The Proving Ground A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe (Audible Audio Edition) Lars Anderson Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The Proving Ground A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe (Audible Audio Edition) Lars Anderson Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
Life in the minor leagues of football, which NFL Europe has been aptly dubbed, can be funny, sad, profound and ludicrous all at the same time. At its heart, this six-team league is a short-stop away from either the glamour of the NFL or the bottom of the professional football scrap pile - a crossroads full of real-life drama where the joy of "making it" can be tempered by failure or injury with one misstep; where the difference between a multimillion dollar NFL contract and abject poverty may only be one play away. Just ask Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner.
Author Lars Anderson brings to life the compelling drama of NFL Europe by spending a season with the Scottish Claymores. Anderson lives with the players at a hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, spending every waking minute with them - eating and heading out to the pubs as the Claymores make their championship run. Along with detailing the life and times of the Claymores, Anderson digs deep into the background of the players and coaches to help explain why some succeed and others fail in their quest to make it to that shining city on the hill - the NFL.
Through the eyes of Anderson, the listener experiences what it means and what it's like to be a football player in Europe. The men that make up the Claymores are the strength of this book - a funny and complex lot that face many of the same issues we tackle every day. An inspiring portrait of both new beginnings and bitter ends, The Proving Ground will shock and delight listeners, while showing them another side of the professional football player.
Of The Proving Ground, Frank Deford, award-winning author and commentator, says "Anderson deftly shows that you can take the football player out of America, but...he's the same creature, loving the game and scrambling for one more chance."
The Proving Ground A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe (Audible Audio Edition) Lars Anderson Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books
I was looking for an engaging description of what life in NFL Europe was like, and this book chronicles the experience of the Scottish Claymores very well.Between these covers, I learned the makeup of an NFL-E coach in Jim Criner. I think his life was portrayed very well here, so that even his off-time fishing and shopping was interesting.
I got to learn a lot about the allocation process, how a coach like Jim Criner networked to ask NFL teams to recommend players from training camp and practice squads to go to Europe and develop.
It was fun learning what coaching staffs thought of personnel in the secondary in NFL-E, and how they interpreted how that kind of coverage developed quarterbacks.
Details about the living conditions in Glasgow, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Barcelona was enlightening. It was fun learning what different living conditions did to team morale, and how locations impacted recruiting players.
I liked learning about the Claymores, but I also appreciated hearing about the familiar names like Kurt Warner, Danny Wuerffel, and Lawrence Phillips.
What surprised me was the tone about NFL-E being such a backwater. I recall games being aired on FOX, F/X, and FOX Sports Net, but there's hardly a reference to FOX at all, as if they were completely disengaged from their own sports entertainment product. It's even implied games were rarely televised, and one is left with the impression that the Claymores were only showcased twice (maybe true) in the 2000 season.
One thing unexpectedly intriguing in this book is the sham feuds concocted by the NFL itself to hype interest (shades of the XFL a year early). Details about this, and how the NFL used it's own website to promote invented rivalries and controversies is priceless, as is Criner's responses to these things.
I'm grateful to have found this hidden gem. I wish there had been more stories about the wider league, as there aren't any other books about it, but I had a pleasant time reading about the Claymores.
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The Proving Ground A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe (Audible Audio Edition) Lars Anderson Jeremy Arthur Audible Studios Books Reviews
As an avid football fan, I truly enjoyed this book. It gave great insight to what a team goes through during a season overseas in NFL Europe. It showed the highs and lows that players go through especially within the family (team). If you are interested in what goes on and what goes through a players mind I really suggest you read this book. Lars Anderson did a great job and my heart goes out to kicker Rob Hart... YOU WILL GET A CHANCE TO MAKE IT UP! (read the book to find out what that refers to!)
This is one of the best books I have read. It might be the best book about football ever. It gives a detailed account of what NFL Europe is really all about. As a fan of the league since 1991, I thought I knew almost everything about the league, but after reading this book, I learned things about it I never knew. The only flaw I saw in the book was that Mr. Anderson said that the World League became NFL Europe in 1996, but in fact it did not actually become NFL Europe until the 1998 season. Other then that it was a great book. A must for all football fans, especially fans of NFL Europe!!
Interesting in that my first NFL('AAA')E
book was also about the Scotland Clay-
mores (now Cologne Centurians). Jack
Criner, childhood friend of both John
Robinson and big John Madden gets the
short shrift in this one somewhat though.
Could have left some of the controversial
stuff out and made it more of a guys book
on Footie, in my Opine. I still liked it
and much about my current CFL mate Marcus
Crandell. - R.A.S, Montreal's AM 990, The
Team, "This Week in Arenaball" host.
I was looking for an engaging description of what life in NFL Europe was like, and this book chronicles the experience of the Scottish Claymores very well.
Between these covers, I learned the makeup of an NFL-E coach in Jim Criner. I think his life was portrayed very well here, so that even his off-time fishing and shopping was interesting.
I got to learn a lot about the allocation process, how a coach like Jim Criner networked to ask NFL teams to recommend players from training camp and practice squads to go to Europe and develop.
It was fun learning what coaching staffs thought of personnel in the secondary in NFL-E, and how they interpreted how that kind of coverage developed quarterbacks.
Details about the living conditions in Glasgow, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Barcelona was enlightening. It was fun learning what different living conditions did to team morale, and how locations impacted recruiting players.
I liked learning about the Claymores, but I also appreciated hearing about the familiar names like Kurt Warner, Danny Wuerffel, and Lawrence Phillips.
What surprised me was the tone about NFL-E being such a backwater. I recall games being aired on FOX, F/X, and FOX Sports Net, but there's hardly a reference to FOX at all, as if they were completely disengaged from their own sports entertainment product. It's even implied games were rarely televised, and one is left with the impression that the Claymores were only showcased twice (maybe true) in the 2000 season.
One thing unexpectedly intriguing in this book is the sham feuds concocted by the NFL itself to hype interest (shades of the XFL a year early). Details about this, and how the NFL used it's own website to promote invented rivalries and controversies is priceless, as is Criner's responses to these things.
I'm grateful to have found this hidden gem. I wish there had been more stories about the wider league, as there aren't any other books about it, but I had a pleasant time reading about the Claymores.
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