It would be natural to expect that someone who has been in and out of rehab and fought the demons of addiction to reach a level of maturity where their message would be of note.
That never happens.
The only reason I kept reading the book was to wait for this big "I get it moment" from our "hero".
That never happens.
Much of the book is spent with the author ranting against all the "wrongs" that have been done to him and his family in this world. What a joke.
Then we are exposed to the his trips through rehab, where none of the counselors have a clue about how to battle addiciton. The author of course knows how addiction can be beat and at each rehab he tells the professionals how. Of course it never seems to occur to our "hero" that maybe he is the problem.
My real concern is that someday soon we will be reading about the author and some sort of major incident related to drugs.

From an untouchable Nebraska god to another piece of meat in the NFL to addict, its an interesting read. Very open and honest about a career filled with promise gone wrong. The writing has a James Frey rambling style to it, but if your a college or NFL football fan its worth a read.

I have to agree with Nancy Rommelmann"s editorial review. Her words "unsettling", "disturbing", " a hollow whistling in my chest" after reading this book described my reaction exactly. I stayed up till midnight finishing this book because I had to know if it had a redeeming ending. I was sorry that it was only in the last few pages that his life took a turn for the better. I read this book after hearing Jason Peters interviewed on the radio. With an extended family member struggling with a drug problem and myself now free of a mild alcohol addiction, I was interested to see if this book was worth passing on to other family members as a help to understanding addictions. My naive eyes were opened wider than I thought imaginable - that so many people in our country are caught up in such hedonistic and self-centered and self-degrading lifestyles! I wanted to call my four young adult children immediately to remind them of God's love for them and His message to love and serve. Even though Jason chose not to have God in the picture, I really wished he would have shown that he had done SOMETHING in his life that was not SELF-serving. Throughout his story, however, was the life-line of his STRONG AND LOVING FAMILY (Jason grew up with and maintained strong family bonds and he finally met a woman at the very end of the book who had the same) that helped to save his life. My hope is that readers of this book are disturbed enough to take a look at their own lives and, hopefully, are choosing to use their talents and resources to do good. If you or your children are involved seriously in sports, I hope you learn from this book how important it is to have a Plan B.

Make no mistake, the book is entertaining. I find it interesting he spends the whole book bragging about his escapades, and spends a couple chapters on actual sobriety. This is NOT a book on recovery. Infact, Peter is not really in recovery according to book. The guys got an ego and the book is written with typical "celebrity" narcissism..enjoy!

Great book!

I'd personally never even heard of Jason Peter, but the backstory sounded amazing and I love the NFL, so after reading several reviews I decided to give it a try.

Jason Peter is a prime example of how the NFL spits you out when your no longer worthy of playing, this book in no way puts down the NFL, it just once again brings to light just how harsh the system is, one of my favorite lines in the book best describes it,

"When you put on your team colors, you are no longer a person--you are a cog in a machine. That is how a team operates, and that is what wins games. People are discarded in this game when their usefulness is at an end."

JP's career was in jeopardy because of injuries, then he got hooked on pain killers, the pain killers led to cocaine, the cocaine to meth and crack

his journey thru drugs/rehab is insane, he was an unemployed millionaire with a raging drug problem

good, good stuff!!!!

A good book,I couldn't put it down. A very compelling insider's look at the little known partying/drug addicted world of the NFL. If you are a college or pro football fan who wants to dish a little dirt, this a must read.....Not for the faint of heart!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested reading about the ravages of (and redemption from) drug addiction as it impacts on someone who, to the naked eye, "had it made" as an elite college athlete and highly regarded National Football League draft choice. The book is presented in a raw style that offers the reader a "real feel" for the author's struggle and the impact of drug addiction on his family.

The author did not find the "recovery, 12-step" model to be his treatment of choice, in the end. The extent to which his distancing himself from this form of recovery might dissuade others from approaching this source of help, is the only caveat I have for recommending this book, particularly for those who subscribe to or who might be helped by Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous.

Yes, as the cliche goes "different strokes for different folks," but AA and NA have worked for so many, that his disdain for these models of recovery should be taken, as intended, as only one man's opinion.

Overall, a very good read and fine profile of someone who has bounced back from the precipice of death.

Jason Peter, co-captain of the 1997-98 Nebraska Cornhuskers college championship team, recounts the improbable story of a jock that became a junkie. Peter's story reads as the anti-Peyton Manning story--fitting, since Peter's Cornhuskers crushed Manning in the championship game in 1998. It's part football memoir and part drug memoir, and a gripping read that I read through in two nights.

Peter and co-writer Tony O'Neill write some of the best prose that I've ever read on the game of college football. In several chapters, it's difficult to distinguish Peter's rush from playing football from the rush of legal and illegal drug abuse. His story is all too common in the football industry, where young talent is bulked up, chewed up, and spit out when their bodies start to break down. The only difference is that Jason Peter filled the void left in his life with crack and heroin, whereas few players (and ex-players) ever reach such extremes of addiction.

