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Reggie White in the Trenches: The Autobiography
In the Trenches is Reggie's own fast-paced, inspiring account of his colorful, sometimes controversial career, both in the pros and in the pulpit. It is packed with insights, observations, and war stories of his twelve years in the NFL-including his championship season. Reggie is both beloved and feared, tough and gentle, competitive and compassionate, fierce and generous.
324 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 9, 2017
If you like football this is a great book for you because it shows a big come back in what was suppose to be a bad injury. This book is all about Reggie White in his football career at Green Bay. Also how he is having the season of his career and how he injures himself and ended up playing the next week. With a huge comeback from what would have been the almost a full season ending injury and a big lose to the Packers. All in all I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to others.
March 15, 2017
Personal Response: This is one of the the best books I ever read, because the book made me think for a while. It did not only talk about football, it talked about life, faith and other important things.
Plot: Reggie White: In the Trenches by Reggie White is all about how Reggie's life. Reggie White grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He wasn't a faithful kid, until he hit a homerun in baseball. He became one of the best football players at his high school. He accepted a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. His critics wouldn't think he would hit hard, beacause he is a "Christian". Reggie made those people wrong. He was drafted by the Eagles. Reggie played for Philadelphia for 4 years, until he came to the Green Bay Packers. The last couple of chapters are about how to make the world a better place.
Characterization: Reggie White went from a kid who really did not practice religion to a minister. He also went from a nobody in football to to the best defensive end in NFL history.
Recommendation: I recommend this book to anyone who likes football and Christians, because this book covers a lot about football and being a Christian.
Plot: Reggie White: In the Trenches by Reggie White is all about how Reggie's life. Reggie White grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He wasn't a faithful kid, until he hit a homerun in baseball. He became one of the best football players at his high school. He accepted a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. His critics wouldn't think he would hit hard, beacause he is a "Christian". Reggie made those people wrong. He was drafted by the Eagles. Reggie played for Philadelphia for 4 years, until he came to the Green Bay Packers. The last couple of chapters are about how to make the world a better place.
Characterization: Reggie White went from a kid who really did not practice religion to a minister. He also went from a nobody in football to to the best defensive end in NFL history.
Recommendation: I recommend this book to anyone who likes football and Christians, because this book covers a lot about football and being a Christian.
September 1, 2017
First, let me say that I am NOT a sports fan. I have extended family members that literally plan their lives around the schedules of their favorite football teams. However, I could care less. There is only one time in my life that I can remember actually sitting through most of a pro football game. That was Super Bowl XXXI in which Brett Farve and Reggie White led the Green Bay Packers in an intense fight for the trophy. I remember how impressed I was when the players on the winning team were interviewed afterward. Rather than thank his parents, coach, etc., like others usually do, Reggie White told reporters, "I wanna give glory to God..." That's what made me want to read this book.
Written in 1996, the year before that amazing Super Bowl game, In the Trenches is a sports autobiography like no other I have read. On every page, you can tell several things about Reggie White: He was devoted to God, family, friends, sports and building up this country. He talks about how he was called to the ministry at an early age, how family and coaches had a tremendous impact on his life, how he gave all he had to his sport and enjoyed the fruits of that hard work through his outstanding career, and how he invested his time, talents and treasure to make a difference in so many ways.
Even though I am not a sports fan, it was interesting to follow his career through this book. I loved reading how God healed Reggie more than once of what should have been debilitating sports injuries. It was great hearing about his relationship with his wife and how he wanted to be a hero to his kids.
He got a bit heavy-handed, I thought, when he talked about racism. However, he offered several well-thought-out ideas of how everyone can work together to combat prejudice, poverty, fatherlessness, crime and other issues so prevalent in the Black community--and especially in urban areas. One quote of his I really liked was, "If you don't have a cause, you'll never have an effect" (p. 243). He urged everyone to do what they can to make the world better, to be a hero to someone.
