Full Description
Despite enormous differences in pay among professional athletes, most aspects of their daily lives remain surprisingly constant across sports and income levels. Living Out of Bounds provides answers to persistent questions about what it's really like to be an athlete and discusses the filtered image of the athlete that emerges through books and other media. Steven J. Overman mines a wide array of sports biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries to construct a representative picture of the athlete's life from the rise of American sport in the late nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing, he reveals the person behind the sports celebrity as he exists on a daily basis. Individual chapters cover topics such as college athletics, the pressure of celebrity, the difficulty of balancing sports and everyday life, sex and sexuality, race in sports, the obsession with the body, and the difficulties associated with retiring. In the course of the work, a portrait emerges that transcends individual lives. The shared experiences of devoted training, of travel and hotels, and of tension within and beyond the clubhouse or gym force us to appreciate the often oppressive reality of the sporting life; at the same time, individual lives provide a glimpse of the rewards that make sports so compelling to audiences and athletes across America.
Contents
PrefaceIntroductionChapter One: The Athlete's Family and Youth Roots Opening Rounds The Influence of Parents Coaches and Father Figures Looking BackwardChapter Two: The Narrow World of Sports Part I: Sport as Sanctuary Home Away from Home Sanctum Sanctorum Part II: Sport as Neverland From Peter Pan to Pete Rose Living in Neverland Coaching as Paternalism The Wider WorldChapter Three: Public Life, Private Space Introduction Coping with CelebrityChapter Four: In the Arena's Shadow Gladiator's Holiday Practice Time On the Road Hotel Living Time in; Time out Filling Leisure Time Playing Cards and Gambling Recreational Drugs Lifestyles of the Nouveau Riche and Famous Teammates and Buddies Revealing the Inner ManChapter Five: Sex and Sexuality Male Enclave Cheerleaders, Temptresses, and Centerfolds: Marginalizing Women Home and Away Sexual Athletes The Evolving Status of Gay AthletesChapter Six: Team Colors: Sport and Race A Century of ChangeChapter Seven: The Athlete and His Body The Toll of Training Better Living through Chemistry Getting Hurt The Three R's of Injuries: Repair, Rehab, and Recovery No Pain, No GainChapter Eight: Retiring from Sport One Game at a Time "One-More-Year" Syndrome Transition and Adjustment The Ex-athlete in Search of Identity Representative RetirementsChapter Nine: ConclusionsNotes Index
