I decided to finally pack the football.

With these seven words, George Plimpton began the chronicle of his stint as a back-up quarterback during training camp with the 1963 Detroit Lions, of the then-fourteen-team National Football League (NFL). The first seven words of the critically-acclaimed Paper Lion, which was originally published in 1966, not only began a narrative into the new genre of participatory journalism, but also shed light onto the book's primary theme of amateur versus professional in the 1960s. George Plimpton was one of America's favorite sons--the Everyman, the Man for All Seasons, the real-life Walter Mitty. He is a graduate of both Harvard and Cambridge (was expelled from the esteemed Philips Exeter Academy), was a tank driver during World War II, and was a founding member of the Paris Review literary magazine. He was an avid ornithologist, acted in a number of movies, played the triangle with the New York Philharmonic, and won the International Fireworks Festival of 1979. His social circle was far-reaching including Muhammad Ali, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Kennedy. (In fact, it was Plimpton who wrestled the pistol out of Sirhan Sirhan's hand after Sirhan assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.) But for all his eclectic life experiences, George Plimpton is best known as the father of participatory sports journalism. In 1960, Plimpton set out on his path to fame with the idea to pitch against major league baseball players, which he recounts in Out of My League. The year after, he continued his "experiments" by approaching various NFL coaches and owners to take a crack at the sport of American football. He explains his rationale in his proposal to Red Hickey, coach of the Western Conference All-Stars in that year's Pro-Bowl game in Los Angeles:

I told him--somewhat haltingly, finding the proposal increasingly odd
as I went on--that I wanted to train briefly with his team as a
quarterback, never causing him any trouble, just staying on the
periphery of things, and learning just enough to get by, and then
trotting into the game itself in the Coliseum and calling three to four
plays, just one series, I said, nothing much at all; then I'd be able
to write about my experience and enlighten those who had wondered as a
sort of daydream what would happen to them if they actually became
bona-fide quarterbacks playing in a pro game. (Plimpton, Paper 11)

This "Plimptonian" proposal--a term which, in journalism, refers to experiencing the subject of documentation--was not accepted (Fatsis 7). A subsequent proposal to the Detroit Lions management, however, was accepted, and thus began Plimpton's synonymy with participatory journalism.

In his athletic endeavors, George Plimpton was inspired by Paul Gallico, a sportswriter for New York's Daily News in the 1920s. Gallico had boxed with world heavyweight champion and cultural icon Jack Dempsey to better understand what it felt like to face a professional athlete, and documented this experience for his readership. A review of Zachary Michael Jack's Inside the Ropes cites Plimpton and Gallico as the founding fathers of sports participatory journalism, maintaining that "they and their successors are our heroic surrogates who enhance our understanding of the nature of the game by writing sensitively and perceptively about what the sport is like to the amateur participant" (Ardolino 464). In fact, amateur, in this sense, refers to the lack of practice in sport, as opposed to an unpaid sportsman, making the feats all the more intriguing. That said, as a member of America's literary elite, Plimpton is no less a professional than the players he studies, and it could be argued that his self-portrayal as a sporting naif stops him from considering the possible connections between practicing high culture and high-level sports. If anything, Plimpton was simply bringing journalism, as a profession, more credibility in the sports industry.

