Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25086 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 326 pages

Synopsis
The author, former team physician for the Los Angeles Raiders, offers a behind-the-scenes look at professional football.

Customer Reviews

For Raider & non-Raider fans alike...!
Rob Huizenga's account of his time as medical intern for the Los Angeles Raiders provides a provocative behind-the-scenes look at the reality of NFL football that is by turns hysterically funny and deeply disturbing. He conveys both the perverse attraction of being part of a team "camped out at the edge of reality", and also the shocked disbelief at the suspect and highly dangerous extremes that football players will go to in order to play while injured and so preserve their job. As team intern from 1983 to 1990, Huizenga faced a unique dilemma: his concern as a responsible doctor for his patients, the players, continually conflicted with their own desire to play through potentially crippling injuries. His frequent confrontations as well with team owner Al Davis over the treatment of players clearly illustrates why Davis's obsessive "win at all costs" attitude has made he and his team NFL pariahs. More generally, Huizenga pointedly shows how the intense pressure upon players from team, fans and the league itself, to consistently perform at the highest possible level drives individuals to abuse themselves and their bodies with a myriad of chemical substances. For Raider and non-Raider fans alike, Huizenga's book makes for compulsive reading. His experiences highlight the extreme "otherness" of NFL football, in which lies its principle attraction - the oddball characters who play it, the unorthodox means they endure to keep playing, and the high mental and physical cost that they pay for success in such a ferocious game.

great book even for non raider fans!
a very good book, it gives details of a doctors history with the raiders,

its well written and give you a real feel on what goes on in the medical side of the game , and just what lengths some players will go through to keep playing,

There is a real insight to some of the more colorful charachters on the team in particular Lyle Alzado,

i would certanly recommend this book, even for non fans of the raiders , easily in my top 3 nfl books of all time

Great book, a must for Pro football fans
As a long time Denver Bronco fan (Raiders are scum) I approched this book with more than a little sceptisism. The Raiders have lied and cheated their way through football folklore. However by the second page I was hooked, this book is writen in a manner that you just can't put it down. No quarter is given to the team re what should have been done for these guys medically. The insites into Al Davis and the pressure players face to perform are nothing new, but still it's a great read and reminder that the game we love can have some terrible after effects on those who put their bodys on the line, week in week out.