Go Long!

The legendary football star draws on the highlights, triumphs, and disasters of his long and illustrious career to reveal how ambition, work ethic, and humility have played a key role in his success both on and off the playing field.

Informationen zum Autor Jerry Rice with Brian Curtis Klappentext In Go Long! Jerry Rice shares the inspirational lessons and empowering practices that have helped him attain success, both on the football field and off. Through the ups and downs of Rice's life and incomparable career, we discover how self-motivation, determination, and humility are the keys to achievement and true fulfillment. It's been a long journey for Jerry Rice, from his childhood as a bricklayer's son in Crawford, Mississippi, to a berth in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Along the way, Rice has been fueled by tireless effort and a belief in a few simple principles, among them that achievement is a voyage, not a destination; that modesty and perseverance, not talent, are what determine how far you will go; and that everyone should strive to be a role model. Rice even demonstrates these rules in action, breaking down the greatest games from his stellar career. Go Long! is an inspiring book by a living sports legend. More than that, however, it is the story of how Jerry Rice awakened the champion within, illustrating how we, too, can unlock inner greatness. "Rice was nobody's fool as a player. He kept his tongue in check for most of his twenty-one-year career, understanding performance, not oratory, was his occupation. Now retired, Rice has taken the muzzle off [and] it is that persona which emerges from the book. -Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California)Chapter 1 Way Down South Most of the time, I'd run late in the afternoon. The temperature would still be over one hundred in the summertime despite the sleepy sun. Wearing my one pair of sneakers and a ragged shirt and shorts, I'd grab a small towel from my mother before heading out. Out the front door and into the country. The roads were dirt-covered, as there was no pavement where we lived. I'd run and kick dirt off my heels as I passed our neighbors' houses and waved to passersby. Being in the sticks of Mississippi meant neighbors could be miles apart. As cars passed me, the tires spewed up dirt all over my face and clothes as I made my way around the seven-mile or so circular journey. With sweat running profusely down my face, the towel came in handy, but in the last mile or so, when my body was aching, I'd often throw it to the side. When I returned home to our house in the country, lifeas I knew itpicked up again. Close your eyes and imagine a small town in the Deep South. A certain picture probably pops up: dirt roads, pickup trucks, hot sweaty August days. Whether you have visited the area, or simply recall a small southern town from a movie, your image is probably close to reality. Now picture that same small town much, much smaller. That's the best way to introduce my hometown of Crawford, Mississippi. There are no stoplights, very few street signs, a few broken-down sidewalks, and not that many peoplesomewhere between five hundred and a thousand back when I was growing up. But not only were we small in numbers, it seemed like we were all distant cousins. Everyone knew everyone else, and everyone old enough to be a parent was a parent to all the kids. You couldn't get away with much. I was the sixth of eight kids born to Joe and Eddie B. Rice, two native Mississippians. There were my older siblings, Eddie Dean, Joe, Tom, Jimmy, and James, and my younger ones, Loistine and Zebedee. We were a big family, but close. I shared a bedroom with three of my brothers, so sometimes we were too close! We lived on seven acres in a house that my father built with his own hands, about thirty minutes outside of the town of Crawford. So you can imagine just how far out we lived. There was thigh-high brush, swampland, wild horses, and dirt roads, not to mention the nearly triple-digit weather most days. We had a few neighbors within calling distance, as my mother would say, including my grandparents. I was a true southern boy from ...

Autorentext
Jerry Rice attended the Mississippi Valley State University and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 1985 NFL draft. In his twenty-year football career, he was elected Rookie of the Year (1985), was selected to the Pro Bowl thirteen times, won three Super Bowl rings (and was named the MVP of Super Bowl XXIII), and was chosen for the NFL’s 75th Anniversary and All-Time teams. Now a broadcast personality and commentator, he lives in California with his wife and their three children.

Brian Curtis is the author of Every Week a Season and The Men of March, as well as the co-author with Nick Saban of How Good Do You Want to Be? A former reporter for FOX Sports, he is a host and analyst on College Sports Television. He lives in New York with his wife, Tamara, and daughter, Emily.

Klappentext

In Go Long! Jerry Rice shares the inspirational lessons and empowering practices that have helped him attain success, both on the football field and off. Through the ups and downs of Rice's life and incomparable career, we discover how self-motivation, determination, and humility are the keys to achievement and true fulfillment.

It's been a long journey for Jerry Rice, from his childhood as a bricklayer's son in Crawford, Mississippi, to a berth in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Along the way, Rice has been fueled by tireless effort and a belief in a few simple principles, among them that achievement is a voyage, not a destination; that modesty and perseverance, not talent, are what determine how far you will go; and that everyone should strive to be a role model. Rice even demonstrates these rules in action, breaking down the greatest games from his stellar career.

Go Long! is an inspiring book by a living sports legend. More than that, however, it is the story of how Jerry Rice awakened the champion within, illustrating how we, too, can unlock inner greatness.

"Rice was nobody's fool as a player. He kept his tongue in check for most of his twenty-one-year career, understanding performance, not oratory, was his occupation. Now retired, Rice has taken the muzzle off [and] it is that persona which emerges from the book.”
-Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California)

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Way Down South

Most of the time, I’d run late in the afternoon. The temperature would still be over one hundred in the summertime despite the sleepy sun. Wearing my one pair of sneakers and a ragged shirt and shorts, I’d grab a small towel from my mother before heading out. Out the front door and into the country. The roads were dirt-covered, as there was no pavement where we lived. I’d run and kick dirt off my heels as I passed our neighbors’ houses and waved to passersby. Being in the sticks of Mississippi meant “neighbors” could be miles apart. As cars passed me, the tires spewed up dirt all over my face and clothes as I made my way around the seven-mile or so circular journey. With sweat running profusely down my face, the towel came in handy, but in the last mile or so, when my body was aching, I’d often throw it to the side. When I returned home to our house in the country, life—as I knew it—picked up again.

Close your eyes and imagine a small town in the Deep South. A certain picture probably pops up: dirt roads, pickup trucks, hot sweaty August days. Whether you have visited the area, or simply recall a small southern town from a movie, your image is probably close to reality. Now picture that same small town much, much smaller. That’s the best way to introduce my hometown of Crawford, Mississippi. There are no stoplights, very few street signs, a few broken-down sidewalks, and not that many people—somewhere between…