Millions watch it. Billions are spent on it. Yet few fans know what life is really like in the NFL. Now an eight-year veteran of the game and a rising sports media superstar reveals - for the first time - the pathos, the horror, the abuses, and the wonder of the sport they call professional football. Fame and fortune, satisfaction, and thrills define the dream of playing in the NFL. But there's a dark side to that dream. And no one knows it better than Tim Green, former defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons, a featured color analyst for Fox Sports, and National Public Radio's weekly NFL commentator. Unreported things happen during the season when the player is on the field - and on the sidelines and in the locker rooms. Unreported things also happen during the 149 days of the year when the player is not on the field. All of it takes its toll on the human body and spirit. In professional football, there is a price and it must be paid. Here's the play-by-play the NFL powers-that-be don't want you to know: the futility of training camp - and the outrageous lengths players go to get out of it; the paradoxes of pain protection - goodbye padding, hello drugs; the untold war inside every team between the offensive and defensive squads; the truth about groupies and NFL players; the thriving perfect partnership between the mob and the NFL; what the salary cap really is - and why players hate it; the best - and worst - places to play in the NFL; and the score on racism, AIDS, gambling, steroids, and life after football. Tim Green is proof that all football players aren't meat-headed Neanderthals. Green, an ex-player who has made his mark as a commentator on National Public Radio and the Fox Network, shows both his love of the game and his insights into its problems in this collection of some 70 essays on his experience in the National Football League. From the physical brutality of the sport -- he suffered 12 concussions as a player -- to the use of performance enhancing drugs, to the sport's connections with the mob, Green writes clearly and evenly about the dilemmas and deals the most professional football fans know nothing about -- the dark side to America's favorite pastime. Green, a novelist (Titans, LJ 10/15/94), ex-pro football player, and football commentator for Fox Television, offers a collection of approximately 70 brief, engagingly written essays on such dark topics as drug use, sex, violence, injuries, cheating, gambling, and money in professional football. The essays are similar to the insightful commentary that Green supplies for National Public Radio. Refreshingly, the tone is not that of a bitter, tell-all expose but is balanced and even-handed. The book's one weakness is that topics change from chapter to chapter without any overall organizing structure. The author's message may have been clearer had the essays been arranged in subject-oriented sections. Ultimately, football fans will devour this. Recommended for all public libraries.?John M. Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, N.J. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Ex-jock and TV commentator and novelist (Titans, 1994, etc.) Green offers a mostly cautious and apologetic look at the behind- the-scenes world of pro football. Green offers many stories about a whole raft of ills plaguing the sport he loves--such as AIDS, drugs, and violence. But rather than study the problems in a detailed manner and propose solutions shaped by his unique vantage point, he dismisses many kinds of indiscretions by players, coaches, reporters (and even referees) as mere examples of ``boys being boys.'' He admits that, yes, as a result of football's ever-present physical pounding and psychological pressure, even he used and misused painkilling drugs and sleep aids--``but nowhere to the point of abuse.'' Other examples of pulled punches include a mash piece to the widely disliked coach Jerry Glanville. He admits that individual and institutional racism still exist in the NFL; he insists that groupies aren't as common as we believe them to be (and, besides, he asks, what kind of guy would want to go out with a groupie, anyway?). Green is more persuasive in describing the day-to-day toll the game exacted from his body, although his description waffles between the pedantic and the folksy. But when he chooses a safe target (as, for instance, the league's arcane and silly uniform policy), Green really lets loose, and the results are truly amusing. Green the football raconteur is tempted to bite the hand that fed him--but Green the television sports commentator doesn't seem to want to draw blood. (Author tour; TV satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Ultimately, football fans will devour this. -- Library Journal, John M. Maxymuk