Football Wife: Coming of Age with the NFL as Mrs. Karl Kassulke Review

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(More customer reviews)How can anyone understand what it was like to be married to an NFL star in the 60's. The protection afforded to the celebrities in those days is all but gone today. But back then the teams, the police, the restaurant and bar owners who loved to have them in their establishments did what was always done back then.
Remember not far from a time when a President of the United States was doing some of the same stuff and being covered for it.
But to read the entire story is to answer the question in the title of my review. The backdrop of the times, the family dysfunctions and the culture of "standing by your man" make the details of their relationship into answers.
Of course, the biggest answer to me was the possibility that repeated head injuries are a major factor in many of these behaviors. I played college football in those same years, and when I think of the "suspension" type helmets we had back then and my own experiences with loss of consciousness, it is a wonder someone wasn't killed. Certainly in the pro's there must be some of these guys with severe situations.
Jan Adam's observations as a Doctor upon seeing Karl's old team mates and looking at the early deaths of them might never have come to light in this way without this book. I found it interesting and thought-provoking. I would hope that it might deepen the debate over concussion affects in sports and maybe lead to some changes.
Karl died pretty young. How many minor but cumulative concussions did he endure in training camp and practice as well as the games. He was a consummate "hitter" that every coach loves to have. But he paid so much for the privileged of being able to play a game that he and I loved very much. They paid the price without the multi-million dollar salaries of today but as Jan explains in the book, he really didn't care much about that. He loved being a force on the field and a part of a great team.

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Midwest Book Review august 2011Football WifeJan Thatcher AdamsFranklin Green Publishingfootballwifethebook.com9781936487042, $16.95,amazon.comThere is an ever growing library of memoirs and biographies of professionalfootball players. What is far more infrequent is a candid memoir pennedby the wife of a professional football player. "Football Wife: Coming of Age with the NFL as Mrs. Karl Kassulke" is an exceptional example ofjust such an autobiography. Jan Adams sometimes brutally candid memoiris a superbly written account by an extraordinary woman in her ownright. Adams had a twenty-five year career as a physician who in the1990s accompanied Dr. Patch Adamson a tour through Russian hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, refugeecamps, and more. Perhaps her crowning professional achievement wasfounding Maria's Children International, a nonprofit organizationdedicated to providing art supports and funding to more than 600 Russian orphans, as well as similar projects in Mexico. But while herprofessional career was exemplary, her marriage to Viking NFL playerKarl Kassulke (whom she met playing 'powderpuff' football) was not."Football Wife" is a story that incorporates drug abuse, alcoholism,marital infidelity, the impact of the cult of personality. It is also apersonal history of a series of medical problems that began when Adamssuffered a head injury in a traffic accident in 1985; spinal problemsand a paralyzed leg in 2002; an undiagnosed severe illness in Russia in2007 only to be followed by a diagnosis of cancer later that same year;reconstructive foot surgery in 2010; and the necessity of a pacemakerinstalled in 2011. In "Football Wife" the reader is informed of the good times and the bad times, it is an remarkable account of struggle,failure, and ultimate redemption. A gripping read from beginning to end, "Football Wife" is deftly written, keenly insightful, occasionallyinspiring, the singular life of a singular woman, and especiallyrecommended reading for anyone struggling with familial issuescomplicated by medical traumas, and impacted by celebrity, success, andthe siren call of hubris.