Playing Hurt: Treating and Evaluating the Warriors of the NFL

Pro football is a punishing sport. Without team physicians, even the toughest players would not be able to battle through the injuries and grueling pain of the season. For seventeen years before, during, and after games, Dr. Pierce Scranton tended to the wounded of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

In Playing Hurt, Dr. Scranton explores the high-stakes world of treating injured pro athletes while also having to deal with team owners, general managers, head coaches, and agents. Scranton discusses the issues that are always present in pro football, whether it's the league's steroids policy or the debate about grass versus artificial turf. He provides a detailed look at how team physicians evaluate college players before the NFL draft, and he takes readers inside the draft-day "war room."

Playing Hurt includes interviews with former NFL players such as All-Pro running back Curt Warner, who describe what it is like to persevere through a physically punishing NFL season and to battle catastrophic injuries. Scranton also talks about the highs and lows of being associated with the Seahawks and working with NFL greats Chuck Knox, Steve Largent, and Tom Flores and the always controversial Brian "The Boz" Bosworth.