The Proving Ground: A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe
InThe Proving Ground: A Season on the Fringe in NFL Europe, Lars  Anderson follows the Scottish Claymores, chronicling its players and their  dreams of springing into the NFL from abroad. For football players who aren't in  the NFL because they missed the cut, had a bad tryout, or are staging a comeback  despite their age, injury, or attitude, playing elsewhere professionally, in the  Canadian Football League or the NFL Europe, provides their shot at fulfilling a  dream that won't die quietly. NFL notables such as Warren Moon and Kurt Warner  cut their teeth elsewhere before the NFL would look at them.Rather than languish on the sidelines as a backup or be resigned to the practice  squad, some gutsy players would rather startsomewhereand build a  résumé of action in real games, to be lucky enough to play  football for a living. The Claymores' coach proved equally determined. Anderson  describes him shortly after he suffered a horrible accident: "...here he was,  trying to mold a team together that could win a championship. If he could coach  through this, he believed he could coach pretty much through anything." And so  the Claymores take on the food and weather of Scotland, live in a supposedly  haunted hotel in Glasgow, and resist (or take advantage of) the excesses of  European nightlife in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, all the while playing their  hearts out for a winning season and an NFL audition that may never come.What makes this book more than just a chronology of games is that Anderson  vividly captures the motivations and personalities of the players.The  Proving Groundprovides a fresh perspective on what many players endured to  make it to the NFL.--Michael Ferch