Usually, I don’t start my guest spotlights of an author by sharing my book review and other reviews already on Amazon first.

This is not an ordinary special guest spotlight with Randy being a first-time best-selling Amazon Author; I’m kind of excited to get to the good stuff first. Please, meet Randy Grimes, an awesome friend, and I’ll share all about him and his amazing wife with you after the reviews. Since he and his wife are attending their 13th Super Bowl in Calf., I thought I would have him as my Special Guest Author to share his fantastic new book!

Randy Grimes is a former professional football player who played his whole NFL career for the Tampa Bay Bucs. He was drafted right out of college, playing for Baylor University. Just a little boy from Tyler, Texas, who had big dreams of just playing the game and sport of football. But, he never knew addiction was lying in wait years later.

That is a smidge of what you learn while reading his new memoir titled “Off Center: A Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, and Redemption in Professional Football.” It has been a long journey for Randy to get this exceptional book written and to the finish line to release.

And, “how sweet it is” that it was released right before the Super Bowl ~ 2022!

Of course, Randy and Lydia have been busy in California with all the Super Bowl festivities and soaking in the sun while Randy does his NFL duties (lol), like Radio Row at the Super Bowl this past week. Not only to promote and share his new memoir but share a message of HOPE. Also, sharing what he and Lydia and other former pro athletes do through their organization of https://proathletesinrecovery.org/our-story/ that I highly suggest everyone should take a visit!

CAT’S BOOK REVIEW FOR:

Off Center: A Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, and Redemption in Professional Football

by Randy Grimes and (Forward) by Mike Ditka | Feb 4, 2022

CAT’S REVIEW:

I am an Avid Cat Reader!

5.0 out of 5 stars “I Need More Than Five Stars to Rate!”

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2022

Off-Center by Author Randy Grimes is a former NFL Pro who played with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Unfortunately, his memoir is not your average read. Randy’s story, testimony, and intervention of another are fine examples of how anyone can be “touched” by addiction, be it a regular person or even as a sports pro.

With big dreams of playing football, a little boy from Tyler, Texas, had no idea that addiction had been lying in wait for years. That is the cunningness of any addiction. Randy’s memoir also shows how this can happen without going rogue with ego or status or being a “Party Guy.” If there is anything he knows best, Texas is known for, “The Love For Family, Faith, Church on Sunday, and FOOTBALL!

While he shares his life, past pro career, while sharing an intervention and part of the advocacy work is some of what you find between the pages of this exceptional book. With “No Shame,” the author shares the real and raw of his downfall, how he crawled on his hands and knees into a treatment center, and another example of how many athletes end up having addiction problems later in their career afterward.

It seems that when you play pro sports and have the best doctors and sports medicine professionals helping you stay in the game, and it’s over? All the author wanted to do was get rid of the pain from all the injuries he had. So sad he had no guidance after he left pro football.

Then the true miracle of faith begins to work within his life after losing just about everything he worked so hard for and to provide for his family, as he went from being lost, addicted, and spiritually broken to a man who stands tall today within redemption! And that is only the tip of the iceberg you’ll read within this fantastic memoir.

I have read many memoirs from other sports pros, and this one is not your standard braggy sports stats and facts. Everyone should read this book and learn how anyone can change and turn their lives around after addiction. Randy and Lydia help many athletes gain life from addiction while healing the whole family through several foundations.

I highly suggest parents read this memoir/book, and I enjoy reading a great book that can teach you something while cheering (for Randy) simultaneously! It’s what makes this book a must-read.

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Now, this Cat has been in the business of book promoting and marketing for an extended time. That means I’ve read many memoirs from everyday folks to many high-profile people like celebrities, sports pros, and others.

I can honestly tell you there is a little something within the pages of this book for anyone who enjoys reading.

So with that said, here is more about Randy’s book and a few more reviews for “Off Center” that share “The Why” you need to read this fantastic memoir. Since the book was released on Amazon Books and Amazon Kindle a few days ago, Randy’s biography has HIT #1 in over 6 different categories.
Now that is priceless and a darn good read!

ABOUT THE NEW MEMOIR of RANDY GRIMES

Randy Grimes quickly learned one important truth as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers top draft pick: play through pain or get cut.

This is just part of being a pro athlete, he told himself.

Growing up in Tyler, Texas, Grimes’s life was very much on center. A childhood spent in church on Sundays and on the gridiron all week turned into a football scholarship to Baylor, marriage to his college sweetheart, and a coveted NFL roster spot.

When the Bucs’ starting center began piling up brutal hits, he determined to do anything to stay in the game. If the pills prescribed by the team doctors could help, Grimes would take them.

“All in a day’s work,” he told himself.

Even before Grimes left the NFL, his life began slipping off center. Eventually, he lost almost everything he owned, the respect of his children, and very nearly his life, before tumbling out of the car and crawling on hands and knees into a treatment center—literally—into a life-changing miracle.

Off Center is Randy Grimes’s riveting story of having it all, playing the sport he loved, losing almost everything, and ultimately finding redemption and hope. Witness the addiction trap that binds millions and claims thousands of lives each year—and the steps Grimes took to reclaim his life and guide others.

Today Grimes and his wife, Lydia, stage drug and alcohol interventions for professional athletes, celebrities, business leaders, and everyday Americans to find recovery from addiction.

Recovery has become his playbook. His treatment center colleagues are his team. And those with addiction are his community.

Above all, Randy & Lydia Grimes want people to know: “Even when the world seems to be yours, there is room to fall. And even when that world seems to slip away, there is hope.


A Few More Book Reviews For “Off Center.”

“I saw something very special in Randy Grimes while recruiting him from high school to Baylor University. I saw a leader, a warrior, someone who would battle through any obstacle to reach his goals. The pages of this book just reaffirm what I already knew. Nothing, not even addiction, could ever keep Randy Grimes down. A great comeback story!”
—Grant Teaff; head coach, Baylor University 1972-1992; executive director, American Football Coaches Association; College Football Hall of Fame

“I’ve seen athletes who wanted to be great but were unwilling to do the necessary hard work over the years. Recovery is similar. Some want to be sober—but are unwilling to do what it takes. Not only did Randy do the work, but his story is the perfect example of the fruits of recovery. This book is one of those fruits!”
—”Sudden” Sam McDowell; MLB pitcher, Cleveland Indians 1961-1975; six times MLB All-Star; author, The Saga of Sudden Sam

“I played during the same time as Randy and shared his conference and in fact, faced his team twice a year. I know firsthand the pressures he faced to stay on the field. I also know the play-at-all-costs mentality that existed then. Randy accurately describes the dark side of the NFL, and what many were and still are willing to do to be the best. Great job, my NFL brother!”
—Eric Hipple; NFL QB, Detroit Lions 1980-1989; mental health advocate; author, Real Men Do Cry

I sure hope all my readers, friends, and visitors have enjoyed reading this Special Super Bowl Guest Author Spotlight all about my friend and call Randy a fellow author too! 

The image above is the most memorable day I hold dear as my hubby, “Big Tom,” and I finally met Randy and Lydia’s beautiful wife. 

They were gracious to come and speak for an event I pulled together for a friend at the Arizona State Capital to raise awareness of all addictions to share our recoveries, and it was the BEST DAY EVER! (Lol). 

Randy and I have supported one another’s recovery for almost four years. Randy and Lydia have been amazing friends and kind mentors to Tom and me. We have advocated and have networked together several times. So when I call him while I am helping someone in need of recovery or intervention advice, he is always the first to answer my call…

So we are blessed to call them both our friends.
~Cat