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Just Give Me the Damn Ball!: The Fast Times and Hard Knocks of an NFL Rookie
"Well, son, I guess we have to go the to bank." That's what Leon Hess told me the day the Jets drafted me as the number-one player in the NFL draft. But that first day, the day of the draft, was one of the happiest days in my life, because I knew I was ready to make things happen in the league and help turn things around for the sorry-ass Jets. But what a nightmare! Week after week, loss after loss. The Jets went in with a loser reputation, and they were earning it all over again. We had no emotion, no energy, no hunger. The media tried to cover it all. Rich Kotite tried to explain the disasters away. But nobody outside the team knew the real truth of what really went on. This book is going to change all that.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 5, 2024
Just Give Me the Damn Ball! was an in your face 216-page autobiography on former NFL receiver Keyshawn Johnson. I bet the book sold really well during its original run (spring 1997 to fall 1997) because Johnson was HUGE during that period in the football world. Plus, he wrote the book as if he were talking to you the reader in a candid conversational style.
Just Give Me the Damn Ball! was pretty much Johnson's analysis of the 1996 New York Jets coupled with some stories here and there on the ups and downs of his adolescent years, his days as a struggling (financially) student-athlete at West Los Angeles College, and the 1994-1995 period that changed his life forever which was the period when he was a student-athlete at USC.
Johnson at the time he wrote this book was a talented and very rich NFL wide receiver who had a brash and 100-watt personality. And for anyone who was a young or adult NFL football fan in the 1996-1997 period, we were aware of the Keyshawn Johnson experience (his football career, his personality, and etc.). The theme of this book, the way it was written, and of course the title of the book was who Johnson was in the 1996-1997 period.
Some of the most touching parts of this book was when Johnson talked about how hard his childhood was which included being homeless, having to help support his family at 12-years old (I couldn't imagine being in a situation like that when I was 12), being shot in the leg just before he entered his front door one night, and being in and out of juvenile hall.
Luckily, he had a guy like Murphy Ruffin (he was Johnson's probation officer) look out for him. Ruffin kept encouraging Johnson to do better which included him telling Johnson that he had the potential as a football player to do big things for himself and his family. And it's a lucky thing that Johnson listened to Ruffin.
To this day I respect Johnson for writing a book like this because there weren't too many (if any) football players who were taken in the 1996 NFL Draft who were assertive enough, bold enough, or who were unafraid of their team management enough to write a book like Just Give Me the Damn Ball!
The main appeal of this book was its in your face style of writing by Johnson. I bet this book when it came out ruffled a lot of feathers among the NFL fraternity (coaches, players, team administrations, and etc.), the NFL media, and others who followed NFL football. But I bet Johnson didn't care because if he did, he wouldn't have written the book in the first place, or he wouldn't have let the book get published.
In closing, there were some people (his critics and those who didn't know him, or just people who saw him as this loud and rich Black guy) back in the book's original run that saw this book as another way for Johnson to make some money or to promote himself and his agenda. And those were those people's opinions, and they were just that, opinions. But me personally, I respect Johnson for writing a book like this. He revealed a lot about himself in this book, he didn't sugarcoat nothing in this book, and the fact that he had the gumption or passion to write a book about a miserable 1-15 season says a lot about him in that 1996-1997 period.
Just Give Me the Damn Ball! was pretty much Johnson's analysis of the 1996 New York Jets coupled with some stories here and there on the ups and downs of his adolescent years, his days as a struggling (financially) student-athlete at West Los Angeles College, and the 1994-1995 period that changed his life forever which was the period when he was a student-athlete at USC.
Johnson at the time he wrote this book was a talented and very rich NFL wide receiver who had a brash and 100-watt personality. And for anyone who was a young or adult NFL football fan in the 1996-1997 period, we were aware of the Keyshawn Johnson experience (his football career, his personality, and etc.). The theme of this book, the way it was written, and of course the title of the book was who Johnson was in the 1996-1997 period.
Some of the most touching parts of this book was when Johnson talked about how hard his childhood was which included being homeless, having to help support his family at 12-years old (I couldn't imagine being in a situation like that when I was 12), being shot in the leg just before he entered his front door one night, and being in and out of juvenile hall.
Luckily, he had a guy like Murphy Ruffin (he was Johnson's probation officer) look out for him. Ruffin kept encouraging Johnson to do better which included him telling Johnson that he had the potential as a football player to do big things for himself and his family. And it's a lucky thing that Johnson listened to Ruffin.
To this day I respect Johnson for writing a book like this because there weren't too many (if any) football players who were taken in the 1996 NFL Draft who were assertive enough, bold enough, or who were unafraid of their team management enough to write a book like Just Give Me the Damn Ball!
The main appeal of this book was its in your face style of writing by Johnson. I bet this book when it came out ruffled a lot of feathers among the NFL fraternity (coaches, players, team administrations, and etc.), the NFL media, and others who followed NFL football. But I bet Johnson didn't care because if he did, he wouldn't have written the book in the first place, or he wouldn't have let the book get published.
In closing, there were some people (his critics and those who didn't know him, or just people who saw him as this loud and rich Black guy) back in the book's original run that saw this book as another way for Johnson to make some money or to promote himself and his agenda. And those were those people's opinions, and they were just that, opinions. But me personally, I respect Johnson for writing a book like this. He revealed a lot about himself in this book, he didn't sugarcoat nothing in this book, and the fact that he had the gumption or passion to write a book about a miserable 1-15 season says a lot about him in that 1996-1997 period.
November 11, 2018
Hard to believe this book is over 20 years old! I remember the controversy when it came out. I never was a Keyshawn, USC, Jets, Bucs, or Cowboys fan. I remember working with a Jets fan and arguing with him about Keyshawn. I will admit, I liked this book more than I expected to. It was nostalgic. I found Keyshawn's honesty refreshing. I do not like the way he talks about his Kotite, O'Donnell or some of the others, or his criminal background. But he is not afraid to offend, and the NFL, No Fun League is so afraid to. Its also interesting reading this knowing how his career turned out. He was very good, while managing to disappoint.
January 23, 2012
I love Keyshawn Johnson and am a football fan but a recent one (within the last 7 years) so it was not as interesting to me as I'm sure it would be to someone who was a football fan in that time. Not bad, though!
May 2, 2007
i hear that
August 31, 2018
THIS GUY WENT TO USC? And jesus, who TF edited for this dope? Guy is barely literate. Also. What an A-hole.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews