Men in White
The Gutsy, Against-All-Odds Return of Penn State Football
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
An inspiring tale of teamwork and grit, Men in White tells the story of the student athletes who launched one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, rescuing a college football program gutted by scandal with a thrilling championship run.
Men in White chronicles every twist in this epic drama in the words of the young men who chose to stay and rebuild the Penn State football program in the tumultuous days, months, and years that followed the Sandusky scandal. Despite crippling NCAA sanctions, blistering heat from the outraged media, and radio silence from the adults in the school’s administration, these big - hearted kids refused to back down.
With the once-mighty program in free fall, they put their personal fortunes on the line, battling together through five will-testing seasons to rehabilitate the program and its ideals, culminating in the momentous come-from-behind victory against Wisconsin in the 2016 Big Ten Championship Game. Their story echoes that of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a cast of young men—colossal underdogs—who boldly accepted the challenge of a lifetime, soaring to victory while shouldering the weight of a bruising political drama.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This rousing debut oral history from sports reporter Raymond traces how the Penn State Nittany Lions rebounded following former coach Jerry Sandusky's 2011 arrest for child sex abuse. Documenting the fallout from the scandal, Raymond notes that the players were left doubly shaken by the death of once-beloved coach Joe Paterno from cancer mere months after he was fired for failing to prevent Sandusky's abuses, and that the NCAA's decision to release players from "all obligations to the school" resulted in a "feeding frenzy" for recruiters. The players who stayed had a shaky return to the field in 2012 ("We were just so high-strung," remembers defensive back Stephon Morris), but they gradually regained their groove under the stewardship of head coach James Franklin and won the 2016 Big Ten championship after triumphing against Wisconsin. The detailed play-by-plays of games excite ("You could feel it throughout your whole body. The whole stadium kind of just lifted up," offensive lineman Brendan Mahon remembers of a touchdown scored on a blocked kick), and Raymond highlights the poignant stories of individual players, describing, for instance, how starting quarterback Christian Hackenberg's red-hot career was derailed by a shoulder injury. A fine-grained account of how a beloved program reinvented itself, this scores.
