Library Journal
Former NFL quarterback Esiason and novelist Cauffiel give a gripping portrayal of an NFL team engineered for failure in order to force a sale and lower its value. The team's manager drafts troublemakers and keeps them out of jail and on the team; he also foments racial antagonism. When rookie quarterback Derek Brody arrives, the players don't want to work with him. Gradually, he overcomes their resistance and convinces them that winning is possible, while he figures out who is sabotaging the team and why. Derek must then decide whether to play and win or to hand the bad guys over to the cops. Derek is an enigmatic but likable character. The games, preparation, and team-building are well described, as is the corruption surrounding professional sports. Public libraries should buy multiple copies. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/98.]--Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, IA
Kirkus Reviews
Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, currently a host on ABC's Monday Night Football, and novelist Lowell Cauffiel (Marker, 1997) team up for Esiason's debut as a (co-)novelist. Their focus is on rising star Derek Brody and his seamy, drug-ridden new team, the New York Stars, with whom he's just landed a $12 million contract. His big-time agent, Mike Scanlon, worries that Derek, who has a facial scar from a car accident, may not make a good impression with the press and thus jeopardize endorsement contracts with Nike and others. But Derek has greater worries than his antisocial, aggressive maladjustment: he plans to dominate the Stars (they haven't had a winning season in seven years) and only needs to get his hands on the ball. The press is down on him at once for his utter self-confidence (he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter after letting his drunken father die in a car crash), and he mistakes the club owner's daughter, Nicky, for a whore. His signing on has cost Glamour Boy Reggie Thompson, leading receiver in the twilight of his career, a million-buck yearly pay increase—-and having Glamour Boy angry at him ain't good. When ex-NFL player Eric Smith and a pizza delivery boy are murdered, following a visit from Derek, the new player falls under suspicion, as he does when a dead prostitute, hidden in a locker, is discovered. More than the deaths, and aside from biz deals, the richest moments here come during games and in play strategies. Heavy on the melodrama, but in its way the most brutal study of football since Peter Gent's North Dallas Forty.