If you are a grammatical purist, you may find some of this book a bit irritating to read. You can take a brother outta the 'hood, but you can't take the 'hood outta the brother. When Reggie was passionate about something, he reverted to less-than-perfect American English. Fortunately, his ghost writer, Jim Denney, did a good job of keeping him on track most of the time.
Whether you are a sports fan or not, I think most people will enjoy this book. Reggie does a nice job of blending his stories with some good take-away lessons that will build your faith and courage "in the trenches," on the field or off.
Written in 1996, the year before that amazing Super Bowl game, In the Trenches is a sports autobiography like no other I have read. On every page, you can tell several things about Reggie White: He was devoted to God, family, friends, sports and building up this country. He talks about how he was called to the ministry at an early age, how family and coaches had a tremendous impact on his life, how he gave all he had to his sport and enjoyed the fruits of that hard work through his outstanding career, and how he invested his time, talents and treasure to make a difference in so many ways.
Even though I am not a sports fan, it was interesting to follow his career through this book. I loved reading how God healed Reggie more than once of what should have been debilitating sports injuries. It was great hearing about his relationship with his wife and how he wanted to be a hero to his kids.
He got a bit heavy-handed, I thought, when he talked about racism. However, he offered several well-thought-out ideas of how everyone can work together to combat prejudice, poverty, fatherlessness, crime and other issues so prevalent in the Black community--and especially in urban areas. One quote of his I really liked was, "If you don't have a cause, you'll never have an effect" (p. 243). He urged everyone to do what they can to make the world better, to be a hero to someone.
If you are a grammatical purist, you may find some of this book a bit irritating to read. You can take a brother outta the 'hood, but you can't take the 'hood outta the brother. When Reggie was passionate about something, he reverted to less-than-perfect American English. Fortunately, his ghost writer, Jim Denney, did a good job of keeping him on track most of the time.
Whether you are a sports fan or not, I think most people will enjoy this book. Reggie does a nice job of blending his stories with some good take-away lessons that will build your faith and courage "in the trenches," on the field or off.
May 18, 2025
In the mid-1990s, when he wrote this book, Reggie White was one of the most popular football players to ever play the game. Even two decades after his passing, Reggie is still beloved by Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles fans for his performances on the field, which led to his subsequent induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Written at the height of his popularity as an athlete, Reggie gives us a book that reveals both Reggie White, the man, and Reggie White, the football player.
If this was merely a book about his life, this would rate five stars. But Reggie was also an ordained minister and community leader and known to take some tough but controversial stands on issues of his day. In the later part of this book, he does just that. Unfortunately, some of the statements he makes are either factually inaccurate, or were relevant when written but haven't stood the test of time (as I write this review 29 years after the book was published).
The writing quality is pretty basic, which is what you can expect for an athlete's biography designed for mass appeal.
Otherwise, this was an enjoyable read. Not a bad addition to one's sports book library.
Written at the height of his popularity as an athlete, Reggie gives us a book that reveals both Reggie White, the man, and Reggie White, the football player.
If this was merely a book about his life, this would rate five stars. But Reggie was also an ordained minister and community leader and known to take some tough but controversial stands on issues of his day. In the later part of this book, he does just that. Unfortunately, some of the statements he makes are either factually inaccurate, or were relevant when written but haven't stood the test of time (as I write this review 29 years after the book was published).
The writing quality is pretty basic, which is what you can expect for an athlete's biography designed for mass appeal.
Otherwise, this was an enjoyable read. Not a bad addition to one's sports book library.
February 4, 2022
I did like it. It talks about God, football, and racism. I knew he was extremely religious, but I didn't realize that he was that religious.
July 28, 2022
Was a fan of this man. Great book!
October 31, 2019
Very in-depth autobiography. The book had an interesting tone which made it very enjoyable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2014
Reggie White may be my favorite player ever, and I never watched him play. (Skip to the bottom for a quick rant on that, as well as most of the other football thoughts I have on this.)
