Fourth Down And Long

Chip Hilton and his fellow sophomore stars of State's football team are riding high after their opening victory. State's hopes are suddenly shattered when Chip and his sophomore pals are all suspended for breaking curfew. There's a very good reason why Chip breaks curfew. Chip and his friends decide making the neighborhood a decent place is more important even than playing in State's big game.

For the young men of Dunbar—the low-income, historically segregated neighborhoods of Fort Myers, Florida—avoiding the path that leads to easy money as a drug dealer often means choosing complete devotion to football and dreams of NFL stardom. While such dreams remain out of reach for most, an astonishing number of Dunbar athletes, including NFL idols Deion Sanders, Jevon Kearse, and Earnest Graham, have achieved massive success. Fourth Down in Dunbar is the story of how one community, plagued by drugs and violence, where many children are fatherless, gave rise to so many stellar youth athletes. Using Sanders as the centerpiece of the story, David Dorsey explores Dunbar’s history to show how the same drug culture that ruined so many promising futures also served as motivation for football success. As a reporter for the Fort Myers News-Press, Dorsey had exclusive access to the players and their relatives. He shows the success of the wildly talented as well as the regrets of those who took the wrong path, while highlighting hope for the future of Dunbar. In this poignant tale of heartbreak and triumph, Dorsey reveals the true nature of these men who overcame the obstacles in their lives and made their families and their hometown proud.

Reproduction of the original.

Everything was arranged for Sunday to be a perfect football day for private detective Rhia and her hotshot criminal lawyer boyfriend Destin-that is, until the phone rings. On the other end is Tangy, a stunning female acquaintance of Destin's, who has suddenly found herself needing representation after her boyfriend's corpse is found slumped outside her apartment door. Rhia decides to immediately take on the case and soon realizes she has her work cut out for her. Tangy's boyfriend Todd has a hole in the side of his head and there is no murder weapon to be found. Without any witnesses to question, Rhia knows time is not on her side as the police are ready to charge Tangy with the murder even though they have no real evidence other than a dead body outside her door. As clues begin to surface, Rhia knows she must find out the truth at all cost. Anything can happen as Rhia relies on all her investigative skills to solve the case, but if she's not careful, she may just sacrifice her life in the process.

The job seems easy enough at first for private investigator Andy Hayes: save his client’s reputation by retrieving a laptop and erasing a troublesome video from its hard drive. But that’s before someone breaks into Andy’s apartment in Columbus; before someone else, armed with a shotgun, relieves him of the laptop; and before the FBI suddenly shows up on his doorstep asking questions. Soon, there’s a growing list of people with a claim on the computer, all of them with secrets they don’t want uncovered. When one of those people ends up dead, Andy has his hands full convincing authorities he’s not responsible, while trying to figure out who is—and who’s got the laptop—before someone else dies. Soon the trail leads to the last place Andy wants to go: back to Ohio State University, where few have forgiven him for a mistake he made two decades earlier in his days as the Buckeyes’ star quarterback. That misjudgment sent him on a downward spiral that cost him a playing career, two marriages, several wrecked relationships, and above all his legacy in Ohio’s capital city, where the fortunes of the OSU team are never far from people’s minds. As Andy tracks a laptop and a killer from the toniest of the city’s suburbs to its grittiest neighborhoods, he must confront a dark figure from his past and prove that this time he won’t drop the ball.

Under different circumstances, a week at a rustic lesbian retreat would undoubtedly bring much-needed rest and tranquility. But unless she can track down a ruthless killer, Cassidy James may be headed for another sort of peace and quiet—the kind that comes with headstones!!! Someone is trying to kill Dr. Allison Crane, head physician at a Portland women’s clinic and president of Women On Top, the influential lesbian organization to which she has willed her substantial estate. Reviewing the evidence, Private Investigator Cassidy James quickly deduces that the culprit is someone close to Allison—someone who knows the intimate details of her daily life. Posing as Allison’s new girlfriend, Cassidy accompanies her to a Women On Top retreat deep in the Oregon wilderness, hoping to lure the would-be murderer into the open. With danger lurking just outside their cabin, the undercover detective discovers that the alluring Allison wants her under-the-sheets as well—and the feeling is overwhelmingly mutual…

Once Ed Buck, sports reporter, and Adam Benson, star quarterback for the Chicago Bears, played football on the same college team. Years later, they are still close friends. In New York for a game against the Giants, Benson hands Buck the biggest story of his career. Gambling on football is one of the country's leading "industries," and the mob's been forcing Benson to throw games. The quarterback has had enough. Sunday, he tells Buck, he's playing to win, and to hell with the mob. After the game, Buck can run with the story. Adam Benson never makes it off the field alive, and Ed Buck suspects his friend was murdered. Buck knows barely enough to convince a police detective to look into Benson's death--but more than enough to set the mob on his tail. As Lt. Gerry Keegan probes the tangled connections between the dead quarterback and the head of an organized crime family, uncovering drug dealing, murder, blackmail, prostitution, and double- and triple-crosses, Ed Buck and his fiancee run for their lives. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When the 1905 football season ended, nineteen players were dead and countless others were critically injured. The public was outraged. The game had reached a make-or-break moment?fourth down and inches. Coaches, players, fans, and even the president of the United States had one last chance: change football or leave the field. Football's defenders managed to move the chains. Rule changes and reforms after 1905 saved the game and cleared the way for it to become America's most popular sport. But they didn't fix everything. Today, football faces a new injury crisis as dire as 1905's. With increased awareness about brain injury, reported concussions are on the rise among football players. But experts fear concussions may only be the tip of the iceberg. The injuries are almost invisible, but the stakes couldn't be higher: the brains of millions of young football players across the country. Award-winning author Carla Killough McClafferty takes readers on a bone-crunching journey from football's origins to the latest research on concussion and traumatic brain injuries in the sport. Fourth Down and Inches features exclusive photography and interviews with scientists, players, and the families of athletes who have literally given everything to the game. It's fourth and inches. Can football save itself again?