Snake
The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler
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4.1 • 31 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The first in-depth biography of one of the most talented and infamous legends to play in the National Football League—the life and times of pro football’s first bad boy, famed Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler.
Ken "The Snake" Stabler was the embodiment of the original Men in Black—the freewheeling, hard-hitting Oakland Raiders. The league’s first swashbuckling pass thrower, the mythical southpaw Southerner famous for come-from-behind drives late in the game, Stabler led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship in 1977. In an era dominated by gentleman quarterbacks like Roger Staubach and Bob Griese, this 1974 NFL MVP, four-time Pro-bowler, and Super Bowl champion was an iconoclast who partied as hard as he played and lived life unapologetically on his own—not the NFL’s—terms.
Though Stabler’s legacy is larger-than-life, there has never before been an exclusive account of him, until now. Snake goes deep under the surface of Stabler’s persona to reveal a man who, despite his penchant for partying and debauchery, was committed to winning and being the best player he could be. From his college days playing for Bear Bryant at Alabama to his years with the Raiders under coach John Madden, his broadcasting career to his death in 2015 and the revelation that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as C.T.E., Snake probes the myriad facets of Stabler’s life on and off the field to tell his complete story, and explores how his legacy and the culture and times that pivotally shaped it, continues to impact football today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freeman (ESPN: The Uncensored History) admits that this less than satisfying book about NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Ken "Snake" Stabler is part biography and part appreciation, and writer and quarterback were friends as evinced by Freeman's overuse of Stabler's nickname. Stabler didn't want to play football when he was a teen; he thought the sport was too violent. But then his father bought him a black 1954 Ford in what Freeman calls "the bribe that changed football." Stabler soon became one of pro football's heartiest partiers in a carefree era before social media and 24-hour news cycles. He played for Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama and led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl XI victory. But he might have been right about the game's violence; following Stabler's 2015 death from colon cancer at age 69, researchers examining his brain discovered significant levels of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative disease likely caused by repeated blows to the head. Freeman relishes sharing Stabler's tales of debauchery, but he gives scant detail about the "Immaculate Reception," which occurred during a Raiders playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1972 and is "one of the most famous in sports history." Other key details are missing, too, such as the final scores of games that Freeman recaps. Unlike many of Stabler's precision passes, this bio of the man falls incomplete.
