Even Big Guys Cry

by Alex Karras

This book is of the most moving evocations of a Depression childhood you have ever read-the story of growing up in the shadow of the Gary steel mills with sports as the only way out. It is the frankest treatment of college football anyone dared write-about the sponsors, the coaches, the pressure, and pain. It is a matchless recreation of pro football's wildest team in its golden era -when Bobby Layne tossed bombs on the field and got bombed off it, and the Detroit Lions never stopped roaring. But the biggest reason of all is a man who's big enough not to be afraid to laugh, to cry, to tell it all like it really was. Alex karras.

Genres: Sports, Football, Autobiography

250 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Anup Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining? Yes. Informative? Yes. Honest? Mostly. But this book has undoubtedly tarnished my image of Alex Karras forever. He comes off, through his own words, as a self-absorbed and unsavory character who blames everybody but himself for his mistakes; not the lovable teddy bear of his public persona as an older man.

Though I am no longer an NFL fan, I enjoyed his perspective of the league and some of its athletes during his era. Karras joined the Detroit Lions in 1957, which was their last championship before they slid into 60 years of mostly incompetence in the league. I do appreciate his honesty on what it took to get there though it's disturbing and quite proof that student/athlete was as much an oxymoron at big-time football schools then as it is today. Why he was banned from the NFL and subsequently re-instated also made my skin crawl; let's just say it is much more sinister than Pete Rose's situation and response.

Mongo and Mr. P from Webster are not nearly as charming, now, it doesn't seem fair that this person was given those opportunities in light of his incredible indiscretions with gambling, organized crime, and violence. At least he puts things in his words and is honest from his point of view, I can give him that. Like I alluded to earlier, this book was quite revealing to me but it took down someone I admired.

[Tim Sweeney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a young teen or even a pre-teen decades ago. Karras was unique in being an expressive and artistic athlete.

I only remember one story from the book about him passing the house of Itialian neighbors who cooked unbelievable smelling spaghetti sauce which was fully sensed as he walked by their house each week on his way to his big high school football game. Always avoiding stopping by before the games for potentially not wanting to leave on time or eat too much, Karras gives in one week and inhales mounds of the delicious spaghetti and sauce. The result was one of the funniest stories I had read by then and remember with as much detail as anything from the 1970's that I ever read as a teen.

His humor and storytelling made me see the variety and versitility of others including even in athletes as I played junior high football at that time and was aware of some of the social perception of athletes.

Can't speak to any other parts or issues of the book as memory fades with the years and my experience of it was as a youth.

[Cyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ghost-written autobiography about Karras's career in the NFL. I don't care about football, but this was an eye-opening look at the violence of macho-male culture and pro football.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how this book fell in my young hands, but it did. I wish I could rate it with less stars because every time I add a book I look for an opportunity to finally give a bad review, but, alas, this won't be that chance. I loved this book when I read it as a teen. He writes about his days a big-time football player. I don't recall the details, just that I found it absorbing, and came away liking this person whom I had never heard of prior to reading it. Although, given his background, it is possible I had heard of him before I read the book... I just don't think that was the case.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite football player (of course, being from Detroit helped me choose)
It's fun to read about events in this book and rememberimg them as they happened: the Thanksgiving Day game in which the Lions spanked the Packers - his suspension for gambling - his fight with Dick the Bruiser in a Detroit bar - -

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

read SOMETIME in 2005

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not a literary masterpiece, this book is interesting a filled with dozens of engaging insights into Karras's life. There are plenty of humorous anecdotes filling the book.