Nate Jackson's Slow Getting Up is an unvarnished and uncensored memoir of everyday life in the most popular sports league in America--and the most damaging to its players--the National Football League.

After playing college ball at a tiny Division III school, Jackson, a receiver, signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers, before moving to the Denver Broncos. For six seasons in the NFL as a Bronco, he alternated between the practice squad and the active roster, eventually winning a starting spot--a short, tenuous career emblematic of the average pro...