Burress Books

If you're a real pro-football fan and have ever dreamed of having an NFL star come over to your house and spend the weekend... have a couple of beers... talk about all the stuff that really goes on in the clubhouse... on the field... in their private lives... what their childhood was like... and just shoot the "crap" with each other... just like you and I do with our buddies all year long... then this book is the absolute next best thing.

Plaxico Burress the wide receiver on the 2007 Super Bowl Champion New York Giants, who not only caught the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, but played the greatest game I have ever seen a receiver play in a championship game in the frozen tundra of Green Bay... 11 catches for 154 yards with the temperature at *MINUS-ONE-DEGREE-BELOW ZERO* with the *WIND-CHILL-FACTOR AT "MINUS-TWENTY-THREE-DEGREES-BELOW-ZERO*!. It was so cold that when a player tried to spit, the spit would freeze to the face mask of their helmet. The teams didn't have Gatorade on the sideline, it was all chicken broth. "No water, no Gatorade, just chicken broth."

How was Plaxico shaped into the man he became, that led to these historical games? Burress will tell you himself through the pages of this "ONE-OF-A-KIND" autobiography. I have read hundreds and hundreds of sports books in my life, but I have never read one that the subject pulls absolutely no punches, whether he's talking about touchdowns, partying, loving his Mother, or describing opponents and teammates, owners or coaches. I am not exaggerating even one iota! There is a co-author mentioned in the title of the book... but with no disrespect meant... I don't believe he did anything but turn on a tape recorder and let Plaxico speak from his heart to his unrestricted self-content... and then had it transcribed. Any football fan... and it doesn't matter what team you root for... you can't miss this book! There has never been an opportunity to have an NFL star come into your family room and tell you "the-way-it-is"... and I mean "ALL-OF-THE-WAY-IT-IS"!

Some examples: "Coach Sullivan is a military guy. He went to Army and he's gone to the airborne, ranger, and air-assault schools. Because of that, he looks at life the same way I do. You hear a lot of people refer to football as war and he's real sensitive to that because has been to war. He understands football is not really like, war, so he doesn't take it like that." (Personal note: I am a Viet Nam era veteran so that means an awful lot to me.) When he was a teenager, his hardworking Mother who he loved more than words could ever say... "Then one day my mom was going through my pants and she found it. She found two empty bags and smelled it. I told her I didn't know what it was. She knew. She just went into her room and cried. THAT'S WHEN I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW HARD SHE WORKED AND I REALIZED HOW GUILTY I FELT. SHE HANDLED EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY. SHE CRIED AND IT HURT ME SO BAD. SHE'S WORKING THIS HARD FOR ME AND I'M DOING THIS IN RETURN. I PROBABLY DID IT FOR ABOUT A SUMMER, BUT ONCE SHE FOUND IT, I QUIT. I STILL HUNG AROUND EVERYONE WHO DID IT. I KNEW WHAT IT WAS ABOUT."

More directly from Plaxico's heart: "The way I grew up, we had hard times, we had rough times. But I have no regrets about how I grew up. I wouldn't change a thing. My mom, she would never have done anything to hurt anybody, but she didn't bow down to no one, either. SHE WAS MY HERO." When he went to Michigan State on a football scholarship he played for Nick Saban and did not like him at all. "When Coach Saban cussed out defensive end Robaire Smith on national television, that was his biggest problem. When Saban got mad or something happened, he would just spaz out, flip out. He shouldn't coach at the NFL level, he has to coach college ball because he's so over controlling as far as talking to people. You can't talk to grown men that way." After Burress had a record setting game against Michigan he admitted he stopped going to class because he knew he was going to be a high first round draft choice.

When he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers he was coached by Bill Cowher who he says: "Coach Cowher is one of my best friends. I love Coach to death. He came to my Mom's funeral. Everybody thinks he is tough, and he is pretty tough on the sidelines, but he's not a tough guy that you can't talk to. He has got one of the biggest hearts and he's a player's coach. He is one of the people who you want to work hard for. He just wants you to tell him straight, don't lie to him." When Plaxico left the Steelers it was simply because their type of offense would not highlight his talents. The ownership of Pittsburgh even gave the Giants a strong personal reference before he signed with New York.

While Plaxico is "visiting-your-house" he will share such "doozies" as: Rodney Harris is the Patriot's biggest trash talker, "and he's a cheap-shot artist." Or when he was a free agent he didn't want to play with the Philadelphia Eagles: "I WASN'T GOING TO GO THERE TO PLAY WITH TERRELL OWENS. THAT'S JUST SOMEONE I DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY WITH FROM WHAT I SAW OF HIM."

What impressed me most about Burris is that he is an ABSOLUTE-STAND-UP-GUY. He tells it like it is! People ask him why he and loud, brash, and misunderstood teammate Jeremy Shockey are such good friends? They say: "WHY DO YOU AND SHOCK HAVE THIS GREAT RELATIONSHIP? IT'S BECAUSE HE IS JUST ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO, WHEN YOU TALK TO HIM, YOU AIN'T GOT TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING A KNIFE IN YOUR BACK. THAT'S JUST THE TYPE OF PERSON HE IS. IF HE'S GOT A PROBLEM WITH YOU, HE'S JUST GOING TO TELL YOU HOW HE FEELS. HE DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE HIM OR IF ANYBODY ELSE LIKES HIM."

Invite Plaxico over to your house... even with all the "aint's... double-don'ts... and nothing's... you'll be spoken to like no sports star has ever openly spoken to a fan (you) before. He is truly a breath of fresh air in this cliché ridden business. Plaxico... my door is always open for you... I hope you come back again real soon.

This is the story of Jake Tidwell, your average fresh-out-of-college type, living near Pittsburgh. Looking for more from life than the usual 9 to 5 job, Jake takes off for a year of traveling around America. He also figures that, as a would-be writer, he should have some experiences worth writing about.

Jake is one of those who likes his liquor and drugs, and has something of a gambling problem. After the obligatory stop in Las Vegas, he ends up in Phoenix to look up some lady friends from back home, known for throwing legendary parties. While he spends nights on their couch, he is forced to get a job. He becomes a supervisor for a group of mall kiosks that encourage people to enter a contest for a free weekend at a hotel in Mexico. Actually, it is little more than a telemarketing scam. After a few months, Jake again gets the urge to hit the open road and heads north toward Portland, Oregon.

Hiking on Mt. Hood, Jake has an epiphany. Sitting down to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Jake has the realization that Thoreau wrote the book for Jake, at that moment. If Jake didn't have to get back home for the marriage of Paul, his best friend, the thought of staying in Portland was mighty tempting. The bride-to-bride doesn't like her fiance's friends, including Jake, but the guys are going to celebrate, anyway. Driving to pick up a friend in town, to bring him back to the party, Jake is arrested for DUI. Since the arraignment isn't for several weeks, Jake gets in his car and heads for Baltimore.

He gets a job at a local restaurant, and is able to sleep at a local youth hostel for free, due to a loophole in their system. After the charges are dropped back home, Jake heads for Key West. His fellow employees at a local restaurant are from several different countries. Almost none of them speak English, but they all manage to understand each other. Key West is a place that turns into one big party at night. The cocaine and alcohol flow like water. Jake can hold his own as a partier, but staying up all night, every night, begins to take its toll. Part of the reason for the journey is to sort out his feelings toward Jane, his girlfriend, who is willing to wait for him.

This is much more than just a drunken, drug-filled chronicle of one person's journey around America. Jake sees the best and worst in people, in unexpected places. This story is full of heart and soul and intelligence. It is well worth reading.

The Hamster Revolution is a provocative and helpful book that takes on one of the great challenges of work and personal life: email.
I have been trying to implement what I learned myself and also hope my organization will start this revolution among our workers.
Considering how email dominates our lives these days, this is one self-help book that is really helpful!

Wow. I didn't even know I was a hamster.

The tips in this book are wonderful and I've had three of the people above me in the office heirarchy tell me how much they like my new email format. Not only are my emails getting attention, they're also getting better responses!

If you're in the email quagmire, this is the book you must read!

Excelent Book, using the strategies presented on it really helps to manage email. have succesfully reduced 30% of my email.

It is a quick read with some very good ideas for communicating clearly and effectively via email and how to minimize the amount of email that you send and receive. Excellent for groups and teams.

The aim of this book is to reduce email volume, improve email quality, encourage sending email that is more actionable and organize folders using COTA (Clients, Output, Teams, Admin) approach. Although, some ideas of the book are arguable, the book makes you think once again about your way of emailing. Some readers may find COTA useful, but for me it is too complicated and counterproductive. You can do more in less time with a simpler scheme. I prefer the method advocated by David Allen in his book "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity": where the messages are divided by four categories: "next actions", "projects", "waiting for" and "someday/maybe".

I also disagree with the authors' advice to use instant messaging (IM) in addition to email. The authors did not get the major point of e-mail: you write your emails in the most convenient time for you, and the recipient reads them in the most convenient time for her. What the authors do not understand is that you cannot disturb somebody by sending an email in an inappropriate time. For example, the authors wrote that an email may be "...unnecessary interruption in a workday already filled with interruptions. .... You are working on an important project that requires a lot of concentration.... your masterpiece... and ding, an email comes in". The authors do not understand that is not the arrival that made you interrupt, but the counterproductive configuration of the email software that notifies you about the incoming messages. If you will disable the notifications, an incoming email will never break off your concentration again. You will read all the incoming messages in a proper time. The authors also forget about spam - a potential source for interruptions. IM is also the big source of interruptions, and not as efficient as the telephone.

"Turn off your email alarm" is advised by Julie Morgenstern, author of "Never Check E-Mail In the Morning", and by Gleb Arkhangelsky, author of "Time Drive". I highly recommend the two books above mentioned, as well as "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

I used this book for a term paper and it was quite useful. It is insightful because it delves into why books are banned. I recommend this to anyone interested in the topic, however this books is VERY thorough.....read a few times!