Download or read book How Football Saved My Life written by Alan Stubbs and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The day had gone badly: Celtic had just lost to their Old Firm rivals Rangers in the 1999 Scottish Cup final, and now Alan Stubbs had to provide a sample for a random drugs test. Little did he know, but it would help save his life... The results of the test showed he had testicular cancer, and suddenly, at the age of 27 and at the peak of fitness, he realised that he had the biggest battle of his life in front of him. In this compelling and moving memoir, Stubbs recalls his despair at the time and explains how, with the support of family, friends and fans as well as terrific doctors, he pulled through to resume his career at the top. And what a career it was. First he helped Bolton Wanderers climb up two divisions to reach the Premier League in 1995. The following season, he moved to Celtic for a record fee, helping them to break the stranglehold on the league title held by Rangers. After recovering from cancer, he moved to Everton, his hometown club, where he would spend most of the rest of his playing career, lining up alongside (among others) an ageing Paul Gascoigne and an emerging Wayne Rooney. A knee injury forced him to retire in 2008, but he is now on the coaching staff at Everton. A player who has seen the game at all levels, he has also had to contend with the most shocking challenges in life, which makes his story an unmissable read.

Download or read book My Life on the Line How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life written by Ryan O'Callaghan and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of life as a closeted professional athlete from gay NFL player O’Callaghan, against the backdrop of depression, opioid addiction, and the threat of suicide. “[O’Callaghan’s] story is one of beautiful vulnerability, and it further shows the importance of knowing you aren’t alone.” —Oprah Daily, recommended by Gayle King Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in a politically conservative corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man from his family and from TV and film routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on the darkest secret he kept buried inside was not an option: better death with a secret than life as a gay man. As a kid , Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. He was recruited by the University of California, Berkeley, where he spent five seasons, playing alongside his friend Aaron Rodgers. Then it was on to the NFL for stints with the almost-undefeated New England Patriots and the often-defeated Kansas City Chiefs. Bubbling under the surface of Ryan’s entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. When the league caught him smoking pot, he turned to NFL-sanctioned prescription painkillers that quickly sent his life into a tailspin. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time. Nearing the twilight of his career, Ryan faced the ultimate decision: end it all, or find out if his family and football friends could ever accept a gay man in their lives.

Download or read book Starr written by Bart Starr and published by William Morrow & Company. This book was released on 1987 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, a former quarterback and coach of the Green Bay Packers, looks back on his career, recounts memorable games, and shares impressions of fellow players

Download or read book The Big Scrum written by John J. Miller and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John J. Miller delivers the intriguing, never-before-told story of how Theodore Roosevelt saved American Football—a game that would become the nation’s most popular sport. Miller’s sweeping, novelistic retelling captures the violent, nearly lawless days of late 19th century football and the public outcry that would have ended the great game but for a crucial Presidential intervention. Teddy Roosevelt’s championing of football led to the creation of the NCAA, the innovation of the forward pass, a vital collaboration between Walter Camp, Charles W. Eliot, John Heisman and others, and, ultimately, the creation of a new American pastime. Perfect for readers of Douglas Brinkley’s Wilderness Warrior, Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side, and Conn and Hal Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys, Miller’s The Big Scrum reclaims from the shadows of obscurity a remarkable story of one defining moment in our nation’s history.

Download or read book Graeme Souness Football My Life My Passion written by Graeme Souness and published by Headline. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graeme Souness is a Glasgow Rangers icon, and a Liverpool legend in the same bracket as Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. He has racked up getting on for fifty years in and around the world of professional football. The game has been his life, and his enduring passion. Souness has written a perceptive and opinionated autobiography. It chronicles one of the most successful and colourful careers in the history of British football. But it also provides an intriguing assessment of the game which has dominated his existence, drawing extensively on his incredibly rich and varied experiences as a player, manager and pundit. The result is a shrewd, incisive and hard-hitting memoir, at times tinged with hindsight and regret, which also grapples with many of the major talking points affecting the game today. It is shot through with Souness' trademark tenacity and wisdom, and with fantastic anecdotes from his glittering career. In many ways, Football: My Life, My Passion is the story of the last half-century of British football writ large.

Download or read book How James Bond Saved My Life written by David Harkin and published by Book Guild Publishing. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How James Bond Saved My Life is a unique self-help memoir. The author takes you on a journey through cinema, delving into the significance of cinematic role models and how cinematic characters can empower and inspire young minds, be it Bond, Batman or Wonder Woman. David shares his experiences as a non-verbal school child requiring speech therapy and his childhood growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles to establish the significance of cinema. David intertwines personal anecdotes from his past, the bullying at school, and his struggle in learning to speak, with his professional expertise as a qualified youth worker and film tutor to present a compelling case for the importance of switching off from the everyday world and tuning into the world of cinema.

Download or read book Why Football Matters written by Mark Edmundson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. When Mark Edmundson’s son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player. What does it mean to be a football player? At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he’d be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life. But is football-instilled toughness always a good thing? Do the character, courage, and loyalty football instills have a dark side? Football, Edmundson found, can be full of bounties. But it can also lead you into brutality and thoughtlessness. So how do you get what’s best from the game and leave the worst behind? Why Football Matters is moving, funny, vivid, and filled with the authentic anxiety and exhilaration of youth. Edmundson doesn’t regret playing football for a minute, and cherishes the experience. His triumph is to be able to see it in full, as something to celebrate, but also something to handle with care. For anyone who has ever played on a football team, is the parent of a player, or simply is reflective about its outsized influence on America, Why Football Matters is both a mirror and a lamp.

Download or read book How Cricket Saved My Life written by Ian Martin and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An honest, often sad but humorous account of life inside a body that no longer does as it is told! Ian Martin was a sports-loving youngster. When he realised he was more enthusiastic than talented enough to make a career out of playing sport he left home and joined the Royal Navy. This book tells the story of his experiences at sea onboard HMS Ark Royal, his service during the first Gulf War on HMS London and his subsequent medical discharge after being diagnosed with a neuro-muscular condition. Ian talks about the impact of the diagnosis, his deterioration and mental health battles and how cricket helped him transition into a wheelchair and to him finding himself, and a new career. It’s a tale of rejection, dreams, discovery, determination, resilience and, ultimately, success via the floors of many hotel bathrooms and scrapes with airport security.

Download or read book Sri Anthology written by A to Z and published by SRI Books, an imprint of the Simplicity Research Institute. This book was released on 2020-02-16 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second collection of short nonfiction, we have a dozen real-life tales for you: stories of growing up, love, loss, helplessness, joy, adventure, taking charge, and … letting go …

Download or read book Small Time written by Justin Bryant and published by . This book was released on 2013-06-24 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1988, 23-year-old American goalkeeper Justin Bryant thought a glorious career in professional football awaited him. He had just saved two penalties for his American club - the Orlando Lions - against Scotland's Dunfermline Athletic, to help claim the first piece of silverware in their history. He was young, strong, healthy, and confident. But professional football, he found, is rarely easy. Small Time is the story of a life spent mostly in the backwaters of the game. As Justin negotiated the Non-League pitches of the Vauxhall-Opel League, and the many failed professional leagues of the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s, he struggled not only with his game, but his physical and mental health. Battling stress, social anxiety, a mysterious stomach ailment, and simple bad luck, he nonetheless experienced fleeting moments of triumph that no amount of money can buy. Football, he learned, is 95% blood, sweat, and tears; but if you love it enough, the other 5% makes up for it.

Download or read book The Dog that Saved the World Cup written by Phil Earle and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A four-legged hero risks it all to make his best friend’s dream come true in this touching adventure of family, football and beating the odds from award-winning author Phil Earle.

Download or read book How Bruce Springsteen s Music Saved My Life written by Oskari Olli and published by Oskari Olli. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book will tell a true story of how I survived from a heavy bullying in high school. It took me over 20 years to build enough courage to share my story. It goes deep in detail how the bullying affects, and how my regular school day was. When the bullying finally ended, I didn't know it was just the beginning...

Download or read book Final Season written by Tim Green and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** From New York Times bestselling author and former NFL player Tim Green comes a gripping, deeply personal standalone football novel about a star middle school quarterback faced with a life-changing decision after his dad is diagnosed with ALS. Perfect for fans of Mike Lupica! With two all-star college football players for brothers and a former Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman for a father, it is only natural for sixth-grade quarterback Benjamin Redd to follow in their footsteps. However, after his dad receives a heartbreaking ALS diagnosis—connected to all those hard hits and tackles he took on the field—Ben’s mom becomes more determined than ever to get Ben to quit football. Ben isn’t playing just for himself though. This might be his dad’s last chance to coach. And his teammates need a quarterback that can lead them to the championships. But as Ben watches the heavy toll ALS takes on his dad’s body, he begins to question if this should be his final season after all.

Download or read book Words Matter written by Mary Kay Blakely and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newspapers and magazines have been steadily shrinking, and more and more former subscribers have gone to digital and internet sources for the news. Yet it has become increasingly clear that “short takes” don’t satisfy many readers, who still long for nuanced, long form journalism. By providing examples of classic magazine articles by professional writers, all of whom are graduates of the Missouri School of Journalism, this book fulfills the need for more sophisticated, thought-provoking essays that will resonate with both the general reader and students. The book is divided into three broad categories: profiles, first person journalism, and personal memoirs, and includes the original articles as well as a “postscript” by the writers in which they discuss what they’ve learned about writing, journalism, and the business of getting published. Useful for students and instructors in writing programs, the book also appeals to writers interested in both the art and the craft of successful writing.

Download or read book How Not to Be a Football Millionaire written by Keith Gillespie and published by . This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How to Stop Living and Start Worrying written by Simon Critchley and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of how to lead a happy and meaningful life has been at the heart of philosophical debate since time immemorial. Today, however, these questions seem to be addressed not by philosophers but self-help gurus, who frantically champion the individual's quest for self-expression and self-realization; the desire to become authentic. Against these new age sophistries, How to Stop Living and Start Worrying tackles the question of 'how to live' by forcing us to explore our troubling relationship with death. For Critchley, philosophy begins with the question of finitude and with his understanding of a key classical theme - that to philosophize is to learn how to die. Learning how to accept both our own and others' mortality as a part of life also raises the question of how to love. Critchley argues that the act of love requires us to give up something of ourselves, to lose control so as to be open to the demands of love. We will never be equal to this demand and so we are brought face to face with our own limitations - one form of which is what Critchley calls our 'originary inauthenticity'. By scrutinizing the very nature of humour, Critchley explores what we need to laugh at ourselves and presents the need to confront the inescapable ridiculousness of life. Reflecting on the work of over 20 years, this book provides a unique, witty and erudite introduction to the thought of Simon Critchley. It includes a revealing biographical conversation with Critchley and a fascinating debate with the critically acclaimed novelist Tom McCarthy about the nature of authenticity. Taken together the conversations give an intimate portrait of one of the most lucid, provocative and engaging philosophers writing today.

Download or read book The Heart of Football Why the Small College Game Matters written by Phil Maas and published by Hugo House Publishers, Ltd.. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small College Football captures The Heart of Football, the joy, the passion, the heartache ... It is life. Small college football is everyone from anywhere working to become a team. How this mission impacts the players and coaches striving to achieve it is more important today than ever before. In The Heart of Football-players tell you why they play, coaches tell you why they coach, and everyone involved in the game tells you why they love football so much.