I picked this book up ASAP after reading Peter King's mention in his superb MMQB column for SI.com. While "Hero" provides unique insights into the world of a college football star, NFL player, and emergent substance abuser following a series of injuries that end his career, the last third of the book drags on. And on. And on. "Are you still reading that thing?" my wife asked me the other night. Like the author, I couldn't quit the habit. It's good, but I honestly think the latter chapters could have been revised into just several. I liked it, but . . .

This book definately grabs your attention from the get-go! I am not that big of a book reader but this book tells the story of how drugs almost completely destroyed a life of a human being. Very intense..Would recommend it for anyone to read.

Should be required reading for NFL rookies! A well written and dramatic story of a descent from everything to nothing. A good kid, well intentioned, but injuries plus pain set him on a course. A warning: every page is laced with expletives, which fit the story but are not suited for all. Jason Peter is now getting his life together back in Lincoln where his stardom began. He hosts a radio sports talk show. Let's hope he makes it! Good book. Buy it!




th

Rarely do I pick up a book that refuses to be put down. Hero of the Underground is this kind of book. If page one doesn't suck you in, you might want to check your pulse. From the beginning, this book takes you on the ultimate roller coaster ride, touching the highest of highs (figuratively and literally) and the lowest of lows (literally). I'm struggling to find the appropriate words to describe this book, but only because it is so powerful. Raw, unabashed, in your face, pedal to the metal, and inspiring all come to mind. The bottom line is that any Husker football fan, any pro football fan, any sports fan in general, or any current/recovering drug addict and their family/friends should read this book. I bought the book on a Thursday after work and had it finished the following night. I'm telling you...this book is so well written that it's impossible to put down for more than a short time (i.e. to sleep). Jason Peter wrote this book like he played football...all out, all the time. No holds barred. I read a lot of books and it's the best I've read this year...easy!

I bought this book for my husband who always asks for special books but he never reads them. He couldn't put this book down and it only took him a few sittings to read...he laughed out loud and got mad at times...he really liked it.

Firstly, it's worth mentioning that not only do I have no interest in sport, but I specifically have no interest in American football (I'm a sluggish Australian cartoonist, not a sporting type at all).
Despite this I found Hero of The Underground utterly compelling.
I read the whole thing in one sitting - I couldn't put it down.
It's honest without being cloying.
It's shocking without being sensational.
Jason Peter's story reads like a man planning a train wreck and then climbing on board for the ride.
I couldn't recommend this enough.

A disappointing read to say the least. Jason Peter is a typical privileged youth with a great amount of athletic ability who recounts being handed life on a silver platter in return for his bone-crushing performances on the field every Saturday/Sunday. Despite victories on the field, fame, glory, and great financial rewards, Peter finds himself to be void of happiness despite these successes, and thus turns to drugs to fill that void. Where is the heroism? What has Jason Peter done to earn such a title - 'Hero of the Underground'? Nothing in my opinion, and this book fails to tell the reader otherwise.

Real heroes stand for something, and make a bad situation better. Jason Peter takes a great situation and throws it all away, which is a slap in the face to any hardworking Joe trying to make ends meet in this world. A more appropriate title would have been 'Jason Peter: Failure in the Privileged World'.

Got this book as soon as it came out based on early reviews and I was not disappointed. Finished the book in one day and had a very hard time putting it down. As disgusting as much of the book was you could not help rooting for the "hero" to overcome his demons. A very good look inside the world of college and professional sports and the people who feel they have to be our "heros" well written too.

Watching from outside the lines, Jason Peter had it all.

An incredible talent on some of the greatest Nebraska Cornhusker teams ever, Peter was a top draft-pick of the Carolina Panthers. No doubt, Peter was on the fast-track to multiple all-pro years in what ultimately would become a Hall of Fame career. Well, fairy tales make great bed-time stories for young children and wonderful endings to Hollywood movies.

Peter and co-author Tony O'Neill enter the deep trenches in this compelling look into the pop culture of sports stardom and the depths that one can quickly plummet in a game that features too much, too soon.

From the prescriptions for pain killers available in an underground business by unsavory physicians - pills for signing autographs on football gear - to the heroin & crack cocaine addiction and the two suicide attempts, Peter honestly delves into his personal pain and tough times he put his family through in the biggest battle of his life, after the cheering stopped.

Though Peter discusses the pressure to deliver in the business of the NFL - which fuels a player to do everything possible to stay on the field, no matter what - he also reflects upon unrealistic expectations and the depression & anger associated with the feeling that the sport abandoned him before he was done with pursuing his professional career.

