Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile

Nate Jackson

Sep 2013 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

One man's odyssey into the brutal hive of the national football league

This is not a celebrity tell-all of professional sports. Slow Getting Up is a survivor's real-time account of playing six seasons (twice as long as the average NFL career) for the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos.

As an unsigned free agent who rose through the practice squad to the starting lineup, Nate Jackson is the talented embodiment of the everyday freak athlete in professional football, one of thousands whose names go unmentioned in the daily press. Through his story recounted here—from scouting combines to preseason cuts to byzantine film studies to glorious touchdown catches—even knowledgeable football fans will glean a new, starkly humanized understanding of the daily rigors and unceasing violence of quotidian life in the NFL.

Fast-paced, lyrical, and hilariously unvarnished, Slow Getting Up is an unforgettable look at the real lives of America's best twenty-year-old athletes putting their bodies and minds through hell.

Ratings and reviews

Nate reveals, in his candid prose, the truth behind the dream of professional sports. As outsiders we see the facade artfully crafted by the leagues and held up by the players. When given a glimpse behind the curtain we see the truth is not much different from our pedestrian lives. Get up, go to work, provide, and do it again over and over until we can't any longer. Sometimes a dream never realized is a gift because reality is crushing and hope is its victim. Thanks Nate for pulling back the shade and letting light in.

I really liked the book, found it interesting and hard to put down. Only complaint iI had was, I would have liked to known more about what he's doing since footbal. Book kinda abruptly ended after 2009. Overall highly recommend the book to any football fans.

I wanted to read this based on a review in Rolling Stone magazine. Nate missed the mark and spends much precious time in run on sentences and random language in an attempt to develop a statement.

About the author

Nate Jackson played six seasons in the National Football League as a wide receiver and a tight end. His writing has appeared in Deadspin, Slate, Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. A native of San Jose, California, he now lives in Los Angeles. This is his first book.