Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile

( 20 )

Overview

One man's odyssey into the brutal hive of the National Football League

As an unsigned free agent who rose through the practice squad to the starting lineup of the Denver Broncos, Nate Jackson took the path of thousands of unknowns before him to carve out a professional football career twice as long as the average player. Through his story recounted here—from scouting combines to preseason cuts to byzantine film studies to glorious touchdown catches—even knowledgeable football ...

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Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile

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More About This Book

Overview

One man's odyssey into the brutal hive of the National Football League

As an unsigned free agent who rose through the practice squad to the starting lineup of the Denver Broncos, Nate Jackson took the path of thousands of unknowns before him to carve out a professional football career twice as long as the average player. Through his story recounted here—from scouting combines to preseason cuts to byzantine film studies to glorious touchdown catches—even knowledgeable football fans will glean a new, starkly humanized understanding of the NFL's workweek. Fast-paced, lyrical, dirty, and hilariously unvarnished, Slow Getting Up is an unforgettable look at the real lives of America's best athletes putting their bodies and minds through hell.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Receiver Nate Jackson did not seem destined for greatness: He went to Menlo College, not exactly a gridiron powerhouse, and, not surprisingly, received no bids in the 2002 NFL draft. Somehow though, he managed to win a reserve spot on the San Francisco 49ers. In his six-year career with the 49ers and Denver Broncos, he managed to start only three games and score a grand total of two touchdowns; hardly Hall of Fame stats to be sure; but his bottom of the pile, skin of his teeth experiences did give him insights that those bound for glory never choose to voice. His cogent articles about the game have graced the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, and Slate. In this book, he speaks his mind incisively about a game he obviously continues to love. (P.S. This trade paperback and NOOK Book edition contains a new afterword by the author.)

Ben Fountain
“Excellent...busts through pro football’s prevailing mythology...Nate Jackson gives us the game warts and all, but never in a drag-ass, woe-is-me way. A really fine book. Man can write.”
Stefan Fatsis
“Simply the best book by a former player about life in the NFL that you will read. Maybe the best book period about life in the NFL that you will read.”
Dwight Garner
“That screaming you hear coming across the sky? It’s a wobbly spiral…Slow Getting Up is everything you want football memoirs to be but never are: hilarious, dirty, warm, human, honest, weird.”
Scott Raab
“Slow Getting Up tells the whole truth about the NFL. Painfully honest and remarkably funny, it’s far and away the best ‘insider’ book about pro sports since Jim Bouton’s Ball Four.”
Tom Junod
“The book the world has been waiting for. “Ball Four” for the football world is here at last.”
San Jose Mercury News
“A tremendously authentic, inside-the-locker-room view is unveiled with Jackson’s myriad stories, clever wit, skillful prose and perfect dose of sophomoric humor.”
Jonathan Mahler
“Fantastic.”
Rolling Stone
“The best football memoir ever.”
New Republic
“Excellent.”
The New York Times - Dwight Garner
…it's everything you want football memoirs to be but never are: hilarious, dirty, warm, human, honest, weird…[Jackson's] that unicornlike rarity among former football players: He can write…Slow Getting Up is a sly, inquisitive, wide-awake book about what it's like to play in the N.F.L. if you're a relative nobody, if you're among the beefy proletariat. It'll make you see the game with fresh eyes.
Publishers Weekly
★ 11/25/2013
Former football player Jackson draws from six years of experience in the NFL to reveal the travails of strenuous training camps, road trips, injuries, and the overall precarious nature of the job. Jackson is a natural writer and he tells his story in an honest and highly absorbing way, exerting imaginative language with affable ease and never seeming bitter or petulant. He frequently relies on caveats: "Being able to actually relax in the NFL is rare," he writes. "The pressures are too great. And they are constant. The head coach is under siege at all times, and it trickles down to everyone else." He gives much attention to the topic of injury: "My ‘mild hamstring strain' won't heal. Ice here, heat there, stretch here, rub there, inject here, pills there: nothing is helping … a dangerous place to be a gimp." Jackson's story is one of hope laced with reality: "There is a football game to play. Then there is another. Always another… opportunity for glory." The product will appeal to football fans and general readers alike. Though Jackson's days playing pro-ball are over, his writing career is just taking off. Agent: Alice Martell, the Martell Agency. (Sept.)
Library Journal
Periodically, one of pro football's lumpen proletariat provides a perceptive insider's view of the NFL from the end of the bench. The lesser-light author in this case is a former Broncos receiver who caught just 27 passes in his six-year NFL career from 2003 to 2009 while missing dozens of games because of yearly injuries. Jackson draws a sharp picture of the rough camaraderie of the NFL fraternity with lots of good behind-the-scenes stories involving both players and coaches. The language is coarse and crude, and the author spends too much time on private sexual habits of no relevance or interest, as well as on the dry diagnostic details of his injuries, but he also effectively portrays the adhesive hold such a physically punishing and mentally stressful sport exerts on its players. VERDICT A flawed but interesting look at the NFL life for adult fans.
Kirkus Reviews
An insightful memoir of an unlikely NFL career. Jackson is likely a much better athlete than nearly all of his readers, but in the National Football League, he was just average--and he knows as much. Every season, he fought simply to make the team, which he did. The author successfully navigated the nearly unimaginable leap from a tiny Division III college to a six-year career as a wide receiver and tight end with the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos, with ill-fated training-camp experiences before and after his tenure in the Rockies and a season playing for NFL Europe in Germany. Jackson has an original voice, honed as a writer for a number of newspapers, magazines and websites, perhaps most frequently with Deadspin. The author is wry and smart and has a love-hate relationship with the sport that gave him so much but also took a great deal from him. Jackson's career was peppered with injuries: muscles torn from the bone, dislocations and sprains and the concomitant shots, pills and therapy sessions that would allow him to go back to the field. Jackson's greatest strength is his self-awareness. Every time one of his stories seems to be veering toward stereotypical athlete bluster, he takes an ironic swerve, usually making himself the butt of his own acerbic wit. That wit also manifests itself in a cynical approach to a host of issues ranging from tired sports-as-war metaphors to stadium naming rights. Ultimately, the injuries and the toll of the incredibly violent game got the best of him. Readers are the beneficiaries. Jackson was never a household name, but his memoir is better than any ghostwritten self-homage from a superstar.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780062108036
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 9/2/2014
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 288
  • Sales rank: 105177
  • Product dimensions: 5.31 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.57 (d)

