I Am Third (Andy Ladas)

I Am Third
By: Gale Sayers
The Viking Press Inc.
240 pages
I found this book in the free book basket at my doctor’s office
I am Third is about legendary Chicago bears running back Gale Sayers. It is a story about Sayers through the eyes of himself. The story tells us how Sayers came up from an Omaha ghetto fought through adversity with his friend Brian Piccolo and became one of the NFL’s greatest running backs. As the story moves on Sayers uses football to climb out of the depths of poverty and gain a life. He makes it to the NFL and becomes one of the most feared backs in the league. Until he severely injures a knee and his career is put in jeopardy. On top of this blow, his best friend Brian Piccolo is losing a battle against cancer. However through all of this, Sayers finds a way to climb back to the top and uses his injured knee and loss of his friend as motivation to once again become his dream of an NFL running back.
The audiences for this book are people who have adversity to fight through. Sayers makes you believe that you can fight through anything and reach what you want to reach.
The authors writing style is very relaxed and quite optimistic throughout the book. “We’re poor Gale.” “How do you say were poor? We have clothes on our back a roof over our heads and $6 in the checking account so how are we poor?” (Sayers 145)
Passages that really struck me were first the one mentioned above. That passage shows me that Sayers is very optimistic and believes that with anything you can do anything, even with $6 in the bank. Another one is: “Gale would you take 50,000 dollars right now?” “No I can’t” (Sayers 178) This passage strikes me because it just shows how honest and truthful Sayers is to turn down 50,000 dollars. A third passage is: “I was sitting at my desk in my dorm room looking at old KU football programs and looking at the Big East rushing records-Most yards, most touchdowns etc. And I cut them out and wrote underneath them: These must go.” This passage is a motivating passage because Sayers knows what he is doing and has his goals set. Any player for any sport should have the same mindset as Sayers.
I interacted very well with this book; because I play football a lot of the things and problems mentioned I can connect to. I can relate to having the urge to win every game and being the player that I can be. The third quote from above speaks to me because that’s how every single football player should be thinking. What records are in front of you, you should aim your sights at breaking them and being the best.