What Winners Won't Tell You
Lessons from a Legendary Defender
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4.1 • 8 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
As a two-time Super Bowl champion, three-time Pro-Bowler, first-round draft pick, and former Jim Thorpe Award recipient, Malcolm Jenkins knows a thing or two about winning.
Over the course of his thirteen-year NFL career, the now retired defensive back’s triumphs extend beyond that on the football field. As a successful entrepreneur, he has seen the blossoming of his business ventures with an eponymous company, Malcolm Inc., and a media conglomerate called Listen Up Media. As a philanthropist, he strives to make a positive difference in the lives of young people in underserved communities through The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation. And as the father of two daughters, he understands the challenges of loving his children, and preparing them for an often unkind and hostile world. But for every triumph, there is a tragedy, for every loss, a lesson.
In What Winners Won’t Tell You, Jenkins shares the insight he’s gained from winning and losing alike. One moment, Jenkins is riding high from being the only NFL player to have Super Bowl victories against Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and then he’s navigating the harrowing low of a divorce from the mother of his children. In another moment he’s advocating for the advances of Black people in America, and then feuding publicly about the direction of this advocacy.
Providing fans and readers alike with an intimate portrayal of life on and off the field, detailed breakdowns of his great moments against the games premiere players, and poignant reflections about what it means to straddle the narrow line between victory and defeat, this “thoughtful memoir” (Kirkus Reviews) is the best kept secret for those who want to know what it takes to be a champion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this middle-of-the-road debut memoir, former NFL defensive back and two-time Super Bowl winner Jenkins highlights his triumphs on the field and his social activism off of it. Jenkins grew up in New Jersey in the 1990s and became a standout on the gridiron during high school. He went on to play for the Ohio State University and was picked by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. When writing about sports, Jenkins often sticks to platitudes ("We were only as good as our weakest link")—only his granular descriptions of specific plays (including one where he bested New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who provides the book's brief foreword) help set them apart. And even some football fans may raise an eyebrow at Jenkins's attitude toward the toll the sport can take on its players: when describing a tackle he made that caused a concussion, he writes, "I hate to see that happen, especially knowing what we know about the effects of brain trauma," before admitting that he'd do the same thing "a hundred times over." More successful are sections where Jenkins discusses his Philadelphia-area organizing efforts, including protests and legislative meetings, after the 2016 shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling; his stance on kneeling during the national anthem (he calls it a "perfect" protest); and his efforts to educate NFL leadership about racial justice. Not much here defies expectations, but for football fans, it's diverting enough.
