A Darker Shade of Red (Paperback)

This novel is a long-needed antidote to the rose-colored, star-athlete sagas popular in the world of "24-7 football access." It throbs with adrenaline-pumping, hard-hitting reality, made all the more compelling because it is based on the true story of author Lloyd Pye's four years playing college football. This book unblinkingly examines the the painful, shocking, and often inspiring world of the redshirt athlete, an aspect of football known superficially by every fan of the game, but the reality of which is known intimately only by those "on the inside." Grippingly real, intensely honest, this book provides an edge-of-your-seat expose of a hidden and hushed-up aspect of college football. Readers will live the hopes, dreams, and personal disasters of a handful of young men who represent the thousands of redshirts who will never have the glory, but will always represent the true guts of America's favorite game. No one who reads this book will ever--can ever--forget it. It is stunningly powerful.