Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited

by George Plimpton

In this fond exploration of the values and follies of American football, George Plimpton rejoins two of his Lions teammates from Paper Lion to talk about their careers in this sometimes brutal but always captivating game. As Paper Lion is the quintessential look at a football team behind the scenes, Mad Ducks and Bears is one of the most astute explorations into the fascinating lives, thoughts, and motivations of the players at home, in the locker room, and on the field.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and gamesman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

He was the grandson of George A. Plimpton.

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Plimpton initially wants to write a book about the technique of offensive and defensive lineman with The Mad Duck (Alex Karras) and The Bear (John Gordy) being interviewed for research. During their first meeting, the author, George, us in down lineman position in the apartment of one of the men as they hammer him into lamps and such. From there the book takes off with humorous tales from Karras and Gordy. The book is full with absolute laugh out loud hilarity.

The book finishes in a section with Plimpton reprising his role of last string quarterback, but this time for the World Champion (1972) Baltimore Colts. Insights into Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas and Bubba Smith are must reads for football historians. (Smith at a party trying to teach a myna bird his name, "Bubba, Bubba, Bubba"). One also gets introduced to team owner Bob Irsay who dismantles the aging championship team, much to the dismay of the veterans. He is projected in all his callousness, which historically is a hint of things to come----their middle of the night move away from Baltimore to Indianapolis.

[Pj · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Plimpton's books are very funny - this one is when he tried to play hockey with a pro hockey team - he has others about playing with a pro football team and being a caddy for a pro golfer, etc. - they are all hillarious.

[Matthew Talamini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand what the point of this book was. There were some pretty funny parts. And there were some pretty funny parts that turned out to be lies. And there were some pretty funny parts that seemed like swirling mists over deep canyons of truth, or something.

The book is mostly anecdotes. I'll retell a few.

One of the guys is at dinner with Plimpton in a restaurant. He starts telling Plimpton how the mouth gets too much of the food, and other parts of the face deserve a chance. He puts a bunch of oily salad on his forehead. He is the NFL's most dominant defensive tackle. Plimpton suggests he try his nose or ears, since there, at least, he has orifices. The guy calls the waiter over and starts telling him how people at another table were throwing salad at him. See how it stuck to his forehead? He becomes loud, and the waiter asks them to leave. Outside, Plimpton tries to get him to recant his story about the other diners throwing food. He won't. He insists they were.

This reminds me of elementary school. I think it's a way that men have of passing down secret knowledge, which is that if you lie brazenly enough, and never ever ever admit it's a lie, and dig the deepest pit in your soul to hide the lie in, so that it's almost as though you really do believe it, well, then you can get kicked out of a restaurant.

Another time, they put on a charity golf tournament where their goal is to annoy the golfers in the most creative ways possible. The have tons of live animals wandering around the golf course: goats, chickens, a Galapagos tortoise, all kinds of stuff. The set booby traps. They play loud noises and have a little person driving a tank around.

One of the pranks is that they've taken one of the golf holes and drilled it out so that it's like fifteeen feet deep. Plimpton recounts seeing a foursome encounter this obstacle.

No, one of the foursome says to his friends, he's not going to put his hand down that hole. There are probably snakes down there.

This is the funniest moment in the book.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mad Ducks and Bears by George Plimpton (Random House 1973) (796.22+/-). The author follows his success with Paper Lion by writing another book about pro football, this time focusing on the foundation of the game: the offensive and defensive lines. The book features extensive interviews with teammates on the Detroit Lions: a “Bear” (offensive lineman John Gordy), and a “Mad Duck” (defensive lineman Alex Karras). The book’s research quickly dissolves into hilarious anarchy as the two former players seek to outdo each other with the outrageousness of their football stories. I first read this book as a young teen in the 1970’s. Here is an example of the locker-room humor featured in this volume: Karras was telling of a former equipment manager for their team, the Detroit Lions, who suffered from an undescended testicle. Karras told that they would tease the manager by calling out false praise to him in the locker room: “Way to go, Joe (or whatever his name was)! You’re really working your ball off!” When I was fourteen, I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. All in all, I’d say that the book has held up rather well. My rating: 7/10, finished 1973.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

lesser known sequel to paper lion, i liked this one even more. it focuses on the line (the original working title was high numbers) and the entire book ends up being focused on john "bear" gordy and alex "mad duck" karras. hilarious, insightful, and a few times phenomenally sad- i believe this is the best book ever written on football.

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love George Plimpton, this is one of the few books I had not read. I just could not get into this one, it was very boring. I did not know who the players were, maybe that would have made a difference.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plimpton does crazy stuff and writes about it. Fun to read.

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given up. Maybe it would be more enjoyable if I knew the people involved or had more interest in American football, but the style of writing - lengthy recounts of conversations - is very dull.

[RK Byers · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn’t pop with the same kind of nuance and revelation of Plimpton’s other sports books.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread for the first time in decades and just as funny as I remembered.

[Jim Wheeler]

Funny as hell

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

better than paper lion? i'd say so, especially in the revised version i read, in which plimpton cuts his experience with the colts and only gives us the real meat; i.e., the weird conversations with john gordy and (especially) alex karras, which are some of the best and most natural "new journalism" i've ever read and the sort of thing only hinted at in the best sections of paper lion. highly recommended.

[Ron Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent read. The best of the three Plimpton books. Guess I am not as much a fan of his work was I thought.