Nate Jackson was a star football player in high school and college, who dreamed of fame, big dollar contracts, and a new cheerleader every night as an NFL star.
The reality of receiving league minimum contracts, being a member of the taxi squad and dealing with constant injury make his book “Slow Getting Up” a true look into NFL weight rooms, locker rooms, and the training rooms.
NFL fans see Peyton Manning and Tom Brady throwing touchdowns, Ndamukong Suh ravaging quarterbacks, and wizard-like head coaches calling winning plays from the sideline. For every star a football fan sees on their big screen television there are 45 other players that don’t get the notoriety or big contracts, but still must deal with the pain, rehab, and constant fear of some younger and stronger athlete taking their job.
Jackson paints a picture of survival in the NFL from the bottom of the pile. He experienced the NFL as a working-class player who had to earn a spot on the roster and then fight every day to keep it.
He learned quickly and helps readers understand a job in professional football is never safe. A player is always just one play or one injury away from retirement.
Jackson was a gifted high school receiver, blessed with speed, quick feet and soft hands. He first attended Division 1AA Cal Poly, but head coach, Larry Welsh, quickly decided that Jackson was too slow to play receiver and too small to be a tight end for his team.
Poof, goes the football dream.
Getting cut from Cal Poly was a huge break for Jackson, however, one that landed him at Division III Menlo College. He soon became a big fish in a small pond, but more importantly found a coaching staff that was glad to have him and helped hone his football skills for the next level.
At Menlo, he met offensive coordinator, Doug Cosbie, a former pro bowl tight end for the San Francisco 49ers. Cosbie had played for one of the best football minds of all time, Bill Walsh.
In Jackson’s second year at Menlo, Cosbie became the head coach and helped teach him the skills necessary for a career in the NFL. More importantly Cosbie introduced Jackson to Walsh.
Walsh would ultimately become Jackson’s guardian angel in the NFL and help him land a spot on the taxi squad of the Denver Broncos. Jackson went on to play tight end for the Broncos for six seasons.
In addition to his life as a member of the taxi squad and special teams, he talks about his experience with NFL Europe and of constant visits to the team’s medical staff.
He helps the reader feel the constant pain and the monotony of rehabbing a myriad of injuries accumulated through years of hard hits on a football field.
Football is a violent game. Every player must have a warrior mentality to step onto the field with bigger, stronger and faster athletes that want to tear your head off.
Every football fan needs to read “Slow Getting Up.”
There are only 16 games every season, the real game of football is played the other 349 days a year.