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Title: Mad Ducks and Bears
Subtitle: Football Revisited
Author: George Plimpton, Steve Almond - foreword
Narrator: L. J. Ganser
Format: Unabridged
Length: 9 hrs
Language: English
Release date: 04-26-16
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities
Publisher's Summary:
George Plimpton's follow-up to Paper Lion, one of his personal favorites among his classics - now recorded and including a foreword from Steve Almond.
In Mad Ducks and Bears, George Plimpton's engaging companion to Paper Lion, Plimpton focuses on two of the most entertaining and roguish linemen and former teammates: Alex Karras ("Mad Ducks") and John Gordy ("Bears"), both of whom went on to achieve brilliant post-football success.
A more reflective, less madcap audiobook than Plimpton's other work, Mad Ducks and Bears is no less truthful and searching. In this fond exploration of football's values and follies, Plimpton rejoins his two teammates to discuss their careers in this brutal but captivating game. The result is an astute exploration into the fascinating lives and motivations of the players at home, in the locker room, and on the field.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Critic Reviews:
"Plimpton has done it again." (Sports Illustrated)
"[An] irreverent and roguish account of the lives of the two linemen.... Pure gold." (Chicago Tribune)
Members Reviews:
If you're looking for something different ...
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.
Worth Your Time
Not as good as Paper Lion but worth your time.
Pro football enthusiasts; and others: don't miss it
My rating should be 4.5.
