Paper Lion, George Plimpton
Paper Lion, George Plimpton
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Paper Lion
Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback

Author: George Plimpton, Nicholas Dawidoff

Narrator: Dan Woren

Unabridged: 13 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2016

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The book that made a legend -- and captures America's sport in detail that's never been matched, featuring a foreword by Nicholas Dawidoff and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives.

George Plimpton was perhaps best known for Paper Lion, the book that set the bar for participatory sports journalism. With his characteristic wit, Plimpton recounts his experiences in talking his way into training camp with the Detroit Lions, practicing with the team, and taking snaps behind center. His breezy style captures the pressures and tensions rookies confront, the hijinks that pervade when sixty high-strung guys live together in close quarters, and a host of football rites and rituals.

One of the funniest and most insightful books ever written on football, Paper Lion is a classic look at the gridiron game and a book The Wall Street Journal calls "a continuous feast...The best book ever about football -- or anything!"

About George Plimpton

George Plimpton (1927-2003) was the bestselling author and editor of nearly thirty books, as well as the cofounder, publisher, and editor of the Paris Review. He wrote regularly for such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Esquire, and he appeared numerous times in films and on television.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Deacon Tom on March 10, 2021

An All-Time Classic. This is an absolutely outstanding book. An all-time classic in sports literature and possibly the best football book ever written. It broke so many grounds in 1968, by giving insights into how a professional football team, the Detroit Lions, prepared for their season, individual......more

Goodreads review by Bob on April 07, 2014

I am an asshole. No really. I'm a total jerk-and-a-half. Look, trust me. I know what I'm talking about here. I checked this book out from the Berkeley Public Library about a year ago, and then left it on the BART train during my commute home. Berkeley Public has gone ahead and billed me for it too,......more

Goodreads review by MacK on November 18, 2021

This book has probably been on a shelf with my name on it since I was in seventh grade rather than teaching seventh grade. That was about 30 years after it was released and had I read it then, I think it would have been a lot more engaging and inviting. Now, 55 years after its release, it can't quit......more

Goodreads review by Brugge on March 12, 2010

This is the dream of every guy who thinks they could be a professional athlete, Plimpton gets to live the life of one for one preseason. As you can imagine, it is a lot of work and getting to live your dream isn’t always the way you dreamed. The best parts of the book are Plimpton’s writing ability......more

Goodreads review by Jason on September 25, 2016

The greatest football book ever written. Essential reading if you love football. I have always thought that there needs to be an updated version with new writers on current teams.......more

Quotes

"A continuous feast...The best book ever about football--or anything!"—Wall Street Journal

"A great book that makes football absolutely fascinating to fan and non-fan alike...a tale to gladden the envious heart of every weekend athlete.... Plimpton has endless curiosity, unshakable enthusiasm and nerve, and a deep respect for the world he enters."—New York Times

"The agility and imaginativeness of his prose transforms his account of this daydream into a classic of sports reporting."—The New Yorker

"Possibly the most arresting and delightful narrative in all of sports literature."—Book Week

"A delight--more entertaining, if possible, than I remembered... the reader leaves George Plimpton's wide world of sports with deep reluctance.... His prose is as elegant and seemingly effortless as Ted Williams's swing or an Arnold Palmer iron shot.... His teammates recede--like the old baseball players vanishing into the cornfield in Field of Dreams, taking their magical world with them but living on in fond memory."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal

"Sports memoirs, like humor collections, rarely outlive their authors, but Plimpton's books have aged gracefully and even matured. Today they have the additional (and unintended) appeal of vivid history, bearing witness to a mythical era."—Nathaniel Rich, New York Review of Books

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