Feasel's husband, Grant, played pro football from 1983 to 1992. During that time, it seemed as if Cyndy Feasel led a charmed life. She was a traditional Southern Christian woman married to an NFL center and long snapper. She joined NFL wives during games, wore a mink coat, and owned a lovely, but modest, house in Texas. But beneath the lights and glamour, Feasel's life descended into an isolated domestic nightmare, shaped by her husband's addiction, domestic violence, and CTE.
Linked to the helmet-to-helmet collisions players experience in the NFL, CTE is a degenerative brain disease associated with aggression, impulse-control problems, and depression.
After the Cheering Stops is a clear, stark analysis of the high cost of fame for professional footballers in the US: Hours-long pregame taping and rehabilitation rituals, frightening slams on the field, and drinks and painkillers back at home.
This memoir lacks so much of the personal account that draws me in with memoir genre books, so it isn't that enjoyable a read, but Feasel does give us one of the clearest moment-by-moment accounts of the horrors of codependency, domestic violence, and the ways addiction ravages the soul.
________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”