Since this breach in the professional-amateur relationship, many sports journalists have enjoyed the best-seller charts. Some notable successors to this in-depth journalism movement include David Halberstam (Breaks of the Game), Sam Smith (The Jordan Rules), and John Feinstein (Next Man Up). However, these authors merely had exclusive access to teams, never actually participating on the field of play like Gallico or Plimpton. Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was able to bring to light the realities and tribulations of a fledgling National Basketball Association (NBA), on the verge of the million-dollar contract era, through the lives of the players and coaches of the 1979-80 Portland Trail Blazers. Sam Smith's portrayal of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' 1990-91 championship provides the type of intricate detail that only a year of road trips and locker room access would allow. Offering insight into the modern NFL, John Feinstein chronicles the 2004 Baltimore Ravens, much like Plimpton did for the novice league forty years before. All of these authors, and many more, have pushed the boundaries that Plimpton helped diminish, by providing more exhaustive coverage of the lives and roles of America's favorite teams and sports personalities. The most comparable "Plimptonian" experience, however, was lived by Stefan Fatsis in 2008, when the author negotiated a position as a third-string placekicker on the NFL's Denver Broncos roster. The first chapter of Fatsis' book A Few Seconds of Panic is entitled "I'm No Plimpton," in which he remarks on the fact that Paper Lion "was a journalistic marker, a work that helped shape how people thought not only about sports but about sportswriting, participatory journalism, and literary journalism" (Fatsis 5).

As thrilling as participatory journalism is to the author or writer, as well as the fan, the idea has somewhat diminished in revelry for the sportsmen and sportswomen that must endure it. In today's NFL, for instance, journalists can only access the practice field and/or locker room at scheduled times and ask pre-approved questions, which the players are not obligated to answer. The NFL has been dubbed the "No Fun League" by sportswriters for its lack of access to the media. Perhaps this is a result of journalists taking the "Plimptonian" proposition too far, by inappropriately exposing the private lives of individual athletes or coaches. Or, perhaps, it could be attributed to the fact that athletes in today's multi-billion dollar sports arena are sheltered from the realities of having all their thoughts and actions smattered across the Internet, television, and radio for millions to observe and critique. This invasion of personal space in the lives of professional athletes was already expressed by Paper Lion subject John Gordy, a Detroit Lions offensive guard, when he was quoted as saying that he "felt it wasn't natural to have an amateur like [Plimpton] involved... That was fooling around" (Plimpton, Paper 339). It was this uneasy theme of amateur versus professional that toed the line between journalist and imposter throughout the book.

An American book reviewer from Kirkus even wondered "what is the famous young editor of The Paris Review, who did the classic Hemingway interview, doing playing quarterback with the pro Detroit Lions?", eventually stating that Plimpton was "a literary silkworm and not a carnivore of the gridiron" ("Paper Lion"). Granted, it was unique to have a person with Plimpton's high cultural literary background hang around with 300-lb professional footballers. Contrary to mainstream sportswriters of the time (and even today), Plimpton brought an elegant, almost poetic style to the explanation of offensive strategies, rookie hazing rituals, and in-game play calling. As Nicholas Dawidoff exclaims in his Foreword to the most recent, 2016 edition of Paper Lion, "of course, Plimpton chose to be a quarterback. The quarterback is the writer, the one who makes it up, makes it happen" (xii). And he did make it happen. From describing practice spectators like those of a county cricket game, to comparing the inside of his helmet to an amphitheatre, to filling in context with stories from Macbeth, Plimpton's use of language was--and is--unique in the field of sportswriting.

One hilarious encounter comes about in Plimpton's first snap at practice. He is asked by the coaches to receive the snap--have the ball thrust back to him through the center's legs to commence the play--but realizes that he does not know where to place his hands: "The coaches all crowded around to advise, and together [they] moved up on Whitlow [the center], who was peering nervously over his shoulder like a cow about to be milked" (Plimpton, Paper 59). Not only did this moment officially "give him away" to his teammates as an imposter, but it provided the reader with verification of how difficult it is for an amateur to play with the pros. In his jocular fashion, Plimpton was able to attach human qualities to the idolized and seemingly supernatural jocks that he observed and befriended. In this sense, the language of Paper Lion--along with Plimpton's other sports-related books--was noteworthy in the world of sportswriting. It provided the fan with ample perspectives and metaphors to relate with, while living vicariously through the dreamer who dared to participate.

