Description:
In The Proving Ground: A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe, Lars Anderson follows the Scottish Claymores, chronicling its players and their dreams of springing into the NFL from abroad. For football players who aren't in the NFL because they missed the cut, had a bad tryout, or are staging a comeback despite their age, injury, or attitude, playing elsewhere professionally, in the Canadian Football League or the NFL Europe, provides their shot at fulfilling a dream that won't die quietly. NFL notables such as Warren Moon and Kurt Warner cut their teeth elsewhere before the NFL would look at them. Rather than languish on the sidelines as a backup or be resigned to the practice squad, some gutsy players would rather start somewhere and build a résumé of action in real games, to be lucky enough to play football for a living. The Claymores' coach proved equally determined. Anderson describes him shortly after he suffered a horrible accident: "...here he was, trying to mold a team together that could win a championship. If he could coach through this, he believed he could coach pretty much through anything." And so the Claymores take on the food and weather of Scotland, live in a supposedly haunted hotel in Glasgow, and resist (or take advantage of) the excesses of European nightlife in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, all the while playing their hearts out for a winning season and an NFL audition that may never come. What makes this book more than just a chronology of games is that Anderson vividly captures the motivations and personalities of the players. The Proving Ground provides a fresh perspective on what many players endured to make it to the NFL. --Michael Ferch
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