No Medals for Trying: A Week in the Life of a Pro Football Team - Softcover

Izenberg, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804108668 ISBN 13: 9780804108669

Publisher: Ivy Books, 1991

Synopsis

Last season, football's New York Giants invited sportswriter Izenberg (How Many Miles to Camelot, 1972) to observe a week of practices and team meetings. He made the most of the opportunity, coming up with this engrossing day-by-day account leading up to an important game. Coming off a bitter and disappointing Monday night loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Giants, faced with a shortened workweek, waste no time in beginning preparations for Sunday's crucial matchup with the tough Philadelphia Eagles and their outstanding quarterback Randall Cunningham. As Izenberg makes clear, the most important members of the team during the week are trainer Ronnie Barnes and Dr. Russ Warren. Can they mend quarterback Phil Simms' bum ankle? More important, can they have inspirational linebacker Lawrence Taylor (with a painful, hobbling knee injury) ready by game time? Coach Bill Parcells downplays the possible loss of Simms by touting inexperienced backup Jeff Hostetler. Announcing that Taylor will not play, Parcells inserts reserve Johnie Cooks as outside linebacker--but no one, including Cooks, is under any illusion that Taylor is replaceable. As the week unfolds, Izenberg observes closed-door offensive and defensive strategy sessions in all their arcane intricacy. He provides a rare look at an evolving game plan contingent on something as basic as one man's ability to play with pain. By game time both Simms and Taylor are, somehow, ready to play. In an emotional, hard-fought game played in subzero temperatures at wind-swept Giants Stadium, the Eagles come away winners. The Giants will rebound, however, to capture the NFC East title. Izenberg succeeds in penetrating the complexity of the Xs and Os and in describing the essential role of basic human emotion in a game he calls ""a chess match with muscles.

About this title

From Library Journal

Izenberg, who has covered the New York Giants for some 30 years, reports on a week that he spent with the team. The week in question began on November 27, 1989, after the Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the game where both Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor were injured, and culminates on December 4, after a sloppy loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Because of Taylor's injury, much of the book reads like a paean to the linebacker. Izenberg gives no real insights into the workings of a professional football team, and there's nothing here about the Giants that readers couldn't get from the New York Post. Izenberg does a fine job of introducing the players, coaches, trainers, and office personnel, but then he gets bogged down in team history and personal anecdotes and never really gets behind the scenes--unless all pros sit around between Sundays eating pizza and donuts, watching videos, etc. Most sports collections can skip.
- John Turner, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Syndicated sports columnist Izenberg ( The Rivals ), who has covered the New York Giants for three decades, here reports on one week in the life of the team, November 27-December 3, 1989, when the players were recuperating from a loss to the San Francisco 49ers and preparing for a game with the Philadelphia Eagles, whom they had to beat in order to win their division. With both quarterback Phil Simms and linebacker Lawrence Taylor badly injured, everyone, from head coach Bill Parcells to the most untried rookie, felt the necessity of making an extra effort. Izenberg builds the suspense so masterfully that grid aficionados will be caught up in the story. The book's title, however, is ill-chosen, as it reveals the outcome of the game.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ivy Books
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804108668
• ISBN 13: 9780804108669
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback