Overview

From the author of Irish Thunder comes the true story of the Chelsea, Massachusetts, High School football team. Friday Night Lights meets the gang warfare of a desperate Northern city in this book about a football coach (who is also a cop in the city's Gang Unit), who pulls kids off the streets and puts them on the field with a combination of kindness and intimidation. Author Bob Halloran gets inside the life-or-death struggles of student-athletes from the Bloods, Crips, MS-13s, and Latin Kings. While exploring the anger, fear, and violence of these young men, Halloran follows the Chelsea Red Devils as they vie for a championship and the players try to make football their way out. Meanwhile, tough-love coach James Atkins serves as a cop in the Chelsea Police Department's Gang Unit, asking for his players' blood, sweat, and tears on the field ...and hoping their blood doesn't spill off it. But even he has his own run-ins with the law. Today, football, drugs, and violent crime seem inseparable-even at the professional level. This gritty story of an implausibly successful team of poor and troubled youths and their hothead cop-coach gives us a glimpse into where the intersection of football and ganster culture might begin.

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9781599219042

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Reviews

It's fourth down with life to go in Bob Halloran's powerful Breakdown, where a simple walk home from school in Boston's bleakest neighborhood is often a lesson in sheer survival. However, these troubled teens from brutal backgrounds find solace and shelter in a dingy locker room and in a coach whose tough words and tough love become their beacon of light. Halloran deftly navigates the violent worlds of street life and football while introducing us to one of the most interesting characters in sports journalism. You'll be thinking about this coach and this team long after you've put the book down. -Casey Sherman, bestselling author of The Finest Hours and Bad Blood Bob Halloran's Breakdown gives powerful-and sometimes chilling-insights into the struggles and challenges of trying to bring hope for a better life to students who daily face a world of gangs, drugs, dysfunctional families, and a bleak future... [His] storytelling skills, gained from twenty years as a New England news and sports anchor, shine through... [A]n inspiring story of building up the human spirit. -ForeWord Magazine

It's fourth down with life to go in Bob Halloran's powerful Breakdown, where a simple walk home from school in Boston's bleakest neighborhood is often a lesson in sheer survival. However, these troubled teens from brutal backgrounds find solace and shelter in a dingy locker room and in a coach whose tough words and tough love become their beacon of light. Halloran deftly navigates the violent worlds of street life and football while introducing us to one of the most interesting characters in sports journalism. You'll be thinking about this coach and this team long after you've put the book down. -Casey Sherman, bestselling author of The Finest Hours and Bad Blood Bob Halloran's Breakdown gives powerful--and sometimes chilling--insights into the struggles and challenges of trying to bring hope for a better life to students who daily face a world of gangs, drugs, dysfunctional families, and a bleak future. . . . [His] storytelling skills, gained from twenty years as a New En

It's fourth down with life to go in Bob Halloran's powerful Breakdown , where a simple walk home from school in Boston's bleakest neighborhood is often a lesson in sheer survival. However, these troubled teens from brutal backgrounds find solace and shelter in a dingy locker room and in a coach whose tough words and tough love become their beacon of light. Halloran deftly navigates the violent worlds of street life and football while introducing us to one of the most interesting characters in sports journalism. You'll be thinking about this coach and this team long after you've put the book down. -Casey Sherman, bestselling author of The Finest Hours and Bad Blood Bob Halloran's Breakdown gives powerful--and sometimes chilling--insights into the struggles and challenges of trying to bring hope for a better life to students who daily face a world of gangs, drugs, dysfunctional families, and a bleak future. . . . [His] storytelling skills, gained from twenty years as a New England news and sports anchor, shine through. . . . [A]n inspiring story of building up the human spirit. - ForeWord Magazine

Author Information

Bob Halloran is the author of Irish Thunder and the weekend news and sports anchor at WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts. Formerly an ESPN anchor and columnist for espn.com, he has been a news and sports anchor in New England for more than twenty years, and he writes a weekly column for the Boston Metro newspaper.

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