Red Zone

Jack Molloy #2

by Mike Lupica

New York Hawks co-owner Jack Molloy takes a break abroad after his notorious brothers sell their half of the team to a fractious businessman, who quickly alienates everyone affiliated with the team. Reprint.

Genres: Sports, Fiction, Football, Humor

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Michael Lupica is an author and American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.

Reviews

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really entertaining, up there with Dan Jenkins or Rick Reilly in this genre. The NFL must not like the league the way Lupica shows it, but he's enough of an insider to know what life in the Show is really like so even if there's some caricature involved, I suspect there's more truth in here than they're comfortable with.

Lupica has a knack for giving some fabulous character names. I give you Mo Jiggy, Elvis Elgin and Butterball (aka the Fat Boys); ATM (Automatic Touchdown Maker) Moore, the retired superstar receiver now working for ESPN and who runs a gentlemen's club called Yum.

Oh and extra points to Lupica for making everyone's favorite agent Myron Bolitar (Google him if you must, but if you must you lose cool points) appear as a quickie extra just passing through in one scene. Brilliant.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this book and stopped trying. This surprised me, because I remember reading and liking the author's young adult books years ago with my kids. This book is missing the well-rounded characterization of those YA novels. Instead, everyone is a caricature. No one is sympathetic. What's worse is the (apparent) glorification of violence, gangsterism, drug use, financial chicanery, gambling, celebrity worship, and serial adultery. (And that's after just 100 pages!) The plot was boring and predictable, and there were so many characters the story was a chore to follow. Ycch.

[Bruce Snell · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I finally got into this book, it was OK - but it shouldn't take 130 pages to get into a story - that's work, and reading is supposed to be fun. I have said after reading several of Lupica's books in the past that they all seemed to have been written from the same general outline with enough details changed to look like different stories. This book did not follow that outline, and apparently should have.

[Michael]

I had a good time reading the first of these football books a few days ago. This one was a continuation of the same story, pretty much. Except for some forced and tiresome back-telling of the old book it was great. I guess the writer, or someone, wanted it to stand alone without the first book. Except for that, another fun read.

[Michael Alan Grapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Molloy rues the day that he agreed to sell the professional football team that he and his siblings inherited from their father. The rest of the story is spent doing all that he could to rectify the situation with the help of some colorful characters. I imagine that I might have enjoyed this more if I was a an enthusiastic football fan but there was still enough to hold my interest.

[J.C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh, too predictable to be any good. Also some of the names were far to rediculous the second time through this world. I'd go back and re-read "Bump and Run" to see if I was seduced by mediocrity but life is far to short.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 1st Mike Lupica...I've seen him on the "Sports Reporters" on ESPN and found him to be churlish and snide on his best days, so I was surprised to find this light. fun and a surprisingly good read in a Dan Jenkinish sort of way...I may read another

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book to read on the beach. Breezy read (as you would expect) about a football owner, booze, women, and money. Shallow characters, frivolous plot. Entertaining nonetheless....especially if you are a football fan.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another easy-to-read Lupica tale. I like his fiction writing, even though it's not "high brow". It seems real.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned to appreciate white gangstas.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of Mike Lupica's Bump and Run will love Red Zone, the novel's sequel. A satisfyingly fun read.

[Rickeyowens · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a good book

[Dylan Lansing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Zone by Mike Lupica in my opinion is a solid read. I enjoyed reading it but at the same time I feel as if there are other options that would be more entertaining to me. The story is about a football team that gets passed down to Jack. While the other 50% goes to his brother who makes a poor decision in selling the team to a businessman and this causes problems leading to Jack calling for help from others. One thing that really stuck out to me and I enjoyed were the charenters I felt as if there was a sort of honesty and realness to them and this really made the story a lot more enjoyable and relatable. On the other hand one thing that I disliked about this story was the language used. This story was very vulgar. with this I feel as if people who don't mind the cursing and like a good story would really enjoy this book.

[Jeffrey Millman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A forced sequel.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was a sports comedy, but it’s not your typical sports book. This showed a story on the business side of sports. It was about adults who really don’t make the best decisions try to work things out. While reading this story, I enjoyed a few moments. There were some sly jokes that made me laugh out loud. However I do believe the plot and and storyline was very boring. It started off very slow and was difficult to get into. Within the first hundred pages, I wasn’t able to get invested in and/or hooked into the story like I usually am with other books by the author.

[Belinda Seto · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO FUNNY, 2.0