Book Log 2014 #25: Slow Getting Up by Nate Jackson

Nate Jackson embodied the Cinderella story as applied to football, working his way from a division III school to becoming (briefly) a starter for the Denver Broncos.  This memoir shows the reality behind the story, from the uncertain life of an undrafted free agent to playing in NFL Europe to injuries. Many, many injuries.

For all the talk in reviews about the book's discussion of sex and drugs (which are discussed, though not often in the sort of detail you'd expect from the headlines), it's really the injuries that frame things, as one-time injuries become chronic injuries that wind up being career-ending injuries. And yet through all of the rehab, Jackson's story underscores the idea that football players just want to play football, and will put up with the injuries in order to get back on the field. It's also notable that Jackson didn't have access to his team medical records (which he quotes from several times) until he filed a worker's compensation case against the team, and was able to get a copy via subpoena.

At a time when professional athletes rarely give more than blandishments shaped by some PR flak, Jackson's recounting of his career is refreshingly honest within certain boundaries (he rarely, if ever, speaks ill of teammates, and doesn't trade in locker room gossip that would have sold more books). The book doesn't quite reach the tell-all level of Ball Four or reflect on being a professional athlete with the clarity and depth of Ken Dryden's The Game, but it's pretty damn good, and well worth reading.