Fantasy football

A Few Seconds of Panic

A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old

Sportswriter Plays in the NFL

Stefan Fatsis

Penguin: 340 pp., $25.95

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GeORGE PLIMPTON, the longtime editor of the Paris Review, enjoyed a second literary career when he turned Walter Mitty-like athletic fantasies into reality. He pitched against Willie Mays and other All-Star baseball players (recounted in "Out of My League"), sparred with lightweight champ Archie Moore ("Shadow Box") and played goalie for the Boston Bruins ("Open Net").

In the summer of 1963, Plimpton infiltrated the Detroit Lions' training camp as a third-string quarterback and, with "Paper Lion," produced his finest work of participatory sports journalism. Here was the Harvard-educated jester, mucking it up with the hard-hitting behemoths of the NFL. He survived by detailing, with deadpan hilarity, his many mishaps (including not knowing where to place his hands to receive the snap from center). "Paper Lion" remains a classic -- ranking eighth on Sports Illustrated's list of the top 100 sports books -- and was later turned into a film starring Alan Alda.

Plimpton was following in the footsteps of Paul Gallico, the acerbic New York Daily News sportswriter who challenged Jack Dempsey and swam against Johnny Weissmuller. But it's Plimpton's jock musings that have inspired a generation of Mittys: Gary Paulsen raced sled dogs in the Iditarod ("Winterdance") and Joshua Davis grappled with sumo wrestlers ("The Underdog"). Warren St. John's "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" was a road trip into the mania of fans of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide.

Plimpton's true heir may well be Stefan Fatsis. In 2001, the Wall Street Journal writer (and National Public Radio commentator) scored with "Word Freak," an alphabetical adventure through the competitive Scrabble subculture. Now, for "A Few Seconds of Panic," Fatsis joins the Denver Broncos as a place-kicker at their 2006 training camp.

Since the publication of "Paper Lion," professional football has come to rival Major League Baseball as our national obsession. In 1963, the NFL had 14 teams (including the Los Angeles Rams), and CBS paid $4.6 million annually to televise the games. Pete Rozelle, the whiz-kid commissioner from Compton High, hadn't yet invented the Super Bowl. Today, there are 32 teams (none in the L.A. market) and their various television contracts are worth more than $3 billion a year. Put another way: After practice, Plimpton sipped homemade lemonade. Fatsis guzzles Gatorade, an official corporate sponsor of the NFL.