What you've got in this book are the concentrated effusions of one of the most relentlessly positive and passionate people I've ever read. I mean, there are forests of exclamation points to saw through. I tend to think that this style adds to the likeability and even believability of the narrative, however: if you've got a guy who makes his living throwing his body into three hundred pound men and spends much of his free time telling people to love Jesus, it might detract from the ethos of the work to find him engaged in verbal subtleties.
One of the things White speaks out very courageously about (why write a book unless you're trying to get people to like you, right?) is racism, and he does so in a pretty incisive manner. Did you realize that in the mid-90s there was an epidemic of black church burnings in the South? Did you realize that White's own home church was burnt, and that "Die Niggers Die" was painted on the wall? And did you further realize that the federal investigators put over half of the church body through lie detector tests, rather than searching out suspects from local white power organizations? Hmm.
Anyway, this book is interesting for people who like football, people who try to love the Lord, and people who get confused about race relations.
As for football: it's one of my great regrets in life (really) that I was of a reasonable age to see and in some way appreciate guys like White and Jordan play, but didn't because I didn't care about sports until I got out of high school. Raise your kids right, parents of America! Watch sports?
Aside from a bunch of other football stuff, there are a number of Mike Golic (the ESPN radio show guy) mentions, and White names both Jason Garrett and Jim Harbaugh as guys he sacked. Hah!
(Jeditor's note: a few days after I finished the book, I researched a little bit, and it turned out that the federal agencies were right to suspect an inside job. Even if they didn't start the fire themselves, the pastors, Jerry and David Upton, were downright shady individuals and appear to have profited immensely from the donations given to the church building fund. You can tell that the fall-out from the whole episode kind of shook White's faith in the church, if not in the Lord: check out this article. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/reggies-...
Sad for White, but I don't think it makes me like him any less, or think that his views were incorrect. Failures of praxis by people who surround an individual don't negate that individual's theories. At least, that's what Christians have been saying for the last two thousand years.)
What you've got in this book are the concentrated effusions of one of the most relentlessly positive and passionate people I've ever read. I mean, there are forests of exclamation points to saw through. I tend to think that this style adds to the likeability and even believability of the narrative, however: if you've got a guy who makes his living throwing his body into three hundred pound men and spends much of his free time telling people to love Jesus, it might detract from the ethos of the work to find him engaged in verbal subtleties.
One of the things White speaks out very courageously about (why write a book unless you're trying to get people to like you, right?) is racism, and he does so in a pretty incisive manner. Did you realize that in the mid-90s there was an epidemic of black church burnings in the South? Did you realize that White's own home church was burnt, and that "Die Niggers Die" was painted on the wall? And did you further realize that the federal investigators put over half of the church body through lie detector tests, rather than searching out suspects from local white power organizations? Hmm.
Anyway, this book is interesting for people who like football, people who try to love the Lord, and people who get confused about race relations.
As for football: it's one of my great regrets in life (really) that I was of a reasonable age to see and in some way appreciate guys like White and Jordan play, but didn't because I didn't care about sports until I got out of high school. Raise your kids right, parents of America! Watch sports?
Aside from a bunch of other football stuff, there are a number of Mike Golic (the ESPN radio show guy) mentions, and White names both Jason Garrett and Jim Harbaugh as guys he sacked. Hah!
(Jeditor's note: a few days after I finished the book, I researched a little bit, and it turned out that the federal agencies were right to suspect an inside job. Even if they didn't start the fire themselves, the pastors, Jerry and David Upton, were downright shady individuals and appear to have profited immensely from the donations given to the church building fund. You can tell that the fall-out from the whole episode kind of shook White's faith in the church, if not in the Lord: check out this article. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/reggies-...
Sad for White, but I don't think it makes me like him any less, or think that his views were incorrect. Failures of praxis by people who surround an individual don't negate that individual's theories. At least, that's what Christians have been saying for the last two thousand years.)
January 28, 2016
Reggie White is a name that is associated with Pro Football, particularly with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. This is a book on him...and his life in and outside of football.
