Friday, July, 4, 2008

Jason Peter will be speaking about his new memoir, Hero of the Underground, next week in Bergen County.

Jason Peter grew up in Middletown, New Jersey as one of three football-playing brothers who starred for their high school team.  He went on to become an All-American at the University of Nebraska, playing for legendary coach Tom Osborne and co-captaining a national champion team.  He was a first-round professional draft pick and played four years in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers, before being forced to retire by repeated injuries to his neck and shoulders.

But after retirement, his addiction to painkillers soon led him to other drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin. In his new memoir Hero of the Underground (St. Martin’s Press), Peter recounts his childhood in New Jersey, his years as a college and professional player, and his life as an addict in New York and Los Angeles, which brought him to the brink of suicide. Peter eventually kicked drugs and is now married and living in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he co-hosts an ESPN radio show.

Hero of the Underground is a remarkably honest cautionary tale, praised by bestselling author Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) as “a savage, unsparing, eye-popping ride through the dark soul of big money, endless drugs, American manhood, and our national pastime—self destruction.”  Advance reviews have called it “unflinching” (Publishers Weekly) and “harrowing” (Kirkus Reviews). 

Jason Peter will speak about his life and sign his book on Wednesday, July 9 at 7:30 pm at Barnes & Noble, 765 Rt. 17 S., Paramus, NJ, and on Thursday, July 10 at 7:00 pm at Bookends, 232 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ.