Sapp Attack: My Story

With his outsized personality, Sapp, a former defensive star with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, assisted by David Fisher, pulls the covers off the professional gridiron league in this blunt memoir with gleeful tidbits about the greats of the game he loved. Sapp, a Florida native, writes of his humble beginnings with a single God-fearing mother, his scrappy football high school years, and his dominance at tackle at the University of Miami. Once recruited by Tampa Bay, he doesn’t mince words about the team’s coach, Sam Wyche, but praises other helmsmen Bill Parcells, Tony Dungy, and John Gruden. It’s refreshing to hear Sapp concede that “football’s a violent game,” but that violence sells, especially in the defensive trenches of hits and sacks. He blasts wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson’s lack of professionalism, reveals that’s not champagne sprayed in the locker room because the NFL forbids alcohol, and his cordial wooing of JaMika, who later became his wife. After his successful stint with the Oakland Raiders, Sapp finds many things to do off the field: an analyst for NFL Network, a studio talking head for Inside the NFL, and a highly popular session on Dancing with the Stars. Chatty, revealing, and always candid, Sapp’s memoir takes the reader inside himself and the roller-coaster smash-mouth ride of the NFL. Agent, Frank Weimann at Literary Agency East, LTD. (Aug.)