Is There Life After Football?
Imagine you’re 32 years old, and the career you’ve worked for your entire life has ended. Because the average NFL career lasts about 3½ years, this is the harsh reality many football players face once their NFL careers are over, whether they want to or not. In the recently released book, Is There Life After Football? Surviving the NFL (New York University Press), authors James A. Holstein, Richard S. Jones and George E. Koonce, Jr., a former NFL player himself, tackle the issues ex-players must deal with when they leave “the bubble,” the distinct social, emotional, cultural and psychological sphere football players live in for years.

While talk of brain damage and disabilities caused by concussions is receiving plenty of media attention, retired NFL players are plagued by many other when they leave the game. During the transition, players suffer financially, emotionally and psychologically. They go from being special specimens and grown men “infantized” by a controlled environment to living “average” lives. In life after the NFL, players, often broke from living the NFL lifestyle, are no longer special and forced to fend for themselves and find new careers ~ to make a living and to pay medical bills incurred from football injuries. The trio of authors gives readers a detailed explanation ~ complemented by personal accounts from Koonce and other former players, coaches and wives ~ about how lonely life outside the locker room and off the football field can be for NFL exes.

The Boston Girl
What would you say if someone asked, “What made you the person you became?” This question is the catalyst for Addie’s story, the star and narrator of Anita Diamant’s latest novel, The Boston Girl. Eighty-five-year-old Addie is asked this by her 22-year-old granddaughter, which prompts the elder to share the story of her life. Addie grew up as a poor, Jewish girl of Russian immigrant parents in a one-bedroom apartment in Boston’s North End during the early 20th century. Unlike other girls who kept low-paying jobs in factories until they were married, Addie aspired to have a career, just one more thing her disapproving mother held against her “other” daughter. More interested in books than finding a husband, Addie struggled to live with her parents as she related more to her American roots than her parents’ Old World values.

When Addie joins a neighborhood book club for Jewish girls, she meets others with similar ambitions and begins to accept her aspirations as potential reality. The tale that ensues is one of love, friendship and acceptance. Diamant uses real events like the World Wars, flu epidemic and the Depression as a backdrop for Addie’s story of self-discovery. Despite continuous and harsh criticism from her parents, especially her mother, Addie is able to navigate all that growing up entails ~ such as falling in love and pursuing her dreams ~ in her pursuit of happiness, despite her humble roots.

Both books are available on Amazon and other online retailers.

By Kimberly Dunbar