Romo: My Life on the Edge: Living Dreams and Slaying Dragons [Paperback]

The Medium-Sized Train That Could.

"I think I can, I think I can" is a theme that comes to mind. "Romo" is like most sport auto-biographies: It's a quick and simple read. Plenty to get out of it, if one was a little inquisitive to begin with. You find out things you didn't know before reading, but were latently curious about. In "Slaying Dragons and Chasing dreams" you can learn more about the life and tenacious inner and outer drives, of Bill Romanowski.

Romanowski's drive, determination, and focus, began early, like most professional athletes. One of the first motivating factors that influenced him was a "Sport Illustrated" article about Herschel Walker's workout regimen that he read in the early 1980s.

After high school, he received scholarship offers from some big-name schools and chose Boston College.

While his teammates at BC were chugging beers, Romo was chugging milk. While his team-mates were up late partying, Romo was sleeping for rest and recovery, which to him, (and correctly) was just as important as training. When drafted into the 49ers, the book suddenly turns to the nutritional, supplemental, and intense physical and mental aspects, of the ultra-competitive, NFL.

Romo focused on keeping his body in the best shape nutritionally and physically as possible. During the mid and late 90s, he educated himself about vitamins, supplements, and Eastern Medicine, much more so than most other NFL players.

Interestingly, one of the factors that motivated his hard-core intense training ethics, diet, and nutrition, was: fear.

The fear of being cut. The fear of younger players who were faster and stronger that came into the league every year. The fear of knowing that in a split second, your career is over because of an injury, even in practice. He noted how many NFL players conceal injuries from trainers and team physicians because of the fear it can undermine their market value.

NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTS:

The most interesting aspect of this book for me was his self-education, research, and consultations with doctors, nutritionists, and trainers on: vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidents, hormones, Bach Flowers, food, natural Chinese herbal medicines, Trauma IVs, daily massages, and oxygen chambers. He did consider the possibility of drinking his own urine for the nutritional benefits.

Also noted in "Romo," is Bill Phillips of the EAS supplement company and Balco's creation of the natural ZMA, a Zing and Maganesium mix.

TRAINING:

One of his top priorities - a fixation on survival in the NFL and staying in the game he loved - was staying healthy. Being in the best physical shape possible. Optimal training, nutrition, and keeping the mental edge.

Interestingly, it seemed that for an NFL football player his weight training methods were not up to par. One example, is that he didn't do squats, but did leg presses instead, (because of previous back problems) until persuaded to do squats again. Rep. ranges were changed from High reps, to low reps to maximum failure.

SPEED:

Speed: all-important, in the NFL.

His speed workout focused on acceleration and speed endurance. After carefull research and exhaustive training Romanowski was actually *faster* in the 40 yard dash in his 30s than he was at Boston College.

Near the end of the book the daily physical struggle with concussions, soreness, and basically -beatings - what football is about, began to take it's toll.

How many players have lasted as long as Romanowski did? 16 years. And, without missing a single game.

Other things explained in the book for example, is the "spitting incident" caught live on Monday Night Football, with picture perfect clarity due to high definition TV technology.

The Marcus Williams career ending assault, and why many in the NFL consider Romanowski to be a "Dirty Player." Sometimes he was....a dirty player. Squeezing testicles and breakin fingers while players are stuck in the bottom of a pile. Cheap shots in practice.

Like most auto-biobraphies it is at times, self-serving. It is worth the read.

If your looking for a memoir focused on football stories that revolve around games, practices, and office politics between management and the players, this is not the book for you. Romanowski focuses nearly exclusively on the physical preparation required to play in the NFL and more specifically, play for a long period of time.

In fact, Romanowski provides even a narrower look than that by only occassionally discussing weight and speed training and insted focusing nearly exclusively on nutrition, supplements, recovery methods, and the selfishness required by him that he believed neccessary to operate at a competitive level. This provides the reader with a unique insight that elevates this book beyond the typical cliche-ridden, ego-centric memoir of most professional atheletes.

As a long-time weight trainer, I found his insight on fighting inflammation and his recovery methods very interesting and worthy of attention. I have put several of his suggestions into play and have already benefitted by decreasing my recovery time.

I also enjoyed Romo's honesty regarding his sharing game experiences where he admits being beat by his opponents and his mea culpas when behaving badly.

Is this a book for a 13 year old? I would suggest not, is it book for a parent of an aspiring athelete, I believe its a great book for that target audience.

A good book, but not a great one. Romanowski has written from his heart and that's what appealed to me. The journey of his life so far is all about him - no bashing or tattling on others. He has an incredible amount of drive that's inspiring and he's constantly trying to improve himself. Interestingly, his motivation came from insecurity, and it seemed to me that he wrote the book partly for his own emotional therapy. There's a lot of good nutritional information for active people of all ages, but as a whole, the book might be of more interest to a high school or college level reader and/or athlete.