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3 unusual facts about Stefan Fatsis


Stefan Fatsis

Fatsis trained as a placekicker and spent the summer of 2006 as a member of the Denver Broncos during the team's training camp (similar to the premise of George Plimpton's 1966 book Paper Lion).

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 with a degree in American Civilization.

He is the author of three books: Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America's Heartland (1995); Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players (2001), about the subculture of tournament Scrabble, in which Fatsis immersed himself as a player; and A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL (2008).


Paul Woodside

Woodside was featured in A Few Seconds of Panic (2008), journalist Stefan Fatsis's everyman account of attending the 2006 Denver Broncos training camp as a 43-year-old placekicker.


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