The Dark Side of the Game : My Life in the NFL

Rating:
Summary: good for the wrong reasons
Review: When I picked up this book somewhere in the midst of football season, I figured it would be great to read about the "dark side of the game" from somebody who witnessed it all first hand. I wanted to hear about the vigorous schedules, grueling practices, and the infamous use of the needle. And honestly, after I finally put down the book (which I read from start to finish in one sitting), I got just that. There were even some things I didn't expect thrown in, such as hearing about an NFL player's opinion of different stadiums, and some interesting facts about zebras (refs).
My only problem is, I actually knew about everything I was expecting to hear.
Now, don't get me wrong. This is a great read. Its brief chapters each cover a separate aspect of the NFL, and Green does give many great opinions towards facets of the game which one would probably never have found out short of speaking to the player himself. Plus, the fact that this wasn't just a "my career timeline" like most football books are already made it a must-read for NFL fans.
All of that was great, except that I never really found out about the "dark side" of football. Granted for a Bears fans, any kind of praise towards Lambeau Field indicates that the world has reached a dark point in time, but aside from that, I didn't really feel this book as being very shocking. The few chapters that did refer to drug abuse, alcohol, eating problems (which usually included different methods of getting the largest possible amount of food) weren't very revealing or shocking. Instead, they were played off in the un-serious tone set throughout the rest of the book, saying something like "the guys did love to go out for some drinks after games, and would sometimes come to practice hung-over." Okay, I pretty much assumed that. Honestly though, that was about as revealing as it got throughout the majority of the book. Going back to my expectations of the book, I am still unsure whether nothing in this book came as a surprise to me due to me being beyond the "average" fan, or just because it really didn't say much about the "dark" aspects of the NFL.
All of that aside, I would still recommend this book to any football fan as long as they are not expecting the "dark side." Green's perspectives on the good side of the game were a lot of fun to read, and most of the time, actually more shocking. Reading about Green's relationship with Deion Sanders makes you wish you were a bigger Deion fan back when he was playing, and who does want to learn about the worst way to loose weight, the "see-food" diet. All of this made this book impossible to put down, and creates an awesome read for the football fan who knows about the rookie combine (although if that's you, you might want to skip the 4 page explanation of exactly what the combine is).