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Rough & Tumble: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Bavaro
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.41
You Save: $14.54 (58%)
New (33) Used (10) Collectible (3) from $10.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 20576
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0312375743
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780312375744
ASIN: 0312375743
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new. Dust jacket may have very minor shelf wear. We ship daily.
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Product Description
A riveting debut novel of a season in the life of a professional football player—written by one of the NFL's best tight ends of all time. Dominic Fucillo is a tight end for the surging New York Giants. Rebellious, ferociously angry, deeply religious and fighting injuries and a crumbling love life that would bring the average man to his knees, Dom is a veteran player who is having the toughest season of his career at a time when his team can do nothing wrong--or so it seems. Because behind the big wins, a major scandal is brewing. The team's star linebacker has always lived on the edge and enjoyed the nightlife more than he should. But when he's found beaten nearly to death in the stadium parking lot, it's clear he's gotten himself into more than even he bargained for, and it's something that threatens to tear himself and his team's promising season apart. Inspired by his years shedding blood and sweat playing professional football, ROUGH & TUMBLE is Mark Bavaro’s novel about the brutal world of the NFL—and a classic sports story of one man’s determination and grit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 thrilling but dark look at the NFL September 18, 2008
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
New York Giants tight end Dominic Fucillo is having a tough season while his mates are on a roll that he hopes will leave him with a Superbowl ring. The Commissioner fines Dominic $50,000 for attacking a referee during the Eagles loss and his girlfriend will not talk to him. These are minor inconveniences when compared to the team physician telling him his once blown out knee has a hole in it requiring post season surgery. Dominic understands the knife will occur after the season ends just like he knows this time his career will be over with the needed operation.
However, Dominic's final run to glory is hampered by the team's superstar drug using linebacker James Moze. He was recently beaten to a pulp by either gamblers who he hangs with or drug peddlers. As the team begins a victorious march towards the playoffs, every form of human lice converges with demands on the Giants.
Although not new as football exposure stories have been around for years, former great tight end Mark Bavaro provides a thrilling but dark look at the NFL. The eccentric cast makes the story line engaging especially for football fans as the audience obtains a deep look at what happens behind the scene to a professional football team especially when they make a strong run for the championship.
Harriet Klausner
 Bravo, Mr. Bavaro! September 11, 2008
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
More than just a football story, it's a journey of a man, loving and breathing the only life he knows, who is trying to make sense of his world (and how he relates to it) as it shifts and turns and crumbles.
This novel enlightens even the non-football persona (like myself), who is curious to understand the psychology of anything not inately understood, while couched in a fictional setting. It's a real eye-opener to the sacrifices and struggles endured. Although fictitious (yes, it reads like a real life story, hence the argument between what's referred to as "artistic license" and what some true sports enthusiasts may find unrealistic), it makes for very compelling reading. I couldn't put the book down.
Through well-written story-telling (in layman's terms for folks like me! Thank you!), vivid characters, and character development, we come to appreciate the emotional dynamics off the field, and understand the toll of physical brutality on it, in the name of a singular, hard-driven goal (I will never take bed sheets for granted again! -- you'll see what I mean, if you read it!).
A wonderful story, from beginning to end. Bravo, Mr. Bavaro! I'm looking forward to your next novel!
Trader56 September 11, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
As good as sports book that I have read in years. If you ever played football at any level you will appreciate how descriptive the scenes are. It also is very humorous, uses colorful but real life language, and at times hits on heavy topics like alcohol use, gambling, abortion, and ethics in the medical profession. For a first time author this book is unbelievably impressive. Well done Mark!
Superb September 6, 2008
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
As a longtime book reviewer, book editor and copyeditor, a mystery-lover and a fervent football fan, I recommend "Rough & Tumble" unreservedly. This one is definitely in the don't-miss category, a well-written, fast, entertaining book that puts the reader on the 10-yard-line along with the players. I doubt that those outside the arena will be able to view a football game in the same way after reading this book. I hope Hollywood takes note, and does right by it.
 RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "STOPPED ON THE FIFTY YARD LINE!" September 6, 2008
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
This fictionalized story revolves around Dominic (Dom) Fucillo a tight end for New York's NFL Giants. The author is former New York Giant tight end and first time author Mark Bavaro. During Bavaro's playing career he made the Pro Bowl twice, but as a writer he clearly makes a number of rookie mistakes. Dom is portrayed as a man whose very core is crumbling. His girl friend Emma has left him... as he chooses football as being more important than the girl that he subsequently feels he can't live without. The "mistress-football" that Dom has put on a pedestal above Emma... all of a sudden has too many warts... yet he never noticed them before. The team doctor tells Dom that he has a hole in his knee, and his career is about to end. Role players in this novel include head coach Lou Gordon (think of a modified Bill Parcells), injured star quarterback Ron Hanes (think Phil Simms), and the most athletically talented and biggest abuser of alcohol, drugs, and women, linebacker James Moze (don't think of a modified Lawrence Taylor... know it's LT!), and an assorted cast of hanger-on's and bookies, and the thinly disguised mobster element.
Between Dom swallowing one pain killer after another... and being shot up with anti-inflammatories designed for both horses and men... imbibing large amounts of alcohol ... along with Dom's broken heart... no new literary ground is broken in the football genre. When "All-World" linebacker James Moze is found unconscious and beat to a bloody pulp in his car in the Meadowlands parking lot, Dom starts putting pieces together that involve his "shady" character friends... bookies... and members of the Giants. From the reader's point of view, even after the author has put the pieces "together"... the pieces don't really fit together neatly. ("Believably")
A surprise early misstep by the author is when Dom, with his world of personal woes weighing heavily on his mental stability, loses control of his temper... first with an opposing player... and then with a referee. As any sports fan knows... if you touch a ref or umpire in any professional sport... you are going to face a heavy suspension along with a monetary fine. Well, Dom not only touches a referee during a game... he knocks him to the ground! In addition... film footage shows him AGGRESSIVELY AND VIOLENTLY GRABBING THE REFEREE'S SHIRT... REFUSES TO LEAVE THE FIELD AFTER BEING EJECTED FROM THE GAME... THEN REFUSING TO LEAVE THE GIANTS SIDELINE LONG AFTER BEING TOLD TO LEAVE... WHILE THE REFEREE WAS ACTUALLY LAYING UNCONSCIOUS ON THE FIELD!
In real life the guilty player would most likely be suspended for at least a full season and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dom was NOT suspended for even one game... and was fined only fifty-thousand-dollars! Since this incident took place in the early stages of the book, the potential reader will find it quite difficult to take the rest of the story seriously. It's hard to believe that any author writing a book on professional sports would include such an inconsistency... especially a former professional athlete.
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