And it was a simple act in what may have been his final desperate moments that ultimately turned his life around. The brutal opponents nearly won, but Peter somehow scrambled from the clutches of death before that scoreboard clock read 00:00.

You'd think Jason Peter (not to be confused with Jason PETERS, a defensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills) has had enough good luck in his life. He was an All American defensive end instrumental in a national championship at Nebraska-Lincoln; he was drafted in the first round into the NFL, making him an instant multi-millionaire at the age of 23; he's had all the girls and the glory and the good drugs he could ever want. He's an ESPN analyst. And now it looks as if he's got a BESTSELLER. Why does Jason Peter get all the luck? Well, he's written a good book, for one. He's lived an interesting life. He took a lot of chances. And after he hit that bump in the road and went flying down Heroin Mountain he had the courage to put it all down. Some readers will complain that Jason's style is too coarse (he talks like a Hell's Angel just out of penitentiary), and others will note that after getting so many free academic passes on the jock wagon, he is ill-prepared to unseat Joseph Conrad anytime soon. But the narrative is irresistible. Unpretentious, ruthlessly fast-paced, soul-baring, glamorously decadent, it even offers a measure of insight (Why don't they just tell people going into rehab that their chances of recovery are almost nil?). Hero won't bore you for a minute. All those primo drugs, crazy addicts, go-go girls, the rants, the jags, the rehab stints, the Hollywood burnouts, the war stories, the horror stories, the love letters to Lou Holtz. When a gifted child from a good family spins into the devil's dark spiral how can you not admire the flames? Chances are excellent that Hero of the Underground will be a smash hit. What's next, Jason? Oh right, the movie, of course.

Bought this book and could not put it down. Finished it in less than a week, which is fast for a non-reader like myself. Peter weaves an incredible story that is a must-read for football fans. Highly, highly reccomend this amazing book.

Have you ever been addicted to drugs? Have you ever known anyone addicted to drugs? Have you ever been involved in an intervention?

The first twenty pages of this biography of former Nebraska Cornhusker All-American -- three-time-member -- of an NCAA football champion -- a first round NFL draft choice -- and a short lived NFL player... Jason Peter... is so "mind-crazed"... drowned in paranoia... non-stop... "Pulse-pounding"... "Heart-throttling"... and so... absolutely embedded... in complete mental and physical "INSANITY"... that if the reader has not been personally involved in a similar situation... you will believe wholeheartedly that it was all contrived by the author.

Jason comes from a loving family with an older and younger brother, all of whom excelled in football. His older brother not only played at the University of Nebraska also, but had a successful NFL career. Younger brother Damian was destined to be better than both of his brothers. In fact, then Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, while on national TV after recruiting Damon to play for the Fighting Irish said: "Damian Peter was maybe the best offensive lineman that Notre Dame had ever recruited." Damian then had a fluke accident diving into a swimming pool at a friend's house. Damian was critically injured, and was paralyzed, until a wonder "test" drug gave him his physical movement back. This led to the absolute, most pointed comments in the entire book, other than the wanton, depraved, decadent, debauched, degenerate, destructive, drug use, that asphyxiates ninety-five percent of the entire story. The entire time that Damian was in intensive care and recovery... and even when he came back to school to watch helplessly from the sideline... Holtz never once, even called his one-time "prized" recruit, to see how he was doing... or to wish him well. Jason unabashedly states: "I STILL WOULDN'T TURN DOWN THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPIT IN LOU HOLTZ'S "EXPLETIVE" FACE. EACH SATURDAY IN THE FALL WHEN HOLTZ MAKES HIS JOVIAL, DUMB-"BUTT" REMARKS ON ESPN, I HOPE HE KNOWS THAT THERE'S AT LEAST ONE FAMILY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCREEN, THE PETER FAMILY, THAT KNOWS WHAT A PIECE OF SNAKE "CRAP" HE REALLY IS."

If there is a word that can make addiction seem like a graphic understatement... then that would be the word I would use to describe Jason Peter. He "DEVOURED" (Abused would be like saying a little baby kitten played with a ball of yarn.) ENORMOUS-MASS quantities of cocaine... heroin... crack... meth... continually, consecutively and concurrently. During one period in time, his cocaine use *ALONE* was *TEN-THOUSAND-DOLLARS-A-WEEK*. In addition to all the drugs listed above... NOTE: Potential reader... please clear your eyes and mind for this next statement: "HE ALSO MESSED AROUND WITH KETAMINE ON OCCASION. KETAMINE IS A CAT TRANQUILIZER."

