Without question, Semi-Tough is Jenkins' masterpiece. As a high school kid, I wanted to be Billy Clyde Puckett...the bursts of laughter still erupt each time I pick it up.

Two stud hosses from Ft.Worth, having starred at TCU, find themselves together in NYC and playing for the football Giants. They've got themselves a little old date in LaLaLand with the...Jets in what you call your Super Bowl. Puckett tells the story (in first person) of the days leading up to the game by taking a small tape recorder wherever he goes. Along with his counterpart, one Marvin "Shake" Tiller, and the gorgeous and talented Barbara Jane Bookman, Puckett waxes poetic on everything under the sun, particularly the hypocrisy associated with such an event as the Super Bowl in LA. It's lewd, raunchy, politically incorrect, and about as funny a read as you'll ever find...

It is incredibly politically incorrect, replete with satiric racial and sexist slurs, full of (as an old song goes) cigarettes whiskey and wild, wild women, but despite that, and more likely in part because of that, this is the single funniest sports book ever written. Nominally about two characters from Texas who play for the New York Giants in the 70s, this is wonderful satire about sports, athletes, and life in general, and the fact that it is out of print is mind boggling. Burt Reynolds gave a pretty good performance as the immortal running back Billy Clyde Puckett, but youve GOT to read this book to truly appreciate Dan Jenkins' biting satiric wit.

this is nothing less than a minor classic about the New York Giants, told 'first person' politically correct racial slurs of all time, and the race card is indeed a recurring issue throughout the book (the star RB who is supposedly 'writing' the book is a white guy), once again showing the era that it was written in as being a much different time. Buyer Beware!