Meet the Author

Nate Jackson played six seasons in the National Football League as a wide receiver and a tight end. His writing has appeared in Deadspin, Slate, Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. A native of San Jose, California, he now lives in Los Angeles. This is his first book.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 20 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(11)

4 Star

(6)

3 Star

(3)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

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Sort by: Showing all of 20 Customer Reviews

  • Posted Thu Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I Also Recommend:

    Unbecoming Travolta: A Memoir of Mania and Multiple Personalities
    An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist
    Facing the Music And Living To Talk About It
    Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

    Slow Getting up is a fantastic book about the life of NFL player

    Slow Getting up is a fantastic book about the life of NFL player Nate Jackson. Undrafted but undeterred, Jackson made a career in the NFL. Told in his own words, Jackson lets us know about his life struggles, not just in the NFL.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted Sat Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    I Also Recommend:

    Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir
    Unbecoming Travolta: A Memoir of Mania and Multiple Personalities
    The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski
    Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?
    One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine

    Slow Getting Up is a book rich with stories of perseverance and

    Slow Getting Up is a book rich with stories of perseverance and strength of spirit. Every page is educational. Here, Nate Jackson describes life in the NFL…going from undrafted free agent to practice squad to starter. A splendid memoir to say the least.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Dec 25 00:00:00 EST 2013

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    1 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Laugh out loud

    I agree with the above reviews but it is laugh out loud funny page after page.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Loved this book...

    Very interesting and honest look at real life in the NFL. This is a very insightful sports book which can be difficult to find at times. Kudos to Nate.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Jun 29 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    J


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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Book review

    Great story about life as your average football player.
    Good read!

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  • Posted Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    Hard worker at the bottom of the roster

    A good look at a non-super star battle for a spot on a roster. A look at what happens when the non-super star gets hurt. A good look at reality of an average NFL player, Nate Jackson.

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  • Posted Sat Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    solid read

    this was a great story, loved the action and the trials they go through
    to just get noticed and get to the big game.

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  • Posted Fri Mar 07 00:00:00 EST 2014

    more from this reviewer

    Nate Jackson's first book is an informative humorous look at pro

    Nate Jackson's first book is an informative humorous look at pro-football. Every time he would describe his latest injury I would just wince with pain. I don't know how he came from some of his injuries. He is a man who was pursuing the dream of being a pro football player. Even when this pursuit took him to Europe or a less known league in Arizona you have to admire his determination. I enjoyed Nate's writing style enough I am going to read the next thing he pens. Good luck Nate in your new writing career.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Feb 23 00:00:00 EST 2014

    Great read even if not a football fan.

    Fun and quick book to read. I am not a football fan, at all. But really enjoyed the behind the scenes insight and Nate's humor and candor is refreshing.

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  • Posted Fri Jan 17 00:00:00 EST 2014

    Very Interesting

    A must read for NFL fans

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  • Posted Fri Jan 03 00:00:00 EST 2014

    Great Inside View of NFL!

    This was a very interesting read for anyone wanting to experience the NFL from a player's point of view. You feel like you're in the locker room and on the field with Nate and almost personally experience all his many ups and downs in his bumpy career.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2013

    BEST BOOK EVER

    This book is really good. We are giving it to my grandfather for chismas and i read it and i loved it

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2013

    Honest & ......... truly heartfelt

    Really loved the self degrading humor & honest view from someone who felt he was one of the worst of the top athletes in the world.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Absolutely perfect

    This book is the most well written honest description of life in the NFL. I could not put it down.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2014

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2014

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2014

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    No text was provided for this review.

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