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For readers who enjoy football, gravitate toward memoirs, or want insights into growing up black in the fifties, this book gives all that and more. It is a frank look into the hard knock life of a black man from his childhood in Waco, Texas, up through his National Football League career and beyond. Barnes was a 1967 college football player when school desegregation was a fresh experiment for everyone. He describes his interaction with other students: "We had a lot of adjustments to make in feeling out personal and racial boundaries..."
The author's autobiography is horrific in some parts, but Barnes doesn't seek pity. He simply says how it was, what he did about it, and how his outlook evolved. He navigated the years with style, grace, and grit. "...playing while black in Dallas at that time was terrible. In terms of living conditions and being able to grow and develop and have opportunities, Dallas just wasn't there," writes Barnes. Readers will be stunned by the strength it must've taken to have succeeded against such adversity.
For football fans, the book is extra rich. Barnes, ultimately a Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders in the seventies, describes the practices, the injuries, the backroom deals, and the politics behind the scenes of the NFL. The result isn't pretty or flattering to the league. Barnes, a supreme athlete in his formative years, has reached a pinnacle again, this time as a writing talent. His book is awakening and thought-provoking. It will assuredly help any reader understand what it was like growing up as a black youth in America during the fifties and sixties. It is a poignant book describing generational trauma and healing amidst the backdrop of sports.