Editing Paper Lion (section)

{{Short description|Book by George Plimpton}}
{{for|the 1968 film adaptation|Paper Lion (film)}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2007}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox book
<!-- |italic title = (see above) -->
| name             = Paper Lion
| image            = Plion.jpg
| caption          = Cover of the paperback edition, featuring a picture of George Plimpton
| author           = [[George Plimpton]]
| title_orig       = 
| translator       = 
| illustrator      = 
| cover_artist     = 
| country          = United States
| language         = English
| series           = 
| subject          = [[Sportswriting]]
| genre            = 
| publisher        = [[Harper (publisher)|Harper & Row]]
| pub_date         = 1966
| english_pub_date = 
| media_type       = 
| pages            = 362
| isbn             = 
| oclc             = 
| dewey            = 
| congress         = 
| preceded_by      = 
| followed_by      = 
}}

'''''Paper Lion''''' is a 1966 non-fiction book by American author [[George Plimpton]].

In 1960, Plimpton, not an athlete, arranged to pitch to a lineup of professional [[baseball]] players in an [[All-Star]] exhibition, presumably to answer the question, "How would the average man off of the street fare in an attempt to compete with the stars of professional sports?" He chronicled this experience in his book, ''Out of My League''.

To write ''Paper Lion'', Plimpton repeated the experiment in the [[National Football League]], joining the training camp of the [[1963 Detroit Lions season|1963 Detroit Lions]] on the premise of trying out to be the team's third-string [[quarterback]]. Plimpton, then 36 years old, showed how unlikely it would be for an "average" person to succeed as a professional football player. The book is an expanded version of Plimpton's two-part series which appeared in back-to-back issues of ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' in September 1964.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Plimpton|first=George|title=Zero of the Lions|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=September 7, 1964|pages=96–117}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Plimpton|first=George|title=Hut-Two-Three...Ugh!|date=September 14, 1964|pages=26–35}}</ref> The book's epilogue is also an expanded article from ''Sports Illustrated'' which appeared one year later.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Plimpton|first=George|title=The Celestial Hell of the Superfan|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=September 13, 1965|pages=104–120}}</ref>

Plimpton had contacted several teams about his idea including his hometown [[New York Giants]] and New York Titans (an [[American Football League]] team that would change their name to the [[New York Jets]]) and [[Baltimore Colts]]. The Lions finally agreed to host Plimpton in their training camp. The coaches were aware of the deception but the players were not until it became apparent that Plimpton did not know how to receive the snap from center. Despite his struggles Plimpton convinced head coach [[George Wilson (American football coach)|George Wilson]] to let him take the first five snaps of the annual intra-squad scrimmage conducted in [[Pontiac, Michigan]].  Plimpton managed to lose yardage on each play.

Feeling confident he could do better, Plimpton hung around training camp one more week as the team prepared for its first pre-season game against the [[Cleveland Browns]], being sure if the Lions had a big enough lead near the end of the game, Wilson would let him play.  However, team officials informed Plimpton at halftime that NFL Commissioner [[Pete Rozelle]] would not allow him to play under any circumstance. The next day Plimpton packed up and ended his experiment.  Before he left, however, the Lions awarded him a gold football that was engraved: "To the best rookie football player in Detroit Lions history."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Valk|first=Garry|title=Letter from the Publisher|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=September 13, 1965|pages=4}}</ref>

The book is memorable as one of the first to showcase the personalities of the players and coaches and what happens off the field. Figuring prominently in the book are [[linebacker]] [[Wayne Walker (linebacker)|Wayne Walker]], [[quarterback]] [[Milt Plum]], future Hall of Famers [[cornerback]] [[Dick Lane (American football)|Dick "Night Train" Lane]] and [[middle linebacker]] [[Joe Schmidt (American football)|Joe Schmidt]], and [[defensive tackle]] [[Alex Karras]], among others. However, Karras' inclusion is exclusively through the stories about him told by teammates, coaches and other team personnel. Karras missed the 1963 season serving a suspension for gambling on football games.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Maule|first=Tex|title=Players are not just People|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=April 29, 1963|pages=22–26}}</ref>

Prior to ''Paper Lion'', Plimpton had pitched to major league baseball players and sparred with [[boxing]] great [[Archie Moore]], but the success of this book, which was later adapted into a [[Paper Lion (film)|1968 film]] starring [[Alan Alda]] as Plimpton, helped launch a kind of second career for Plimpton as an everyman athlete. Plimpton followed ''Paper Lion'' with books about [[golf]] and [[ice hockey]], as well as two more football books.

In an interview with Tom Bean and Luke Poling, the filmmakers of the documentary, ''[[Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself]]'', [[Joe Schmidt (American football)|Joe Schmidt]] talked about how the team reacted to Plimpton's presence. "He tried to blend in with the rest of the team, but after a while you could just see that George wasn't much of an athlete. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure that one out. You're in training camp and you're all pretty good football players, and George comes along, and he's sort of emaciated looking, you know he's not too physical of a specimen. And he couldn't throw the ball more than 15 yards."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://plimptonmovie.com/paper-lion/mr-detroit-lion-on-plimpton |title=Mr. Detroit Lion on Plimpton |website=plimptonmovie.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306154158/http://plimptonmovie.com/paper-lion/mr-detroit-lion-on-plimpton |archive-date=March 6, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 9, 2016}}</ref>