The majority of the book is on his Pro Football career up until 1997 (as this is when the book was written) and tells of his rise from a kid in Chattanooga, TN to his Pro Football days (and subsequent fame) with the Green Bay Packers, a move which at first seems odd, but in the end was the best move he could make.
There are a few chapters where he talks of his life outside of football and his ministries in his church. The last chapter or so is more on his views on life and how folks should treat each other....as well as his work with trying to unite the races to work together in peace and love.
Sadly, Reggie White is no longer with us...but this book is an interesting read on his life and the difference he made in this world.
The majority of the book is on his Pro Football career up until 1997 (as this is when the book was written) and tells of his rise from a kid in Chattanooga, TN to his Pro Football days (and subsequent fame) with the Green Bay Packers, a move which at first seems odd, but in the end was the best move he could make.
There are a few chapters where he talks of his life outside of football and his ministries in his church. The last chapter or so is more on his views on life and how folks should treat each other....as well as his work with trying to unite the races to work together in peace and love.
Sadly, Reggie White is no longer with us...but this book is an interesting read on his life and the difference he made in this world.
November 4, 2014
Filled with intrigue, miracles, faith, conviction, humor and so much more, this autobiogrpahy will encourage you in your Christian walk.
At 6 foot 5, weighing over 300 pounds (and easily able to toss opponents with his one-arm signature move on his way to crushing quarterbacks) Reggie White was arguably the best NFL defensive end of all time. More important than all that though, Reggie was a bold witness for Christ.
Reggie passed away in 2004, but not before making his mark in the world for the kingdom of Christ. His deep love for Jesus resonates all throughout his life's story. I highly recommend this book for those who may be going through a dry spell in their walk with Christ. Read Reggie's powerful testimony; it is truly a breath of fresh air.
At 6 foot 5, weighing over 300 pounds (and easily able to toss opponents with his one-arm signature move on his way to crushing quarterbacks) Reggie White was arguably the best NFL defensive end of all time. More important than all that though, Reggie was a bold witness for Christ.
Reggie passed away in 2004, but not before making his mark in the world for the kingdom of Christ. His deep love for Jesus resonates all throughout his life's story. I highly recommend this book for those who may be going through a dry spell in their walk with Christ. Read Reggie's powerful testimony; it is truly a breath of fresh air.
December 14, 2011
Reggie White In The Trenches is definitely the best book I have ever read. This book is very appealing to me considering, I am a man of God, and I want to be in the NFL. He has a great life story, and explains it very well in this book.I know someone who was very close to him before he past away, and be able to hear his perspective of his life and someone that was actually there perspective leaves me without words. I go to back to the book to look for encouragement and life advice regularly, because he was full of wisdom.
June 7, 2013
I'm a huge football fan, and I saw a special on the NFL channel that highlighted the Eagles team with Reggie White. The documentary discussed Reggie's faith and I wondered if he'd written any books. To my delight, he'd written several!
I really enjoyed reading about Reggie's life, faith, and years "in the trenches" of football. The play-by-play of particular games felt a little heavy, but overall, I found this book to be inspiring, entertaining, and informative.
I really enjoyed reading about Reggie's life, faith, and years "in the trenches" of football. The play-by-play of particular games felt a little heavy, but overall, I found this book to be inspiring, entertaining, and informative.
February 2, 2008
Great autobiography of Football legend Reggie White. Only Green Bay Packer that I could root for. Reggie White died a few years back and has been inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.
February 14, 2008
RIP Reggie. We could've used you last January. Eli knows he dodged a bullet.
April 26, 2009
As a Packer fan, had to read this. Was a good book. A good man who died way too soon.
April 17, 2015
I think Reggie White in the trenches was a great story.He was a great player and a great friend.My Grandmom did laundry with reggie white.My dad also meet Reggie White.He was also a great man of God.
April 7, 2016
It may not be the best book ever, but I was a kid. I loved the Green Bay Packers, and I loved Reggie White. Therefore, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews