A Life Impossible Discovering Wisdom in a Fragile Existence

From NFL player Steve Gleason, a powerful, often harrowing memoir of love, heartbreak, resilience, and remarkable triumph in the face of ALS

In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that paralyzes the entire body. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-four years old. As Steve says: he is now ten years past his expiration date.

His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Written using eye-tracking software, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city and launching him into football stardom. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Steve lost all muscle function, he can't speak without using a Stephen Hawking–type computer apparatus, and he can't even breathe on his own. This book captures Steve and his wife Michel’s unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially—and defeat it. 

This unsparing portrait argues that a person's true strength does not reside soley in one’s body, but also in the ability to face hopelessness and still be able to love and treasure life.

STEVE GLEASON played eight years for the New Orleans Saints and, in 2011, was diagnosed with ALS. Shortly after his diagnosis he founded Team Gleason, a foundation that has been a leader in raising awareness of the disease and improving the lives of those affected by it. He has been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. government’s most prestigious civilian honor, and the NCAA Inspiration Award, and in 2014, he was named Sports Illustrated Inspiration of the Year. He lives with his wife Michel and their two children in New Orleans.

JEFF DUNCAN A native of Louisville, Kentucky, is a sports columnist for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and was a member of the team that won two Pulitzer Prizes for the paper’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He is the author of Payton and Brees, Tales from the Saints Sideline, and From Bags to Riches.