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Instant Replay The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer Jerry Kramer Books

Download As PDF : Instant Replay The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer Jerry Kramer Books

Instant Replay The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer Jerry Kramer Books

As a pre-teen I read George Plimpton's PAPER LION, and in '68 saw the movie adaptation with Alan Alda (it's still not available on DVD!). A year later I bought the very same paperback version of Jerry Kramer's INSTANT REPLAY that's pictured here. In re-reading it recently after 43 years, it's amazing that I didn't recall any of the book, for it is if anything and without a doubt, memorable.

The front cover photo has Jerry sitting with helmet perched above and behind his head. He explains in the book that he couldn't stand wearing this piece of equipment and often removed it during timeouts and measurements. This may not be legal anymore for men on the field. Other changes that have occurred since 1967-68: only four pre-season games instead of six, and sixteen regular vs. fourteen. Running wedges on kickoff returns have been banned. There are far more pre-snap offsides calls, making life miserable for Kramer's linemen descendants.

Head coach Vince Lombardi is depicted as a man with two personalities. After games he'd berate players in front of the entire team for making mistakes or not hustling, never with vulgarities, and the next day he'd be extra nice to them, as if feeling guilty for the dressing downs. Lombardi's tactics apparently worked, for his Packers were the first to win three consecutive NFL titles, plus the first two Super Bowls, and after his retirement following the season described here, Green Bay didn't play in another NFC Championship game until 1/14/96, when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys.

Because Jerry's cogent thoughts-on-tape weren't altered or enhanced by editor Dìck Schaap, "Instant Replay" is most readable, even for casual fans. Kramer never bogs down in the sort of technical jargon that only color commentator jocks on modern broadcasts can fathom. Instead, he talks about his joys, his annoyances, his little triumphs and big insecurities, both on and off the field. Jerry reveals secret dreams of all offensive linemen: playing quarterback or scoring a touchdown, fantasies almost never fulfilled, and surely as true today as they were so long ago.

We learn that playing right guard is a thankless task. You're never noticed when doing a good job, yet you're the goat if a defender gets past you to sack the QB or stop a running play. Linemen on both sides of the ball suffer head to toe bruises and abrasions during a game, but never enough to take them out of the battle. Kramer's skill as a storyteller assures the reader can feel what he does, and experience an entire football season from the sweltering heat of July training camp to sub-zero temps of the NFL Championship against Dallas.

This chapter of the book, "End Game," is most vivid, with the Super Bowl victory in Miami almost an afterthought. Kramer's moment in the sun comes two weeks earlier on a freezing cold December 31st, with his team trailing the Cowboys by three points, no timeouts and just seconds on the clock. Rather than go for a tie with a field goal, QB Bart Starr attempts a one yard sneak to the end zone, depending on Jerry to open a hole in the line by blocking Jethro Pugh, a bigger and younger man than he. The play works, Green Bay wins, and Jerry's the hero of the moment. As he describes on page 218:

"Over and over and over, perhaps twenty times, the television cameras reran Bart's touchdown and my block on Jethro Pugh. Again and again, millions of people across the country saw the hole open up and saw Bart squeeze through. Millions of people who couldn't name a single offensive lineman if their lives depended on it heard my name repeated and repeated and repeated. All I could think was, 'Thank God for instant replay.'"

And thanks too for men like Jerry Kramer, brave souls battered on a weekly basis for the sake of a winning score who are able put into words what it feels like to be part of pro football so well that outsiders can almost experience their trials and what is for the lucky few like Jerry, triumphs.

One of the greatest "inside football" books ever, INSTANT REPLAY, despite the passage of time, is a must-read for all of this sport's fans.


Tags : Amazon.com: Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer (9780385517454): Jerry Kramer: Books,Jerry Kramer,Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer,Doubleday,0385517459,Football - General,Football players;United States;Diaries.,1936-,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography Sports,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Diaries,Football,Football players,Green Bay Packers (Football team),Kramer, Jerry,,Personal Memoirs,Sports & Recreation Football,Sports - General,United States

Instant Replay The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer Jerry Kramer Books Reviews

Many football players are stereotyped as "dumb jocks". Jerry Kramer emphatically dispels that myth with this fantastic work of literature which has stood the test of time. The future Hall of Fame right guard gives the reader unprecedented insider access to one of the great teams in National Football League history, led by its iconic coach and buttressed by several men who now have a bronze bust in Canton. With Kramer now in the Hall of Fame, every football fan should read (or re-read) Instant Replay. That goes without saying if you are a Cheesehead.
Along with Jim Bouton's Ball Four, Instant Replay may well be one of the most important sports books ever written. While the book is as much about Vince Lombardi as the Green Bay Packers, and is virtually a paean to the Coach, Kramer also pulls the curtain aside from the inner workings of the locker room, and the experience of being a professional athlete, albeit in a different era. Very readable and entertaining, Kramer is not just a grunt, and in fact resents the stereotype of the "dumb jock." He is articulate, witty, and smart. He is also humble and likeable.
As a Gen-Xer, I wasn't around during what was surely an exciting time for football fans. A new league had arisen to challenge the NFL for dominance! Soon it was decided that the Champion of the AFL would play the Champion of the NFL in a special game called the SUPER BOWL. I always wondered what it must have felt like to be in the atmosphere of those first few Super Bowl runs.

