A Few Seconds of Panic
In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis invaded the insular world of competitive Scrabble players, ultimately achieving an expert-level ranking. In A Few Seconds of Panic, he infiltrates a strikingly different subculture: pro football.
After more than a year of weight training and kicking instruction, Fatsis molds his fortyish body into one that can stand up—barely—to the rigors of the NFL. And for three months he becomes a training-camp placekicker with the Denver Broncos. Making the most of unprecedented access to an NFL team and its players, and drawing on his own personal experience as the first writer allowed onto an NFL field since George Plimpton in the early 1960s, Fatsis with wry candor and hard-won empathy unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise and league as no writer before.
Booting (and missing) field goals along the way, Fatsis gains the trust of his Broncos teammates, who confide in him about the brutal reality of their jobs. A Few Seconds of Panic reveals the NFL not as the glamorous, multibillion-dollar, 24-7-365 obsession of network executives, media, and fans, but instead as a ruthless, micromanaged, infantilizing, and paternalistic business where the only relief for the players is the game on Sunday.
One former NFL player described A Few Seconds of Panic as “the best description of the mental and emotional challenges of playing in the NFL that I have seen in print.”
Praise for A Few Seconds of Panic
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year of 2008
“Remarkable. … An unflinching look behind the curtain of America’s most popular professional sport and the men who play it.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Fatsis takes fans to places that are forbidden to them: onto the field, into the locker room, and, most important, into the minds of the players and coaches we observe, admire, and judge from afar. I played fourteen seasons for the Broncos but even I learned from this thrilling book.”
—Tom Jackson, former Denver Broncos linebacker and ESPN analyst
“A fascinating page-turner, filled with tons of wild, new detail about life inside an NFL team.”
— Sporting News
“It took enough guts for Stefan Fatsis to report to camp with the Broncos, but a whole lot more for him to try to follow in the tradition of the legendary George Plimpton. He was wondrously accomplish both feats, with great good humor and insight.”
— David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of When Pride Still Mattered
“The best description of the mental and emotional challenges of playing in the NFL that I have seen in print.”
— Ed Cunningham, former Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks offensive lineman and ESPN analyst
“A smart, funny, and relentlessly entertaining look at the stranger scary world of professional football.”
—Will Leitch author of God Save the Fan and founder of Deadspin
“It would take a writer of extraordinary talent and a man of great fortitude to immerse himself in the NFL and come out with a story that captures the true essence of pro football. Stefan Fatsis is that man. He has gone where no writer has ever gone before, taking readers into the deepest, darkest corners of the NFL experience.”
— Tim Green, former Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman and author of American Outrage and The Dark Side of the Game
“Fatsis nails the world of the NFL kicker—from how tight we wear our shoes to how we manage the daunting pressure. But more that that, his book is an honest and unvarnished look at what life is really like in the NFL.”
— Nate Kaeding, former San Diego Chargers placekicker
“[George] Plimpton’s true heir may well be Stefan Fatsis. . . . Fatsis is able to penetrate the players’ psyches in a way that few sportswriters have.”
— David Davis, Los Angeles Times