Apart from Paper Lion, George Plimpton published a number of books where he chronicles his experiences as an amateur amongst professional athletes. In his first such book, Out of My League (1961), he pitched--with mere high school experience--against a line-up of Major League Baseball (MLB) all-stars, including the great Willie Mays. His erudite and self-deprecating manner of describing this seemingly unrealistic experience allows the reader to fully appreciate the grit of the athletic profession. As one Los Angeles Times book critic put it, Plimpton "recognizes that baseball, that all sport, is hard work, performed by professionals with an abiding sense of pride" (Ulin). Soon after Paper Lion, Plimpton wrote Bogey Man, about his experience traveling with the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour in 1967. Plimpton then rejoined the professional football ranks, this time with the Baltimore Colts, which served as the basis for his 1973 book Mad Ducks and Bears, arguably his most daring and thought-provoking work. In it, Plimpton "offers us football not as a ritual of discipline and valor but as a pretext for anarchy," and delves deeper into the truth about football and the "disposable nature of its heroes" (Almond). Ahead of its time, Mad Ducks and Bears takes on a serious tone discussing the mental and physical side-effects of the football profession, referring often to post-concussive athletes and their trials. Then, in 1977, Sports Illustrated asked Plimpton to box three rounds with ex-light heavyweight champion Archie Moore for an article, which was eventually published in book form as Shadow Box. Along with a bloody nose from Moore, Plimpton takes sparring lessons from Ernest Hemingway, tries to talk Hunter S. Thompson out of smuggling ivory, and plays witness to the surreal Ali-Foreman bout in Zaire. His last participatory sports book was Open Net (1985), which saw him train as an ice hockey goalie--at the age of fifty--with the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). During this saga, Plimpton even played in an exhibition game against the intimidating Philadelphia Flyers, who became known as the "Broad Street Bullies" during the 1970s for their brawling style of play. However, for all his forays into the fields of professional sportsmen, it was Paper Lion that received the most critical acclaim.

Plimpton joined the Lions at a very particular juncture in professional football history: as it was being transformed from what was widely perceived to be an inferior, slightly disreputable, version of college football into a television behemoth. In 1958 the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants had played in the nationally televised NFL Championship Game, which became known in football lore as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Capturing the collective attention of the nation, the 1958 championship game marked the turning point for the NFL; professional football had made an indelible mark on American sporting culture ("Greatest"). This moment in football history, along with the formation of the rival American Football League in 1960, was the context in which Plimpton wrote his book. In this light, Paper Lion was the "first to showcase the personalities of the players and coaches and what happens off the field" (Dow, "Fascinating"). The 1960s to early 1970s were a time when many football books were being written and published in America--a brief flurry of football literacy. Along with Paper Lion, Peter Gent's North Dallas Forty (1973), Jerry Kramer's Instant Replay (1968), Gary Shaw's Meat on the Hoof (1972), and Dave Meggyesy's Out of Their League (1970) all helped propel football writing forward, and brought football publishing national attention. Even within this cornucopia of football literature, "Paper Lion was the book that everyone in footballdom read," becoming an artifact of its times and a useful documentary source for the study of football (Plimpton!). Suffice it to say, George Plimpton made waves with his chronicles, and has shed an inimitable light onto the amateur-professional debate in modern sports.

Historically, the amateur-professional theme has been centered on the loss of amateur idealism in the face of the industrial and consumerist realities of modern sport (Holt; Smith and Porter; Guttmann). Plimpton's version of this debate differs slightly, as he is the embodiment of the amateur sportsman, taking on the goliaths of the professional ranks. As Stefan Fatsis puts it:

He was the curious writer juxtaposing his glorious ineptitude against
the profound skills of the pros. As a comic device, this worked well in
the 1960s, when little was known about how a sports franchise worked,
and when the financial, social, and athletic gap between pros and Joes
could still be bridged. (7)

Truly, Plimpton's do-it-yourself attitude toward journalism would not have stood in today's professional games. Regardless, he did reveal the chasm between amateur and professional. At the time, many would not have known about the hardships of choosing professional athlete as a (somewhat) viable career option. Today, many would not even consider "packing a football" for NFL training camp, but that question would likely have crossed the casual amateur's mind when not much was known about what training camps encompassed. Plimpton helped to verify the assumption the average fan would have about "an amateur blundering into the brutal world of professional football" (Paper 241). By humbly ridiculing himself in practice, scrimmages, and ultimately in the intra-squad game, Plimpton helped maintain the line of professional integrity that athletes foster, by trying hopelessly to become one of them. If anything, most of the Detroit Lions "admired him for risking it, and for making what they did seem worthy of personal sacrifice" (Dawidoff ix). Plimpton was the universal amateur--the man determined to practice his dreams.

