You Ought to Do a Story About Me: Addiction, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Endless Quest for Redemption

In this raw account, Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Jackson tells the story of his friend Jackie Wallace, a former NFL cornerback whose life unraveled after he retired. Jackson vividly recounts his first meeting with Wallace in the early 1990s when Wallace, who at the time was homeless and living under the Pontchartrain Expressway in New Orleans, told him, “You ought to do a story about me.” Jackson then skillfully describes Wallace’s sensational athletic career—he played in two Super Bowls in the 1970s—and the setbacks and tragedies he’s faced, including the death of his mother, his struggles with CTE due to chronic head trauma from his time in the NFL, and heroin addiction. The narrative’s strength lies in Jackson’s lack of shyness in taking on the seedier parts of Wallace’s life, namely his abuse of both substances and people, as outlined in tales of addiction-fueled self-destruction and domestic violence (“Jackie is not a man to be idolized or championed. He is a deeply flawed and broken man—a cautionary tale if I’ve ever known one”). Gut-wrenching yet hopeful, Jackson’s work is a bracing look at the struggles and triumphs on the road to redemption. (Aug.)