Customer Reviews

Paper Tiger: One Athlete's Journey to the Underbelly of Pro Football

5 star:		(4)
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Ted Kluck gets inside the game of indoor football and we don't ever want to get out. Anyone who's been associated with the game and even those who aren't will appreciate this book. Indoor football is a distinctly American invention and Ted captures it all. The road trips, the fans, the pagentry - and there is that. Make sure you get this book.

Ted Kluck's book, "Paper Tiger," is a well written account of the 2006 Battle Creek Crunch indoor football team. In the sometimes chaotic world of minor league sports, no team in the first year Great Lakes Indoor Football League endured more problems than the Crunch.

But through all of the adversity, the players somehow managed to stick together and finish the season. Even though the season was rapidly deteriorating before their eyes, the team managed to earn a playoff spot in spite of an absentee owner and no paychecks.

"Paper Tiger" is filled with humorous stories of the colorful coaches and players on the team that season. The roster was a mix of former NFL and Arena Football League players, as well as guys who simply wanted to recapture their high school or college football playing days.

Kluck played defense for the Crunch and was a long snapper on the team as well. But at the age of 30, he struggled to comptete against larger, younger and faster players. In one way, however, he was just like every other player on the team. He, too, simply wanted a chance to play football, one more time.

PW's review, while not negative, spills precious ink across finite page complaining about Ted Kluck's inclusion of seemingly "mundane" details. What music was playing, what the players are doing to kill time, what they eat at gas station stops, etc. Apparently this is all unnecessary, boring information. WHAT???

Yeah, good call PW. Why set the mood? Why develop characters? Why make the reader feel like they're experiencing this WITH the author?

As a matter of fact, that's exactly what makes this book so damn great. I could never endure a single practice with the animals fleshed out in this book, but I feel like I lived the whole thing. What Bill Bryson does for small town America and the Appalachian Trail, Ted Kluck does for the world of regional professional football. And along the way, we share in Kluck's childhood dreams of being a bigtime pro athlete, which are fading, but not quite gone. I think we can all relate.

Great read. 5*/5*

If you wonder why some people can never give up playing football (or chasing windmills?), Kluck's "Paper Tiger" provides plenty of insight. His writing is honest - whether it's about dealing with himself, his teammates, or his wife and family.

The story is excellent - contains a lot of the craziness that Bruce Feldman's "Meat Market" so good - I don't think you can miss with this one.