Catching Up With Author And Wannabe Broncos K Stefan Fatsis
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Fatsis Immersed Himself With
Broncos In '06 For Latest Book |
After infiltrating the intense world of competitive Scrabble in his '01 N.Y. Times bestseller titled, "Word Freak," author STEFAN FATSIS got back to work with another in-depth book, this time spending the summer of '06 as a kicker for the Broncos. Fatsis, an NPR contributor and former Wall Street Journal writer, became the first author to go behind-the-scenes of an NFL team since GEORGE PLIMPTON detailed his encounters in Detroit with the tale "Paper Lion." In his newest book, aptly titled, "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL," which hits bookstores this week, Fatsis provides a humorous and rare insight into professional football. On the eve of the book's release, Fatsis took a moment to chat with Staff Writer Brian Helfrich.
Pulitzer Prize or Super Bowl: I loved being a kicker, but ultimately I'm a writer.
Contemporary Sportswriter You Most Admire: I'll read anything written by MICHAEL LEWIS or S.L. PRICE. And I read every column by GEORGE VECSEY.
Book You're Reading: "The Best Game Ever" by MARK BOWDEN and "Warrior Girls" by MICHAEL SOKOLOVE.
Daily Fix: Deadspin.com
Q: Other than drawing inspiration from Plimpton’s book in 1963, how did you come up with the idea to infiltrate Broncos Training Camp?
Fatsis: Honestly, I was just sitting at my desk one day thinking it’s time for a modern version of “Paper Lion.” After my last book about the sub-culture of competitive Scrabble, I wanted to do another first-person immersion story. Professional sports are out of reach for all of us now, and covering the business you understand how great the gap is between a weekend athlete and a pro athlete -- much greater than it was in 1963 when Plimpton joined the Lions.
Q: Why football? Why kicking?
Fatsis: There’s one thing I thought I was capable of doing, and that’s kicking a ball. I played soccer my whole life and felt like I could become at least competent -- I wouldn’t look like a total idiot on a field. The idea of doing what Plimpton did again in the NFL was extremely appealing because I think the NFL cloaks itself in a tremendous amount of mystery. It’s a widely exposed industry, but it’s still pretty secretive. It’s hard to penetrate the inner sanctum of an NFL franchise.
Q: Why the Broncos?
Fatsis: Because (Broncos Owner) PAT BOWLEN said "Yes." That’s the honest truth. I tried many other NFL teams. I tried close to home in (DC) and worked my way West. I didn’t think the Broncos would go for it because (coach) MIKE SHANAHAN has a reputation as someone who is very controlling and very restrictive. But Bowlen is somebody I knew from covering the business, particularly the TV negotiations between the networks and the NFL for the Wall Street Journal. When I called Pat, he thought I was calling to ask about the NFL Network. And it took a couple of months, but he broached the subject and Mike later told me the reason he agreed to do it was that he liked the fact that I wanted to play. Both of them said that the fact that I wasn’t a daily beat reporter covering an NFL team helped me -- that the players, the front-office and the coaches would trust me more.
Q: Do you have a new found respect for NFL coaches or owners?
Fatsis: I do. I feel like I covered the NFL for a long time, but you never really understand what goes into the decision making for an owner or general manager or coach completely. The media is a game. The players and coaches and owners are selective in the information they release, obviously. Being there and watching them operate on a daily basis -- I do have a better appreciation for how they conduct business. It’s an incredibly complex, demanding process that gets distilled to sort of simple decisions by the media, because that’s what daily media do -- they tell stories. Seeing the process of how Shanahan makes decisions and how they get translated into what gets reported was fascinating to me. On one hand, it’s sort of a cynical reaction -- that we can’t live without the daily media -- but on the other hand, the organizations are largely oblivious to it. I never got the sense that it was high priority, or that Shanahan or Bowlen or any of the coaches or players lived and died with what the Denver Post wrote the next day.
Q: How did the Broncos players react to a 5’8” writer coming into their camp?
Fatsis: They initially were mocking (Laughs). But they trusted me, and by the end of the summer I was part of the team. I had a locker, I had a uniform, I lifted weights, I ran. I did what was asked of them. I did everything that they did, and I think once the players understood what my goals were -- that I wasn’t there to chronicle a season in the life of the Denver Broncos -- they liked it. They liked having a writer there who cared about what they thought, not just what they did. They were eager to describe for me what life was really like for them -- what they loved about being a professional football player and what they hated about being a professional football player. Once they saw that I was serious about trying to be something that approached competent as a kicker, and once they got to know me as a person, they opened up.
Q: Were you ever late to a Shanahan meeting?
Fatsis: (Laughs). There is a scene in the book where I was late getting out onto the field one morning. I was basically one second late. The team knew I was the last one in the locker room so they were watching me. It was kind of a set up. Shanahan found out I was one second late, and he told (LB) AL WILSON. Al leads the stretch every morning, and as soon as I hit the field, Al said, "Only one motherf----- was late to practice this morning." So I had to go in front of the team and do a little dance.
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Fatsis (r) Says Parsons Was One Of The
Most Welcoming Players On The Broncos |
Q: What Broncos player was the most welcoming?
Fatsis: Several guys were the most welcoming, but the most important was (QB) JAKE PLUMMER. Plummer is this iconoclast, he’s a cut-up, and he was a terrific leader on the team. He always had a reputation for not being a media darling, because he didn’t care very much. Plummer made it cool by giving me a hard time very early on, but including me at the same time. I think he sent that signal. I really admire Jake Plummer, and I felt like he got a bad rap -- not that he cares about it. A lot of other guys who were welcoming were guys most fans have never heard of, (TE) NATE JACKSON, fourth-string (QB) PRESTON PARSONS, (QB) BRADLEE VAN PELT. And (K) JASON ELAM was great. I wasn’t ostracized because I was a writer.
Q: You missed your first two on-field attempts. How long did that haunt you?
Fatsis: It stuck with me longer than it stuck with the players. As I quickly discovered, they had bigger things to worry about. I was a momentary diversion -- to them it was funny. My amusing episode was a five-minute distraction from the constant and unrelenting pressure that these guys face on a daily basis. I very quickly could get back to thinking of it as a personal thing rather than worrying about how they were judging me.
Q: What was the one thing about training camp that would surprise most NFL fans?
Fatsis: I think the most surprising thing was less the physical torment than the emotional torment. A lot of these guys are really struggling with their desire and ability to play professional football -- this fear that they’re not going to make it and this introspection about whether making it is what they want anyway. A lot of fans believe these are supremely gifted athletes who are motivated by the money and that it all comes easily. But the reality is that these are human beings who have a lot of self doubt.
Q: Who has more oddities -- NFL or Scrabble players?
Fatsis: (Laughs). At the extreme, I’d have to go with Scrabble players. Someone in the Scrabble world once told me, "Anyone who is willing to devote eight hours a day to being great at something is fundamentally an obsessive misfit." It’s not that much different for professional athletes. What they do to their bodies and their brains requires a degree of commitment and obsession and single-mindedness that most people just don’t have. A lot of guys think about it that deeply. An athlete in another sport once told me, "Playing to be a great athlete is incredibly boring. It’s repetitive." A lot of NFL players feel that way too.
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