8 new books for the 2015 NFL season

Some authors are already setting their sights on the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl.

3. ‘It’s Good to Be Gronk,’ by Rob 'Gronk' Gronkowski with Jason Rosenhaus

Coming out of the University of Arizona in 2010, Rob Gronkowski was hardly a household name in sports circles. All that has changed dramatically since joining the New England Patriots. Not only has he collected a Super Bowl ring, become a favorite target of quarterback Tom Brady, and quickly developed into one of the most surehanded and bruising tight ends in the National Football League, but he also has emerged as one of the league’s most fun-loving personalities. So much so that now he’s widely just known as “Gronk,” a guy who combines a “let’s party” off-field life with a miner’s work ethic on it. This autobiography, published by Jeter Publishing, ex-Yankee Derek Jeter’s new venture, aims to give readers a front-row seat to what it’s like to be the Gronk.

Here’s an excerpt from It’s Good to Be Gronk:

‘What the critics don’t understand about me is that it is my inner drive to have fun that makes me able to get up early every morning and do hard work all day long. No one outworks me, and if at the same time it can be said that no one outparties me, then that is just how it’s going to be. Look, to this day I still haven’t touched one dime of my signing bonus or NFL contract money. I live off my marketing money and haven’t blown any big bucks on expensive cars, expensive jewelry, or tattoos. Heck, I still wear my favorite pair of jeans from high school. I spend money on traveling with family and friends, and on partying, and even then I make sure the tab never gets out of hand.”

3 of 8

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.