Gunslinger - by Jeff Pearlman (Paperback)

About the Book

From a New York Times best-selling author, the full, definitive biography of Brett Favre, football's ultimate gunslinger and fan favorite, whose rise from small-town Mississipi obscurity to the top of the American sports landscape was the stuff of legend--and whose fall from grace has been just as great

Book Synopsis

"Over two decades, Brett Favre was as compelling a figure as any in the National Football League. He alone was 'Must-See TV.' In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman provides an extraordinary look at every facet of the life of a man who performed on sport's grandest stage and who had one helluva time along the way."--Al Michaels

In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman tells Brett Favre's story for the first time, charting his unparalleled journey from a rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last scholarship at Southern Mississippi, to a car accident that nearly took his life, and eventually to the NFL and Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father, and a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved, a game he couldn't bear to leave.

Gritty and revelatory, Gunslinger is a big sports biography of the highest order, a fascinating portrait of the man with the rocket arm whose life has been one of triumph, fame, tragedy, embarrassment, and--ultimately--redemption.

"The compelling, complete story of his legend, and his faults."--Chicago Tribune

Review Quotes

"Jeff Pearlman writing about Brett Favre is a perfect match of author and subject, making Gunslinger as rollicking and raucous and joyous as Favre was improvising at Lambeau Field." --David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered and Once in a Great City "Over two decades, Brett Favre was as compelling a figure as any in the National Football League. He alone was 'Must-See TV.' In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman provides an extraordinary look at every facet of the life of a man who performed on sport's grandest stage and who had one helluva time along the way." --Al Michaels "Jeff Pearlman's deeply reported book is an unprecedented picture of an unprecedented athlete. Brett Favre emerges as at once incorrigibly childish and a magnetic leader of men. Perhaps never in sports history has a star so big inhabited a market so small. Gunslinger leaves an impression of Favre that is neither simply good nor bad, but rather something nearly nonexistent in sportswriting today: a full portrait of a human being." --David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene "Here's a story as iconic as 'The Gunslinger' himself, Brett Favre. Like Favre, Jeff Pearlman goes deep--and scores." --Adam Schefter, author of Romo: My Life on the Edge and Think Like a Champion "This is the deepest understanding we are likely to have of Favre for quite some time . . . Pearlman's book is a complete, satisfying biography of a gunslinger who, for both better and worse, was far more complex than most fans have understood." --Kirkus Reviews

"Jeff Pearlman writing about Brett Favre is a perfect match of author and subject, making Gunslinger as rollicking and raucous and joyous as Favre was improvising at Lambeau Field." --David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered and Once in a Great City "Over two decades, Brett Favre was as compelling a figure as any in the National Football League. He alone was 'Must-See TV.' In Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman provides an extraordinary look at every facet of the life of a man who performed on sport's grandest stage and who had one helluva time along the way." --Al Michaels "Jeff Pearlman's deeply reported book is an unprecedented picture of an unprecedented athlete. Brett Favre emerges as at once incorrigibly childish and a magnetic leader of men. Perhaps never in sports history has a star so big inhabited a market so small. Gunslinger leaves an impression of Favre that is neither simply good nor bad, but rather something nearly nonexistent in sportswriting today: a full portrait of a human being." --David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene "Here's a story as iconic as 'The Gunslinger' himself, Brett Favre. Like Favre, Jeff Pearlman goes deep--and scores." --Adam Schefter, author of Romo: My Life on the Edge and Think Like a Champion "This is the deepest understanding we are likely to have of Favre for quite some time . . . Pearlman's book is a complete, satisfying biography of a gunslinger who, for both better and worse, was far more complex than most fans have understood." --Kirkus Reviews --

About the Author

JEFF PEARLMAN is the New York Times best-selling author of six books, including Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s and Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton.