When the Clock Runs Out : 20 NFL Greats Share Their Stories of Hardship and Triumph

Football is more than just a sport, it is a way of life.From the grittiness of practice and strategy sessions to the thrill of game days and the power of cheering crowds, football is the glue that holds a professional player's life together. But what happens when you have to face life after football? What happens when the cheering stops? The adjustement to life without football can be traumatic. Some players are prepared and make a seamless transition. Others struggle to make sense of a life that no longer seems to have meaning.

In When the Clock Runs Out, twenty talented NFL players share their private, inspiring stories of football, retirement, and adjustment. Pat Summerall candidly discusses his battle with alcoholism and his triumphant victory over addiction. Dan Reeves takes us on a harrowing journey through heart surgery and an improbable Super Bowl appearance. Thomas "Hollywood' Henderson describes his descent into drug addiction and his soul-cleansing climb to sobriety. These men and other NFL greats are proof of the hold that football can have over a player. They have given themselves heart and soul to the sport, and their lives have been changes because of it. As these stories make clear, football continues to influence them, long after they have removed their helmets and left the playing field for the last time.

Bill Lyon...Syndicated sports columnist Bill Lyon has been a writer for forty-four years and a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist for twenty-seven. Author of three books, member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, eleven-time Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year and five time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, Bill has won more than eighty national and state awards. He and his wife of 35 years (Ethel) have two sons (Jim and John) two grandsons (Evan and Joshua) and one daughter-n-law (Sandy).

Cynthia Zordich...A freelance sideline photographer, she purposely takes her camera away from the football field and into those places overlooked by other photographers. Her specialty is the candid portrait and so it is the people who play the game rather than the game itself that intrigues her. A graduate of Penn State University, Cynthia knows exactly how the players feel- she is married to twelve-year veteran safety Michael Zordich. They have two sons (Michael Vincent and Alex) and a daughter (Aidan).