Jerry Kramer was a Hall of Fame guard for the Packers, and he kept a diary of the '67 season, and their playoff run. Culminating in the Championship game against the Cowboys, the game came down to a final yard with just seconds to play. Reading Jerry's contemporaneous journal entries that he made immediately after the games was exhilarating, and transported me back in time. Jerry's entries also give an inside look at legendary coach Vince Lombardi, who's final game as coach of the Packers came just one week later as Green Bay faced off against the Raiders in just the second ever Super Bowl.

If you love the game of football and are interested in its history, this book is required reading.
As a pre-teen I read George Plimpton's PAPER LION, and in '68 saw the movie adaptation with Alan Alda (it's still not available on DVD!). A year later I bought the very same paperback version of Jerry Kramer's INSTANT REPLAY that's pictured here. In re-reading it recently after 43 years, it's amazing that I didn't recall any of the book, for it is if anything and without a doubt, memorable.

The front cover photo has Jerry sitting with helmet perched above and behind his head. He explains in the book that he couldn't stand wearing this piece of equipment and often removed it during timeouts and measurements. This may not be legal anymore for men on the field. Other changes that have occurred since 1967-68 only four pre-season games instead of six, and sixteen regular vs. fourteen. Running wedges on kickoff returns have been banned. There are far more pre-snap offsides calls, making life miserable for Kramer's linemen descendants.

Head coach Vince Lombardi is depicted as a man with two personalities. After games he'd berate players in front of the entire team for making mistakes or not hustling, never with vulgarities, and the next day he'd be extra nice to them, as if feeling guilty for the dressing downs. Lombardi's tactics apparently worked, for his Packers were the first to win three consecutive NFL titles, plus the first two Super Bowls, and after his retirement following the season described here, Green Bay didn't play in another NFC Championship game until 1/14/96, when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys.

Because Jerry's cogent thoughts-on-tape weren't altered or enhanced by editor Dìck Schaap, "Instant Replay" is most readable, even for casual fans. Kramer never bogs down in the sort of technical jargon that only color commentator jocks on modern broadcasts can fathom. Instead, he talks about his joys, his annoyances, his little triumphs and big insecurities, both on and off the field. Jerry reveals secret dreams of all offensive linemen playing quarterback or scoring a touchdown, fantasies almost never fulfilled, and surely as true today as they were so long ago.

We learn that playing right guard is a thankless task. You're never noticed when doing a good job, yet you're the goat if a defender gets past you to sack the QB or stop a running play. Linemen on both sides of the ball suffer head to toe bruises and abrasions during a game, but never enough to take them out of the battle. Kramer's skill as a storyteller assures the reader can feel what he does, and experience an entire football season from the sweltering heat of July training camp to sub-zero temps of the NFL Championship against Dallas.

This chapter of the book, "End Game," is most vivid, with the Super Bowl victory in Miami almost an afterthought. Kramer's moment in the sun comes two weeks earlier on a freezing cold December 31st, with his team trailing the Cowboys by three points, no timeouts and just seconds on the clock. Rather than go for a tie with a field goal, QB Bart Starr attempts a one yard sneak to the end zone, depending on Jerry to open a hole in the line by blocking Jethro Pugh, a bigger and younger man than he. The play works, Green Bay wins, and Jerry's the hero of the moment. As he describes on page 218

"Over and over and over, perhaps twenty times, the television cameras reran Bart's touchdown and my block on Jethro Pugh. Again and again, millions of people across the country saw the hole open up and saw Bart squeeze through. Millions of people who couldn't name a single offensive lineman if their lives depended on it heard my name repeated and repeated and repeated. All I could think was, 'Thank God for instant replay.'"

And thanks too for men like Jerry Kramer, brave souls battered on a weekly basis for the sake of a winning score who are able put into words what it feels like to be part of pro football so well that outsiders can almost experience their trials and what is for the lucky few like Jerry, triumphs.

One of the greatest "inside football" books ever, INSTANT REPLAY, despite the passage of time, is a must-read for all of this sport's fans.