Total Impact

The four-time Super Bowl champion player describes how he prepares for every game, handles his rage, overcomes pain, exploits the weaknesses of the NFL's best offensive players, and more

Lott played with the San Francisco 49ers throughout the '80s, placing him on four Super Bowl championship teams. He was also chosen to play in the Pro Bowl nine times in 10 years, testimony to his excellence as a defensive back. Yet, his successes notwithstanding, readers may question whether this ponderous tome, coauthored with Sports Illustrated senior writer Lieber, may not be overkill. While fans will enjoy the book's game-by-game analysis of the 1990 season, in which the 49ers failed to reach their third straight Super Bowl, even the most fervent Lott admirers will little care that in his karate lessons he does 1000 kicks or consider it a revelation that he likes to hit opposing players hard, a point made at least a half-dozen times. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Revealing autobiography of football defensive-back Ronnie Lott, written with Sports Illustrated staffer Lieber. Lott is king of defense for the San Francisco 49ers--ranging behind the line, breaking up pass plays, playing ``good old fashioned smash-mouth football''--and an incredible asset for coach Bill Walsh, though Lott never feels close to him. Lott studies San- Tzu on the art of war and envies Mike Tyson (``The violence turns me on...if you're a true professional you should be able to bring forth the rage no matter what is at stake''). Here is the Lott tackle: ``I visualize a spot on the other side...and run full speed straight through...my knees fly into a receiver's helmet...hands whip into his facemask.'' He rejoices in helmet-first ``runaway freight train massacres where I [plow] through some sucker who didn't see me coming.'' Teammates in the way are smashed aside. When Lott runs amok and a teammate calms him, he turns on him. Where does the rage come from? That's never quite explored here, but Lott pays a high price for his playing style. Despite a remarkable and well-described training regimen directed by a karate instructor, the toll is awesome, with Lott a connoisseur of pain. He experiences repeated and serious concussions, his hamstrings are ``nubby, knotted, full of divots,'' and his knees will never be the same. A pair of sophisticated physical therapists tend him via massage, liniments, ice, amino acids, herbal casts, and electrical muscle stimulation; he also uses acupuncture, Scientology, and the advice of a little old Chinese man he met in San Francisco herb shop. One of the frankest books yet about the realities of pro sports under the influence of major money, TV, steroids, and painkillers. (Twenty-five b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.