What Winners Won’t Tell You: Lessons from a Legendary Defender

In this middle-of-the-road debut memoir, former NFL defensive back and two-time Super Bowl winner Jenkins highlights his triumphs on the field and his social activism off of it. Jenkins grew up in New Jersey in the 1990s and became a standout on the gridiron during high school. He went on to play for the Ohio State University and was picked by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. When writing about sports, Jenkins often sticks to platitudes (“We were only as good as our weakest link”)—only his granular descriptions of specific plays (including one where he bested New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who provides the book’s brief foreword) help set them apart. And even some football fans may raise an eyebrow at Jenkins’s attitude toward the toll the sport can take on its players: when describing a tackle he made that caused a concussion, he writes, “I hate to see that happen, especially knowing what we know about the effects of brain trauma,” before admitting that he’d do the same thing “a hundred times over.” More successful are sections where Jenkins discusses his Philadelphia-area organizing efforts, including protests and legislative meetings, after the 2016 shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling; his stance on kneeling during the national anthem (he calls it a “perfect” protest); and his efforts to educate NFL leadership about racial justice. Not much here defies expectations, but for football fans, it’s diverting enough. Agent: Daniel Kirschen, ICM Partners. (Oct.)