The author should be thanking the Lord three times a day that he is alive, and there are incidents in the book where he could have been killed very easily, and there are times he attempted or contemplated suicide. No reader should view this as a happy "partying" book. I do believe the author did not show enough remorse, as he relives his drug saturated life, with a bit too much braggadocio. About the fourth or fifth time Jason was going to enter rehab, he rented a private jet for THIRTY-THOUSAND-DOLLARS, and bought TEN-EIGHT-BALLS- OF COKE, and SEVEN-BUNDLES OF HEROIN, and contracted for the services of two hookers for his flight to "salvation".

The author is lucky he's alive... and even luckier... that his family loved him enough to keep praying for him.

I have to admit I'm not a big sports guy. I caught an interview with Jason Peter on Sirius, and was really sucked into his story when the interviewer read the opening paragraph of the book. Then hearing Jason talk about his football glory days, and his post NFL nightmare had me chomping at the bit to read this book.

I was not disappointed. Peter and O'Neill have crafted a book that grabs you by the throat on the first page, and doesn't let up until you close the cover.

I know - pro sports guy blows it on drugs, and then writes a book about it. So far, so Darryl Strawberry, right? But this one is different. For a start there is not an iota of self-pity in these pages. Peter comes on like the authentic version of the guy James Frey tried to pass himself off as: a primal, raging tough guy waging war on the world and himself. There are moments of poetry here, and some genuinely beautiful writing that really comes as a surprise. I picked up the book expecting a fun read, a behind the scenes look at the big money world of the NFL and the plentiful women and drugs that come along with it. I got all of that, but also I got a book which sits neatly on my bookshelf next to oddball classics like "A Fans Notes" by Fred Exely, "Permanent Midnight" by Jerry Stahl (no coincidence then that Stahl compares the author to Hunter S Thompson on the back flap) or even the brawling, boozy tough-guy poetry of Bukowski.

While Peter refrains from implicating others when talking about the culture of drugs and money in professional football, he is unsparing in exposing his own dark heart here. What starts off as a book about addiction becomes a book about the flipside of the American Dream itself: what DO you do when the adoration, the money, the women, the screaming crowds are no longer there for you? We follow Jason as he tries to fill this void with sex, painkillers, cocaine, crack, and eventually heroin. Even the faux-spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot satisfy the hole left by his aborted football career (in fact, some of the funniest passages of this book are set in rehab, and Peter offers a cynical view of "redemption" that is probably the polar opposite view of what we are normally offered in the standard "recovery memoir")

All in all, this is a great book, one for the football fans and certainly one for those who have never seen a game in their lives. Ultimately it's a story about one man rediscovering his humanity. Underneath the "jock monster" promised on the cover, there beats the heart of a real writer...

I'd read Tony O'Neill's novel, Digging the Vein, and so found out about this book he wrote with Jason Peter, a defensive linesman for first, Nebraska, and then the Carolina Panthers, and a former drug addict.

I read it, breathelessly, in one day. My family was annoyed. It was RIVETTING. Peter's story is - ah- something else and no doubt O'Neill helped craft the raw material into a really well constructed book. Unputdownable. Really.

I have such compassion for Peter. I mean, yeah, I wish I'd met him when he was still wild and I was young and wild and- but hey, he's doing OK now!!! And that's great. Because, man, he should be dead. And he knows it. But- he's not! And he has a really great way of dealing with his struggles. That is to say, he's not "AA". And I'm not against AA, but I am against the idea that it is the ONLY way to get it together.

Anyway, I love all the partying and hookers and private plane stuff. So did he. But, it's great he's got it together.

Oh, and I love summer. But now that I read this book, I sort of can't wait for football season to start. I totally recommend this book. Fantastic story, heartfelt, so well executed.

Wow, this a riveting story from start to finish. I only bought this book because I was knocked out by Tony O'Neill's first novel (Digging The Vein) I know nothing about American Football and hadn't heard of Jason Peter before but that didn't matter, this is such a dark deep story that I was hooked immediately. Really amazing.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good roller coaster ride to the dark side. Great holiday read (but you'll probably end up just wanting to read it all in one day!)

I picked up this book with some hesitation given that the subject matter is somewhat disturbing, but having enjoyed "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey (hoax notwithstanding) and being a huge fan of college football, I thought the combination of over-the-top drug use and big time American football would be interesting. After three pages I was hooked. The writing is fantastic, the story flows well and there is wonderful insight into the college football recruiting process, campus life as an All-American player, and the lonely existence as an NFL rookie arriving at camp. I highly recommend "Hero of the Underground".

Okay, so my husband who is a huge football fan bought this book. I really had no interest you know football and all. One day I was getting ready to go to the beach and had no new reads so I throw Hero of the Underground in my bag. I started reading the first chapter and was instantly sucked in. The story is so much more than football. It is an honest in your face account of someone's journey with addiction. The stories are riveting and ultimately it is a tale of bravery and triumph over addiction. Needless to say, I finished the book at the beach that very day. I hope it will help someone who is struggling with demons. Great read.