Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited Paperback – 4 Aug. 2016

Thoroughly enjoyable read about U.S football from an earlier era. Not in the class of Paper Lion, Plimpton's book about his try out for the Detroit Lions, but well worth a read.

A few weeks ago, after former Detroit Lion great, actor, and broadcaster Alex Karras passed away, I read his autobiography "Even Big Guys Cry", and found it to be a notch above the typical sports autobiography, both in the intelligence and depth Karras displayed, and in the humor and wit in the book. After finishing, I discovered that author George Plimpton wrote a book that starred Karras and Lion's offensive guard John Gordy ... "Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited", and decided to read it. (Karras's nickname was the "Mad Duck "for the way bustled around when playing, and Gordy was nicknamed "Bear" thanks to an excessively hairy body.)The book itself is mostly about Karras and/or Gordy, but Plimpton also speaks with other football players and coaches, sometimes to attempt to corroborate something that Karras may have told him, and others simply because of their notoriety from the era (or an earlier era). The book is laugh-out-loud funny, partly because of Plimpton's writing skills, and partly because the two men were genuinely humorous.When reading the book, you get a genuine sense of what it was like to play professional football in the 1950's and 1960s, and what the men themselves went through. And while relatively well paid for the era, players were far from rich, and a lot of the humor of the book comes from schemes that Karras or Gordon became involved with in order to try and make money.If you're read Karras's autobiography, then a lot of the stories here were also later used in his own book, although some stories evolved a little over time. Also, Plimpton found others remembered some of Karras's stories differently than Karras did. (Plimpton left you to decide for yourself who to believe, in those cases.)This is a very funny, entertaining book, and is well worth a read if you're a football fan. And even if you're not. Five stars.

My rating should be 4.5. A bit slow at one point, but a marvelous depiction of the lives of professional athletes. Full of stories about the best football players of the mid Twentieth Century, including, of course, John Gordy and Alex Karras. Literate; glad I had read "Paper Lion" years earlier.

If you like football, this is a great book. Gives a look at professional football back in the 60s and 70s from the perspective of a writer finding out what it's like playing quarterback for a professional team. More than that, it's packed with football stories about and by Alex Karras and John Gordy of the Detroit Lions as well as many Baltimore Colts players. Some stories had me crying with laughter. I've re-read this book maybe a dozen times over the years and had to buy a new copy having worn out the paperback. It never fails to amuse.

Laugh out loud funny in many spots.

Not as good as Paper Lion but worth your time.