. If he makes it, meetings will end at nine instead of nine thirty." (146) He misses the kick and collapses in disgrace on the field. A couple of players race to him and ask the coach for another kick. Fatsis misses again, costing the team a total of "45 hours of freedom" (149). His teammates alternately rip him (with some hilarious vulgarity on page 151) or ignore him. Because of the pressure and failure, Fatsis begins to get an idea of what life is like as an NFL player at training camp.
Jake Plummer (starting QB), Preston Parsons (4th string QB), Nate Jackson (DB), PJ Alexander (back-up OL), Tony Scheffler (rookie TE) are all entertaining characters who open up to Fatsis throughout the book. All of them come off as extremely genuine and likeable.
Fatsis leaves the team at the end of training camp, but he continues to follow the Broncos (and the players from camp that end up on other teams). In the Epilogue, he describes the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Cutler replaces Plummer; Darrent Williams is murdered on New Year's; Elam leaves for Atlanta, Sauerbrun is cut, resigned and then cut again; Plummer retires; Sundquist is fired. "This bit of where-are-they-now about my Broncos is, I realize, kind of depressing...," he writes (but it is fascinating). "Of the more than one hundred men who spent time with the Broncos while I was in Denver, just half are in training camp in 2007, less than a third on the roster in September" (330). Life in the NFL is fleeting indeed.
 4.5 Stars...Must-read for NFL fans: "Paper Lion" for the 21st century October 1, 2008
I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical picking up this book. I mean, hasn't the ultimate "insider" book on this topic (writer gets to taste what the NFL is like) already been written, albeit some 40+ years ago? That would be George Plimpton's "Paper Lion", of course, a book that is mentioned quite a few times in this book as well. Nevertheless, I couldn't resist the urge, and boy, am I glad that I picked this up.
In "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43 Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL" (340 pages), Wall Street Journal sportswriter (on the business issues of sports) Stefan Fatsis takes us on his journey of what it was like to attend mini-camp and then training camp and the pres-season of the 2006 Denver Broncos as a place kicker. After a tentative start, I quickly found myself turning the pages furiously, not being able to wait what would come next. The author describes what it's like to be an outsider, literally, not to mention an OLD outsider, trying to fit in with the regular Broncos players. His observations regarding the brutal realities of the NFL are quite astute, as are his comments of the Denver players (it reads like a soap opera, frankly), as well as the Denver coaching staff, including head coach Mike Shanahan. Fatsis brings the highs and lows of his adventure fabulously.
Very helpful is the last chapter, in which the author brings us what happened to many of the characters in the book in the two years since he did his stint with the Broncos. This book is a classic, in my opinion, and I am quite surprised that the book didn't do better commercially. A must read for any fan of the NFL, no matter what team you are rooting for.
Two Stories: One Interesting, One Excellent September 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The first story this book tells is about the author's attempt to become a passable kicker. There is some success and some failure in this, and it is interesting (even if you don't care about kicking).
The second story is about what it is like to be a player in the NFL. This story is dark and excellent. I think everyone knows how hard being an NFL player is physically. I think most people are aware of how hard it is mentally. This book shows how difficult it is psychologically.
Fatsis doesn't become a real NFL player, but he gets a lot closer than most people will. He gets close enough that the real players are willing to tell him what it's like (and close enough to understand what they say). And that, for me, is close enough...
Much more than a sports book (but a great sports book!) September 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A Few Seconds of Panic is a fast-paced mix of all-American male fantasy, fear, guilty pleasure and gentle stab of "might have been" - while offering more laughs per page than any sports book in years.
While the plot involves Fatsis improving his kicking to the point of non-embarrassment as part of the Denver Broncos, the deeper stories revolve around issues of belonging and achieving, of men proving themselves to themselves, and of the sacrifices we are willing to make to have done something extraordinary.
While Fatsis endures initiation and a brutal training regimen, humiliating public failures and private doubts, the book isn't really about him. Rather, we see through his sharp and empathetic eyes the arc of young lives enriched and betrayed by a business that masquerades as a game.
I'm reading the book AS Fatsis - imagining myself in his (size 6 1/2) shoes, taking a ribbing from my teammates, being ordered to sing my college fight song in the locker room, facing intense performance anxiety, and worst of all - getting into a jacuzzi filled with 47 degree water for 15 minutes.
That's only fitting, since the central theme of the book is how we men measure ourselves, against other men, against great tasks, against pain, and against fate itself.
What are my Few Seconds of Panic?
My takeaway, several weeks after finishing the book, is a series of questions:
What glorious, outrageous claim to greatness have I not dared to dream?
What self-imposed rules have kept me on the sidelines?
What fears of ridicule by the "in-crowd," in whatever setting, have limned my ambition?
So thank you, Stefan, for bolding going into the breach and paving the way for this reader, at least, to look for my own Few Seconds of Panic.
Great insight into the game September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Stefan Fatsis takes us inside the game of football and also takes us into his struggle to be accepted by these Sunday warriors, who battle pain, fear of failure and fear of what success may do to them.
Fatsis reminds us that most football players aren't stars who are set financially for life. Instead, they play a game that is run like a business.
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