Down and Dirty: The Life and Crimes of Oklahoma Football

Thompson was a gifted athlete whose talents were first recognized when he was in junior high school in Oklahoma; he received statewide attention while a high school student and was recruited for Oklahoma University with a furious intensity. He arrived there in 1986. Three years later, Thompson was arrested and imprisoned for two years on a drug charge. The story of his time served in the OU football factory, ably told by the athlete himself and Penthouse special features editor Sonnenschein, is shocking indeed. It involves boosters, who gave the players money, apartments and cars; campus women, who frequently visited the football players' palatial dorm for sex with one or several team members; drugs, alcohol, bribery attempts and eventually a shooting in one player's room. Many of these shenanigans were countenanced or even encouraged by the coaches, whose only concern was fielding a winning team and who gave footballers the impression they could be forgiven anything. A tragic tale of a young life impaired, if not destroyed, by venal adults. Author tour. (Oct.)