I’m in a football mood this week (Go Irish!). So I really enjoyed these fascinating portraits of professional football players. One–former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer–was desperate to leave the game. Another–aspiring NFL linebacker Pat Schiller–is intoxicated with the game and is willing to ruin his body for a shot to be a practice player.
Here’s a taste:
My last night with him in Atlanta, we went back to his town house after dinner to watch a little Monday-night Football. During a break in the action, he led me into his clothes-and-sneaker-strewn bedroom to show me the huge walk-in closet he felt would allow him to send back his rented dresser. I noticed that the dresser was topped with all manner of balms, unguents and painkilling medications: a 23-year-old with the medicine cabinet of a septuagenarian.
David R. Swartz 