By John Grisham
Reviewed by Vinnie Waller
This book was about a player that played football for a team in Messsina. He was the best football player to ever play there and he was probably going to go pro, but during college he was hurt on a cheap shot that ended his career. All his success was due to his high school coach that pushed all his players to be great. The coach made sure every one of his players were in shape, and the first thing they did in the summer was to run as many laps as they could around the track. If players didn't get over fifteen they were cut from the team. This was only one of many things the coach did, but ultimately this lead to him being fired. He was making kids run miracle miles and a kid passed out and died while runnig on the bleachers. The coach always blamed himself.
The story centered on all the players coming back to Messina and sitting in the bleachers telling stories about their coach and all their teams. They were sitting in the bleachers waiting for the coach to die. Finally he died and all the players cried and told more stories in the bleachers. One story was of a championship game in 1987. Messina was losing 31-0 at half, so the coach was pissed. Neely the main character said something and the coach slapped him, but Neely punched back and knocked the coach out. Neely broke his hand and couldn't pass in the second half. All the players told the coaches to not to come out or they would kill them. So the team came back and won without all their coaches.
When the coach died he had his funeral at the football field. He wanted three of his players to say eulogies, and one of the players was Neely. Neely told everyone that he loved his coach even if he hated him sometimes.
I chose this book because I thought it would have some action and tell a lot about football. It was way different then what I thought it would be. At times it was sometimes boring and hard to read. But all together it was a really good book with a good story. It was easy to relate to the book because I play football and have been through rough times like Neely. So, I wouldn't recommend this book to someone that loves action and can't read a book unless it is really good. I would recommend it for someone that really likes to read and likes football stories.
2 comments:
Wow, this sounds like an intense book. It definitely seems like coaches try to push their players too hard sometimes. Maybe for their own pleasure of being successful. This does seem like a good book to read. I told Jake that his book gave a good perspective on High School football and this one does the same. All the hard work that we are put through to be successful, I think we deserve more credit for that.
I love you Vinnie
Vinnie, i have never read this book but it sounds intreging indeed. I find your comments rather shallow and pedantic but i appreciate the effort.
JimSum
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