It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered [Hardcover]

Don Yaeger (Author), Mike Pressler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

Mike Pressler walked into the bottom-floor meeting room of the Murray Building and, as he had done hundreds of times over a sixteen-year career at Duke University, prepared to address his men's lacrosse team. Forty-six players sat in theater-style chairs, all eyes riveted forward.It was 4:30 P.M. on Wednesday, April 5, 2006. The program's darkest hour had arrived in an unexpected and explosive announcement.Pressler, a three-time ACC Coach of the Year, informed his team that its season was canceled and that he had "resigned," effective immediately. While his words reverberated off the walls, hysteria erupted. Players cried, confused over a course of events that had spun wildly out of control. What began as an off-campus team party with two hired strippers had accelerated into a rape investigation-one that exposed prosecutorial misconduct, shoddy police work, an administration's rush to judgment, and the media's disregard for the facts-dividing both a prestigious university and the city of Durham.Wiping away tears, Pressler demonstrated the steely resolve that helped him win more than two hundred games. For the next thirty minutes, Pressler put his personal situation aside and encouraged his players to stick together. He also made a bold promise: "One day, we will get a chance to tell the world the truth. One day."This is that day.Pressler, who has not done an interview since the saga began, has handed his private diary from those three weeks to New York Times bestselling author Don Yaeger, exposing vivid details, including the day Pressler was fired, when the coach asked Athletic Director Joe Alleva why the school "wasn't willing to wait for the truth" to come out."It's not about the truth anymore," Alleva said to the coach in a signature moment that said it all. In addition to Pressler, Yaeger interviewed more than seventy-five key figures intimately involved in the case. The result is a tale that defies logic."It is tough to be one of fifty people who believed a story when fifty million people believed something else," Pressler said. "This wasn't about the truth to many of the others involved. My story is all about the truth."

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the early hours of March 14, 2006, a group of Duke University lacrosse players got in an altercation with two strippers they hired for a party; afterwards, one of the strippers placed a call to 911 that set off a campus-shaking rape case that would captivate the national media. A number of parties, including District Attorney Mike Nifong, lined up to characterize the defendants as "a bunch of hooligans" before charges against the three indicted players were finally dropped, half a year later. In this riveting book, sports author Yaeger (Turning the Tide) and Mike Pressler, then-head coach of the Duke lacrosse team, present a fast-moving account of the 13 months that tore apart the university and the town. Looking at all aspects of the case, including Durham's troubled racial history and profiles of the Nifong and Duke president Richard Brodhead, Pressler and Yaeger find plenty of blame to spread around-including the "self-perpetuating monster" of media coverage, the university administration that took "some of the worst actions...against the Duke lacrosse team"-but Pressler, the tale's sacrificial lamb, avoids a bitter or accusatory stance. Instead he adds color and insight to Yaeger's rigorous, efficient investigation; for anyone who got caught up in the story, this is a must-read.
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About the Author

Don Yaeger is a former associate editor for Sports Illustrated. He is the author of seven books and coauthor of the New York Timesbestseller Under the Tarnished Dome and the critically acclaimed Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL.

Mike Pressler was the head coach of the Duke Lacrosse team. Under his leadership the team won three Atlantic Coast Conference championships,ten NCAA tournament berths, and made an appearance in the 2005 Division I men's lacrosse championship game. He now coaches the lacrosse team at Bryant College in Rhode Island.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions; First Edition edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416551468
• ISBN-13: 978-1416551461
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Other Team Sports > Lacrosse

More About the Author

Don Yaeger is a former associate editor for Sports Illustrated. He is the author of more than a dozen books and coauthor of five New York Times bestsellers, including "I Beat the Odds: The Autobiography of Michael Oher"; "Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton"; and "Ya Gotta Believe!: The autobiography of Tug McGraw."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, June 11, 2007

By 

nobizinfla "nobizinfla" (Windermere, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered (Hardcover)

"It's Not About the Truth" by the former head coach of the Duke lacrosse team, Mike Pressler, is an engrossing and enlightening read.

I thought that I had paid attention throughout the process, and still learned a great deal and picked up some keen insights.

The book chronicles the events from the phone call to escort service up to declaration of "innocent" and the start of the 2007 lacrosse season.

Major and bit players in the drama are profiled and their actions recounted in a documentary/narrative style that is easy to follow and comprehend.

The University bureaucrats (starting with President Brodhead) showed no profiles in courage and abandoned the team, its season and Coach Pressler in a show of politically correct CYA.

