Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer
This groundbreaking look inside the world of professional football is one of the first books ever to take readers into the locker room and reveal the inner workings of a professional sports franchise. From training camp, through the historic Ice Bowl, then into the locker room of Super Bowl II, Kramer provides a captivating player’s perspective on pro football when the game was all blood, grit, and tears. He also offers a rare and insightful view of the team’s storied leader, Coach Vince Lombardi.
Bringing the book back into print for the first time in more than a decade, this new edition of Instant Replay retains the classic look of the original and includes a foreword by Jonathan Yardley and additional rarely seen photos from the celebrated “Lombardi era.” As vivid and engaging as it was when it was first published, Instant Replay is an irreplaceable reminder of the glory days of pro football.
Reviews (131)
Still one of the best sports books ever written
I was in seventh grade when I finally decided to play football. One reason was I was born to play the game; strong, relatively fast and pretty smart. The other was because I read Instant Replay. I found out that football players weren’t what I thought. My perceptions were that football players weren’t intelligent and that the game was brutish. I found out I was very wrong. Jerry Kramer’s book informed me that football players were like everyone, full of comedians, dedicated players, and thoughtful people like him. The book taught me I could be a bookworm and be a football player. Plus, I played offensive line, and I found the book to be an invaluable guide on how to be a lineman. Over 45 years later the book still speaks to me on the thrills and disasters of playing football. I’m sure many young boys were introduced to the game through his book, and I’m glad he has finally made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There is no doubt that if the HOF is for those players who have made an impact on the game, Jerry Kramer and Instant Replay deserve a place there.
Essential for any NFL fan
As a Gen-Xer, I wasn't around during what was surely an exciting time for football fans. A new league had arisen to challenge the NFL for dominance! Soon it was decided that the Champion of the AFL would play the Champion of the NFL in a special game called the SUPER BOWL. I always wondered what it must have felt like to be in the atmosphere of those first few Super Bowl runs. Jerry Kramer was a Hall of Fame guard for the Packers, and he kept a diary of the '67 season, and their playoff run. Culminating in the Championship game against the Cowboys, the game came down to a final yard with just seconds to play. Reading Jerry's contemporaneous journal entries that he made immediately after the games was exhilarating, and transported me back in time. Jerry's entries also give an inside look at legendary coach Vince Lombardi, who's final game as coach of the Packers came just one week later as Green Bay faced off against the Raiders in just the second ever Super Bowl. If you love the game of football and are interested in its history, this book is required reading.
Dated
I’m old enough to remember the Packer teams of the Sixties and recall their game with Dallas in the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. Kramer is straightforward in his narration about the 1967 season, but so guarded in his descriptions. Yes, Vince Lombardi was a tyrant and yes he was a good man, but being a raving screamer one minute and ruffling your hair the next doesn’t capture that. A good sports book needs the type of gritty, vulgar insanity pro teams generate. Kramer skims over issues of race, homosexuality, feminism ... in 1967? I did like reading about how these athletes scrambled to make money on the side. Their salaries are painfully small for the physical sacrifices they made. Instant Replay is ok, but unremarkable.
The gold standard for books written by athletes.
Many football players are stereotyped as "dumb jocks". Jerry Kramer emphatically dispels that myth with this fantastic work of literature which has stood the test of time. The future Hall of Fame right guard gives the reader unprecedented insider access to one of the great teams in National Football League history, led by its iconic coach and buttressed by several men who now have a bronze bust in Canton. With Kramer now in the Hall of Fame, every football fan should read (or re-read) Instant Replay. That goes without saying if you are a Cheesehead.
Lombardi thinks of himself as the patriarch of a large family, and he loves all his children, and he worries about all of them, but he demands more of his gifted children.
From the time of being a young girl who watched my big brothers play highschool football together. Johnny was a halback and Jerry was a quarterback in our small town, Greenville, Michigan. Coach Smith was their coach. Everyone loved him. He would flood the school playground every year across the street from our house. I begged him to let girls play football. My brothers taught me how to throw a spiral. Reading Instant Replay and the agony of Nutcracker drills, freezing weather, being cussed out by the coach, I know I couldn't have played football. Love, love, to be a spectator!! Great book!!!
A Classic
Before there was Ball Four's behind the scenes look at baseball, Kramer's diary of the 1967 Packers is a fantastic book. It came out when I was 3. As the years past, the book was on the shelf. All my brothers read it. I don't know why I decided to read it in late 2020, but I am so glad I did. A really fascinating look at football in the '60's and the Packer dynasty. Really highlights the impact of Vince Lombardi. I absolutely recommend this, and 50+ years later, it hasn't lost any relevance.
and smart. He is also humble and likeable
Along with Jim Bouton's Ball Four, Instant Replay may well be one of the most important sports books ever written. While the book is as much about Vince Lombardi as the Green Bay Packers, and is virtually a paean to the Coach, Kramer also pulls the curtain aside from the inner workings of the locker room, and the experience of being a professional athlete, albeit in a different era. Very readable and entertaining, Kramer is not just a grunt, and in fact resents the stereotype of the "dumb jock." He is articulate, witty, and smart. He is also humble and likeable.
The diary of Jerry Kramer, other wise know as Instant Replay, written in 1968 by Jerry Kramer, is one of the best books
I have ever read. I have read if four tmmes and lost the book years ago and have been trying to find another copy since. I liked the way Mr. Kramer described the day to day activities of the Packers, one of the greatest teams ever in the NFL. I loved the relationship he had with Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Paul Hourning and all the other players he work with daily on the team. It is a book that a simple fan, like me, can read, enjoy and re-read several times. There was nothing I disliked about this book, it is just an excelent read. I can not compare it to any other publications because I have not read any. This was a book that I picked up with curosity in mind, started to read and could not put it down. I read it over and over. I really had no expectations of what should happen or why etc, but this powerful fun and readable book is just the diamond in the wild of books. Thank you for alowing me to submit this review. Stan
Great Book About an Extraordinary Man
Great book about an amazing team and one of the two greatest coaches of our lifetime-Vince Lombardi. Not surprising when his players speak of Coach Lombardi (and UCLA’s Coach Wooden), they speak as much or more about the life lessons he taught as they do about his ability to drive their team to victory which in Coach Lombardi’s case was five world titles in eight years.
It really is the gold standard of sports autobiographies.
First read this when I played football in high school. Fifty years later I still loved reading every word on every page. A true treasure of a book.
Comments
Post a Comment