Customer Reviews

The Senior: My Amazing Year as a 59-Year-Old College Football Linebacker

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The author, Mike Flynt is a fifty-nine-year-old former high school and college football player whose senior college season was cut short when he was kicked off the team and out of school... after a fight... that may or may not have been his fault... but this fight... when added to the already accrued total of fights and arrests on his record... tipped the scales to the point... that the college, Sul Ross State... didn't care... they just wanted him gone from the University. For thirty-six years after the ending of his college career, this one incident festered like an open wound in his soul... and Mike always felt it was the biggest mistake in his life... he felt he let his teammates down.

The author leads you through his life starting with his Father a grizzled World War II veteran who taught his son to box at an early age... and to always be "MENTALLY-READY" for life on the "streets". His Dad had **THREE-RULES**: "IF I EVER HEAR OF YOU STARTING A FIGHT, YOU'RE GOING TO GET A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME. IF I EVER HEAR OF SOMEONE STARTING A FIGHT WITH YOU AND YOU DON'T FIGHT BACK, YOU'RE GETTING A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME. IF I HEAR OF YOU FIGHTING AND YOU DON'T WIN, YOU'RE GETTING A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME." Mike definitely followed his Dad's rules, and probably fought a lot of times even if it didn't have anything to do with his Dad's rules. Mike went to high school at Odessa, Texas Permian High School... the school that was the inspiration for the book, movie, and TV series, "FRIDAY-NIGHT-LIGHTS". In fact Mike was a member of the 1965 Class 4A Football State Champions... the first championship team at that now famous school.

In 2007 he was coerced by his former Sul Ross University teammates to attend a class reunion. When he attended the Reunion, and while having a few beers and celebrating the "Glory-Days"... the conversation led to the fact that Mike still had a year of college athletic eligibility left. Though fifty-nine-years old, Mike was in tremendous physical shape... and one thing led to another... and Mike was eventually approved to try out for the current Sul Ross team... even though he was older than the coach... and had children older than the players. Being that sports was the center of my existence during my school years and after... and the fact that I got kicked off my team in my junior year for the same offense as the author... I related very well with Mike's plight. But since it was my junior year... I got to make amends in my senior year. Mike saw a fleeting shot... albeit thirty-six-years later... to put a permanent bandage on an old wound. Obviously at fifty-nine-years old Mike was not going to be a major player... if he made the team... but to me making the team is the "sizzle"... not the "steak"... in Mike's life. The "steak"... and heart and soul of this story... is Mike's journey... from brawler... multiple arrests and nights in jail... to successful man... successful Father/husband/Grandfather... and a man who found G-d.

This book is about a tremendous journey... the destination is simply what got the story told!

P.S. I've been called a lot of things in my life... but the two best were SON and FATHER... and because of that the most touching words in this entire book, was the dedication that Mike made in the beginning of the book:

**TO MY DAD**
"FOR ALL THE THINGS HE TAUGHT ME, RIGHT OR WRONG, NO FATHER EVER LOVED A SON MORE THAN MY DAD LOVED ME."

I actually just finished reading this book over the past 2 days and it was inspiring on so many levels!

It's an incredible true story of a man haunted by regrets of the past and the chance of redemption. It tells of one man's spiritual awakening and transformation. And it's a lesson to all people that life is a process, that you can keep moving forward regardless of chronological age.

I was actually fortunate enough to have the honor of meeting Mike Flynt about a year and a half ago. I didn't really know much about him at the time, I was actually in the process of studying to become a certified personal trainer at 48 years old (my own second chance in life, one also interrupted by my own adversity, as I was losing the use of my left arm in middle of this process due to old injuries from a car wreck. That led to cervical spine surgery a month before I took my certification exam!).

I was already in the process of purchasing equipment to use in my future second profession, such as stability balls, medicine balls, all sorts of other equipment. I found out about the Powerbase unit because my son's middle school used them sometimes in P.E. class and it seemed like a great tool for me to use to train folks at their homes.

Anyway, I had emailed the company and Mike Flynt got back to me personally. I live in the same town (Franklin, TN) and he went out of his way to meet with me when I bought the unit. Not only that, after I mentioned that my son was a dedicated football player he spent about 30 minutes giving me ideas to share with my son on training in general and ideas of the powerbase as well. I was stunned that this man, who had never met me before, was willing to take so much of his free time with a complete stranger. This was after his year at Sul Ross and things were already quite hectic for him with the book upcoming and other related projects. I'm just mentioning this to show the kind of person he is, a true gentleman with a big heart.

I had no idea of Mike Flynt's past, I would never have believed the gentle man I had met could have been such a hot tempered, quick fisted youth. I had no idea that he had been through so much adversity in his past.

