That trip earned me a book deal with HarperCollins and an introduction to my editor, David Hirshey, and his associate editor, Barry Harbaugh. We shook hands and became partners. But what started as business has evolved into friendship. This book is a product of that evolution. David and Barry let me find my voice without telling me where to find it: a gift I will keep forever.
After a failed attempt at writing in Denver, I packed up and left for L.A., where I wrote this book in steadfast seclusion. Friends, family, lovers: I turned away from everyone to focus on my work. To all of those people, thank you for your patience and understanding.
Many thanks are also due to the west side establishments that provided me food and coffee and ignored my brooding presence: The Cow’s End, GTA, Abbot’s Habit, Intelligentsia, 212 Pier, 18th St. Coffee House, and every public library in West Los Angeles, including the always entertaining main branch downtown. The library dwellers and Venice street kids provided me endless inspiration to complete this book.
I moved in a daily loop on my beach cruiser from Washington Boulevard in Marina Del Rey through Abbot Kinney in Venice and up Main Street in Santa Monica, back up to Lincoln Boulevard and south toward home, where I checked my mailbox for brainfood from my pen pal, Vanessa. Her steady, vulnerable honesty allowed me to be honest with myself, a gift for which I can never repay her.
At night I went to my second family’s home for food and more counsel. Barrick Prince and Bea Poirier fed me and listened to the daily ramblings of a madman. A few times a week I plugged in a guitar and jammed with Colin Kelly and Ged Bauer. The spirit of the jam lives in this book.
Some days I was elated with a breakthrough. Others I thought I was worthless, doing nothing, hopeless, lazy. Then one day, I looked up and I’d written a book. I took a deep breath and turned back to those I’d turned from, and they were still there for me.
And lastly, thank you to my eternally supportive and loving parents, Ross and Marilyn; to my brother, Tom; and to the rest of my family and friends. From childhood to manhood, the love has been constant, and has shaped my outlook on life. I was a lucky boy. I am a lucky man.
Writing this book was like pulling a huge splinter out of my body. Thank you to everyone who helped me build the tweezers.
About the Author
NATE JACKSON played six seasons in the National Football League as a wide receiver and a tight end. His writing has appeared in Deadspin, Slate, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. A native of San Jose, California, he now lives in Los Angeles. This is his first book.
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Credits
Cover photograph © Andy Cross / Denver Post via Getty Images (player); Todd Taulman
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Copyright
SLOW GETTING UP. Copyright © 2013 by Nate Jackson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Random House, Inc., for use of an excerpt from Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes.
FIRST EDITION
Epub Edition SEPTEMBER 2013 ISBN 9780062108043
Jackson, Nate.
Slow Getting Up : a story of NFL survival from the bottom of the pile / Nate Jackson.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-06-210802-9
1. Jackson, Nate. 2. Football players--United States--Biography. I. Title.
GV939.M29J33 2013
796.332092--dc23
[B]
2013011427
13 14 15 16 17 ov/rrd 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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