Book Review: Sidelined: Overcoming Odds through Unity, Passion, and Perseverance by Chuck Pagano et al.

 Life will only test you as much as you can handle, so when finally landing your dream job and you feel that you have achieved everything that you wanted, a cancer diagnosis is not just throwing a wrench into your plans, but it is putting your whole life at risk and turning everything upside down. But just that happened to Chuck Pagano, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

 I picked this book because even though I do not watch football games all the time, I had heard of Chuck Pagano's illness and the Chuckstrong movement. I remember listening to updates about his health and how happy everyone, including opposing team members were, when Chuck returned to his coaching job. So this book to me presented a unique insight into fighting cancer very publicly, while still trying to allow the focus be on the team.

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 I have had too many people close to me affected by cancer, some recovered, too many died. No battle was easy and even if someone recovered, it was a draining experience to say the least. Too have to undergo that fight in public, affiliated with a team that makes national headlines every week, in my opinion makes the fight even tougher.

This book does not sugarcoat anything, cancer sucks and there are many depressing, hard days to overcome. Chuck Pagano was lucky to beat the cancer, but like most other people, it left him changed and in some ways scarred as well. But what cancer could not affect was the fighter that Chuck Pagano was and will always be and in that sense, this book is immensely life affirming and provides maybe a deeper insight into what makes Chuck Pagano successful as a human and a coach than any lecture on coaching philosophy will.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book by Booklook in exchange for an honest review. The opinion expressed in this post have not been influenced by any third party.