Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited

(Paperback)

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Description

George Plimpton's follow-up to the classic Paper Lion, rejoining two of his former teammates in an insightful glimpse into the lives of professional sportspeople From the author of Paper Lion Following his turn as a Detroit Lions rookie in Paper Lion, George Plimpton returns to the field of American football and focuses on the careers of his Lions teammates, Alex 'Mad Duck' Karras and John 'the Bear' Gordy. What he uncovers is a fond tribute to the values and follies of this brutal, but captivating game. Paper Lion was the quintessential look at a football team behind the scenes and its companion, Mad Ducks and Bears, offers an astute exploration into the fascinating lives, thoughts and motivations of the players at home, in the locker room, and on the field.

Reviews

Plimpton has done it again * Sports Illustrated *
[An] irreverent and roguish account of the lives of the two linesmen... Pure gold * Chicago Tribune *
With his gentle, ironic tone, and unwillingness to take himself too seriously, along with Roger Angell, John Updike and Norman Mailer he made writing about sports something that mattered * Guardian *
What drives these books, and has made them so popular, is Plimptons continuous bond-making with the reader and the comedy inherent in his predicament. He is the Everyman, earnests and frail, wandering in a world of supermen, beset by fears of catastrophic violence and public humiliation, yet gamely facing it all in order to survive and tell the tale A prodigious linguistic ability is on display throughout, with a defining image often appended at the end of a sentence like a surprise dessert. -- Timothy O'Grady * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

George Plimpton (1927-2003) was the bestselling author and editor of nearly thirty books, as well as the cofounder, publisher, and editor of the Paris Review. He wrote regularly for such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Esquire, and he appeared numerous times in films and on television.