Book Review: 'NFL Confidential: True Confessions from the Gutter of Football'

[Steve Lawrence]

A "generic" late-round OL from a big college wrote a book about his trials and travails in the NFL.

I've read (listened to on 'audiobook') about all of this now and have found it very enjoyable. It's not some tell-all where all our forum readers have their suspicions confirmed. It's a story of his 2014 season as a non-racist White marginal lineman mixed with some of his background and locker room interaction.

There is no great 'scandal' or catharsis, save maybe the Michael Sam fiasco where the author says the disgust was completely league-wide. The teams generally held a "sensitivity" where the coaches were visibly asleep, literally, but mostly telling them to never say something bad, as a rule.

With regard to race, the author doesn't take any aggressive stance or dish any good dirt. He says openly and early that the skill players are exclusively black, like it's a fact. He has an anecdote about a team cafeteria confrontation where he gets called out for walking past the black table to go to the white table.... it's typical TNB bored racial ********, but the author knows (through conditioning over so many years) the correct response which is to laugh and invite them to "the Klan"... to me he doesn't really realize how he is diffusing functioning emotional-level children (as we all must who deal with them).

 

[Phall]

I wrote this post from a new handle when I was having trouble logging in.

It's a fairly short account from former Michigan center David Molk, who won the Rimington award for best collegiate center and was drafted in the 7th round by the San Diego Chargers in 2012. Most of his "dirt" seems to come from Chip Kelly's tenure with the Eagles.

The one bit of "insider" info I gleaned was that his coaches really don't seem to care about "meritocracy" or competition over positions. He tells the story of his first camp practice, where the linemen must all do wind sprints. Molk wins easily at full speed, the incumbent starter comes in wheezing in dead-last, but as he looks up, the OL positions coach is chatting with the head coach completely unawares. The greater theme is the pure hierarchy: the GM is king; the head coach is not to be disrespected, but the coordinators and positions coaches are up for grabs for big-time veterans to ignore, especially if they are younger or inexperienced. Apparently, there is no way a college hotshot DC can convince a veteran NFL defensive player to show up for meetings on time or not snore during film.

If a new GM picks a player in the first round, he must play soon: the coach has literally no say during camp. If a free agent nabs a big contract (hell, even any contract) under a GM, it would be a very bad reflection if that guy got benched for some upstart. So, those guys always inherit the jobs over the tryout candidates, every time. To defy the judgment of your boss is to put your job at risk.

Molk is not a brilliant author or writer, he didn't give us any "real" dirt, and we shouldn't feel too bad that the couple million bucks he earned in the league enabled him to flush capital into his family's line of restaurants (apparently).

There is also some funny stuff about weight. Despite his lineman frame, Molk allegedly always tops out around 285 lbs in his offseason. He discusses holding his shits in overnight and chugging a gallon of water before going to the weekly 'team weigh-ins' which would determine if he could play or not... then run-waddling to the nearest bathroom and clogging it with 5 lbs of watery ****... every week. I'm no Galilean mathematics theorist, but in a closed vacuum, I was always under the impression that a stronger 285 lbs could push back a weaker 315 lbs defensive tackle. I don't know, I'm no footballing genius.

Anyway, it's a palatable listen/read for the borderline crowd, and maybe it would hit home with the CF audience for whatever it's worth.

 

[white is right]

I wrote this post from a new handle when I was having trouble logging in.

It's a fairly short account from former Michigan center David Molk, who won the Rimington award for best collegiate center and was drafted in the 7th round by the San Diego Chargers in 2012. Most of his "dirt" seems to come from Chip Kelly's tenure with the Eagles.

The one bit of "insider" info I gleaned was that his coaches really don't seem to care about "meritocracy" or competition over positions. He tells the story of his first camp practice, where the linemen must all do wind sprints. Molk wins easily at full speed, the incumbent starter comes in wheezing in dead-last, but as he looks up, the OL positions coach is chatting with the head coach completely unawares. The greater theme is the pure hierarchy: the GM is king; the head coach is not to be disrespected, but the coordinators and positions coaches are up for grabs for big-time veterans to ignore, especially if they are younger or inexperienced. Apparently, there is no way a college hotshot DC can convince a veteran NFL defensive player to show up for meetings on time or not snore during film.

If a new GM picks a player in the first round, he must play soon: the coach has literally no say during camp. If a free agent nabs a big contract (hell, even any contract) under a GM, it would be a very bad reflection if that guy got benched for some upstart. So, those guys always inherit the jobs over the tryout candidates, every time. To defy the judgment of your boss is to put your job at risk.

Molk is not a brilliant author or writer, he didn't give us any "real" dirt, and we shouldn't feel too bad that the couple million bucks he earned in the league enabled him to flush capital into his family's line of restaurants (apparently).

There is also some funny stuff about weight. Despite his lineman frame, Molk allegedly always tops out around 285 lbs in his offseason. He discusses holding his shits in overnight and chugging a gallon of water before going to the weekly 'team weigh-ins' which would determine if he could play or not... then run-waddling to the nearest bathroom and clogging it with 5 lbs of watery ****... every week. I'm no Galilean mathematics theorist, but in a closed vacuum, I was always under the impression that a stronger 285 lbs could push back a weaker 315 lbs defensive tackle. I don't know, I'm no footballing genius.

Anyway, it's a palatable listen/read for the borderline crowd, and maybe it would hit home with the CF audience for whatever it's worth.

This is just mediocre coaching orthodoz viewpoints. It's similar to being anal on 40 yard dash times. It's more work watching film on a marginal sized lineman or marginal speed player and in terms of football coaching to evaluate a marginal speed player.

Ps a smaller stronger player will be able dominate a bigger guy especially if he gets lower than the bigger guy.