In the end, Plimpton's role in the amateur-professional sphere was that of respectful participant and story-teller. The impression of an amateur playing with the professionals was fascinating and amusing to football people (fans, players, administrators alike), as well as the general population. To read, first-hand, of the juxtaposition of an "amateur among professionals, elitist intellectual amid hard-hat muscle" was a novel idea in the 1960s (Dawidoff x). Through his participatory journalism, "he brought the joy of victory even in his defeats" and brought fans closer to the fields of their heroes (Plimpton!). A testament to the mastery of Paper Lion came mere days before his passing, when the 1963 Lions were invited to a 40-year anniversary celebration in Detroit. All the old players were introduced at half-time, with the greats slated for last--Hall-of-Famers Night Train Lane, John Gordy, and Joe Schmidt were called out to roars in the crowd. However, it was George Plimpton who was introduced last to the loudest ovation (Dow 359). A fitting farewell to a man at the center stage of his stories; a humble goodbye to the "Plimptonian" man.

Works Cited

Almond, Steve. "Mad Ducks and Bears." The Paris Review 26 April 2016.

Ardolino, Frank. "JACK, ZACHARY MICHAEL, ED. Inside the Ropes: Sportswriters Get Their Game On. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008." Journal of Sport History 36.3 (2009): 464.

Dawidoff, Nicholas. Foreword to Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback, written by George Plimpton. New York: Little, Brown, 2016.

Dow, Bill. "The Fascinating Story of George Plimpton's Famous Book, 'Paper Lion,'" Detroit Athletic Co, 4 August 2009, https://www.detroitathletic.com/blog/2009/08/04/the-fascinating-story-of-george-plimpton%E2%80%99s-famous-book-%E2%80%9Cpaper-lion%E2%80%9D/

--. In Aldrich Jr., Nelson W. (ed.). George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals--and a Few Unappreciative Observers. New York: Random House, 2009.

Fatsis, Stefan. A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-foot-8, 170-pound, 43-year old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

Feinstein, John. Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL. New York: Back Bay Books, 2006.

"Greatest Game Ever Played," http://www.profootballhof.com/news/greatest-game-ever-played/ (First Accessed: 21 February 2017).

Guttmann, Allen. From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Halberstam, David. The Breaks of the Game. New York: Hyperion, 2009.

Holt, Richard. Sport and the British: A Modern History. Gloucester: Clarendon Press, 1989.

"Paper Lion Book Review," Kirkus, October 26, 1966, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/george-plimpton-4/paper-lion/.

Plimpton, George. Out of My League. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 1961.

--. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 1965.

--. Bogey Man: A Month on the PGA Tour. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 1967.

--. Mad Ducks and Bears: Football Revisited. New York: Little, Brown, 1973.

--. Open Net: A Professional Amateur in the World of Big-Time Hockey. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 1985.

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself. Dir. Tom Bean and Luke Poling. Laemmle Zeller Films, 2013. Online.

Smith, Adrian and Dilwyn Porter, eds. Amateurs and Professionals in Post-War British Sport. Brighton: Psychology Press, 2000.

Smith, Sam. The Jordan Rules: The Inside Story of One Turbulent Season with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

Ulin, David L. "For April Fools' and baseball season: George Plimpton," Review of Out of My League, by George Plimpton, Los Angeles Times, 1 April 2014, http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-for-april-fools-baseball-season-george-plimpton-20140401-story.html.

Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.