Paper Lion

Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback

By: George Plimpton, Nicholas Dawidoff - introduction

Narrated by: Dan Woren

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!"

Critic reviews

"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

Great Narrator!

Although the book is a bit too long, Paper Lion’s narration by Dan Worden, and his characterization of the various Detroit Lions player voices, is superb and often wonderfully hilarious.

Being in the huddle

A great book which captures most young boys and grown men's fantasy of what it would be like to test your skills against actually pro football players.

great read

Great 👍 read insight into life and niche of nfl enjoyed nostalgic time
Plimpton Honestly.

Still great, after all these years!

What is there to say? I enjoyed listening as much as I did reading it the several times before. The Plimpton humor, story telling and descriptive narrative brings you into the there and then. This book made me long for the simpler days, one of Mr Plimpton best works.