The story the book tells of the lessons he learned from his loving father, who was concerned that his small son would be an easy target so he taught him to fight to protect himself was extremely intense. Mike certainly took those lessons too far as a young man and it cost him his Senior Year of college football (at least for many years).

However, Mike was still able to find a way to move forward and become an athletic trainer. Even though at that point he probably never thought he'd get on a football field again, he still was able to dust himself off and keep moving forward to pursue a career that was involved with athletics.

This story is also about the transformative power of love on many levels. First the love he found with his wife and children and the profound effect it had on him. Then through the gentle guidance of his wife, the tremendous impact of finding a relationship with God and how that transformed him in every way. It's also about the relationships he formed with not only his teammates of the past but his teammates of his "senior" year at Sul Ross. How he inspired those young men who in turn had an powerful impact on him!

On another level, this book was just an incredibly entertaining read, a wonderful story, one that I hope will be made into a movie because I think it will be another venue for people to be exposed to this incredible journey filled with life lessons that anyone can be inspired by.

I couldn't put this book down. Read it at one sitting. Althought many people won't understand Flynt's mindset about fist fighting it is one shared by many of us that were raised in West Texas. The book was excellent and I invite everyone to read this. Quite inspirational.

Socrates is quoted as saying "An unexamined life is not worth living." Well, Mike Flynt's life is one that was very well lived because not only has he examined it, but now everyone is examining it.
As one who knows Mike from "the old days" and attended the "Sul Ross Baby Boomers" reunion where his comeback started, I watched everything from the sidelines. His book carries forward his story beautifully. Mike was an exceptionally talented linebacker. After watching him sack opposing quarterbacks I realized I made the correct decision in being a cheerleader. When Mike was expelled because of "the fight" I felt that he had truly gotten the short end of the stick, and I had always wondered what happened to him.
For those of us who had lost touch with him, his reputation as a pugilist is best summed up by the comment of a mutual friend when sitting in the lobby of the hotel while people arrived. One alumni asked, "Is that Mike Flynt over there?" Another replied, "Naw, couldn't be. That guy has been there for five minutes and hasn't fought anybody."
Other reviews have addressed the story of Mike's redemption. My thoughts go more to how Mike's story affected all of his friends who vicariously joined in his experience. We all have been able to revisit a wonderful time in our lives and have been rejuvenated by his experience. People who never knew Mike followed his trials and tribulations through all of us who did. Now they have a chance to read his book and feel what we all felt. Mike had the chance many of us never have; that chance for a do-over. Read Mike's story; it will mean as much to you as to all of us who attended his games and cheered him on. He is a man who has come full circle, from impetuous youth to a man who is solid as a rock in his faith and love of family. I feel honored to have been able to watch him from the sidelines. You will truly enjoy this book.

When I pick up an autobiography, I'm well aware that I'm reading somebody's story. I'm also aware that not all of them know how to write that well either. Well, this wasn't the case. It was very well written, and let me say that the story was well worth it. Welcome to the world of Mike Flynt!

Mike Flynt made up for lost time after he did some growing up. He was a great football player. But he was also a fighter, and ultimately, it got him kicked out of football his Senior year, and out of college. And from that point on, Mike got married, had kids, even Grandkids. But he lived with the regret of not finishing his Senior year in college at Sul Ross State. Yet despite all that, he got a 2nd chance, and at 59 years old, Mike Flynt got to play football for one more season.

So many lessons do we learn in this life, and Mike certainly learned his share of them along the way. A hard worker, a man who fights for what he wants, and ultimately has no regrets in the end! This is nothing short of an inspiration. It was to so many people, and shows the journey one man takes, even with bumps and bruises. I'm glad I got to take in this particular journey. And being written quite well made it all the more enjoyable.

This was a great book. Mike Flint is a guy who anyone at any age could get along with. This is a great story about desire and determination. Story steers in religion a bit too much, but other than than I really enjoyed this book

This is a story about a man who tells how much he loved football and his father. His father had a hard life and he wished his son to be able to take care of himself. Mike took his father's rules with him a long time until they began to stand in his way. He still wanted to play football at 59. His life fell into place where he had the opportunity to talk about this to his old school, Sol Rush. I believe the book has many life lessons with Mike's journey the road of Redemption.

Interesting story with a lot of "fighting" by the author. It took 99 pages for Mike Flynt to 'turn his life around' and stop fighting. That is too long. The last few chapters deal with the current time he was actually on the football team at his old school at age 59.

The football chapters are far more interesting and move along quickly. Towards the end of the book, the author gets carried away with naming as many people as he could who had some type of impact on his life as an 'old man' on the team.

I would rate this book 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, not good, about average.