The AD is revealed as a cowardly marionette whose word was not his bond.

The 88 faculty members (20% of the Duke staff) who took out a full-page "social disaster" ad in the student newspaper openly flew their agenda flag. A huge rush to judgment before the facts were known.

As egregiously as the university acted in forsaking the team and coach, the actions of the DA (Mike Nifong) and the Durham PD were enough to prompt two ethics charges from the North Carolina State Bar. Trial starts this week.

Nifong's rush to judgment was motivated by his desire to be elected in the 2006 DA race.

The book points out that he never spoke to the escort (complainant) until about eight months after the supposed incident.

The book does show where the profiles in courage reside.

Ironically, it is James Ammons (Chancellor at the historically black college NCCU), who was the initial public voice of reason...being the first to say "don't rush to judgment."

Coach Pressler and his family proved to be a rock of stability in all the turmoil for the team. After speaking with the Senior Captains, he knew they were speaking the truth...and never wavered in this belief.

While the AD was not supportive, the other coaches were loyal to the lacrosse team.

The legal team was incredible. Joseph Chesire V said he knew after three minutes that Dave Evans was telling the truth, and proceeded accordingly.

The members of the team and their parents are the real heroes. The anguish and anxiety they all suffered waiting for the third indictment had to be excruciating. Lives were turned upside down for over a year.

They banded together and never lost faith in one another. That not one underclassman transferred showed a great leap of faith to a university that did not show the same loyalty.

It took a lot of bravery, trust and faith for the parents to send their sons back to Duke.

"The Truth" kept their resolve intact.

Anyone who saw the address Dave Evans gave on May 15, 2006 knew he was speaking from the heart and meant every word he said. It was a powerful moment.

If you watched him speak and did not know he was truthful you should not play poker, as every tell was there.

There are some of us who never vacillated in believing in the innocence of the team. I still feel apologies are owed by many to Coach Pressler, the defendants, the team and the parents.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those interested in this amazing story, June 11, 2007

By 

Naz (New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered (Hardcover)

I was half expecting to read very familiar stuff when I got this book. I was amazed at how much new material this book presented and how much I could not put it down. This is a wonderfully written book that stays with you long after you read it. Just be prepared to be glued to the pages from the moment you open this new classic of judicial literature.

Coach Pressler's descriptions of this event recalls the Salem Witch trials. It is amazing something like this could happen nowadays and the fact we all lived through it makes it even more interesting. This is written in such a personal and fluid style that time just ceases to exist when you open this book. There is so much details that will leave you shocked that you really feel as if you are living the case and also feel joy at how justice was eventually done. Sadly, Coach Pressler lost his job but history will recall him as a wonderful coach and person while others such as the Duke administrators (including the Duke President)and Durham Legal and Police depts will be forever linked with a despicable period in legal history. Long after we are all gone their names will still live in infamy. It they have a conscience they would feel shamed.

I recommend as highly as I have ever recommended a book.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Old Story Magnified, June 7, 2007

By 

William R. Erwin (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered (Hardcover)

Books about contemporary events can be potboilers. It's Not About the Truth is absolutely not in that category!

Author Don Yaeger has formidable credentials. He is a former associate editor of Sports Illustrated, the author of seven books, co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Under the Tarnished Dome, and the critically acclaimed Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL. His honesty, expertise, skills, and perception are highly significant in a crisis in which those attributes have been and are so often missing.

Yaeger's style is clear, revealing in both detail and perspective, consistently lively, producing a story hard to put down. He states his opinions as well as rendering them through detailed reporting, a considerable amount either missed or not available before even in Durham.

The very extensive interviews from many differing angles and his work with Coach Mike Pressler are especially valuable, often strikingly to the point. Coach Pressler kept a diary from the first days of the drama. These sources are very extensive, exciting to read, and illuminate the events from innumerable directions, often of strategic value.

The Duke Lacrosse Case, although a media phenomenon, is by no means a new aspect of institutional life, here and elsewhere, whatever the endeavor. This story shines another powerful beam upon management style and mentality, and how some, far too many, regard the groups and individuals subject to their power. A foxhole attitude, refusal to acknowledge mistakes, and a callous disregard for individuals and groups, however valuable their contributions have been and could be, are widespread. Here one thinks of Lee Iacocca's Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

This corrosive situation is exactly why the media and the whistleblowers are so necessary. How else would we know? Messrs. Yaeger and Pressler deserve our esteem and congratulations. Coach Pressler, the Duke

Lacrosse Team, and their families and lawyers are class acts.