A cop-turned-coach takes youth from gang-ridden streets to the gridiron From the author of Irish Thunder comes the true story about the collision of violent crime and high school football in a tough New England town. Friday Night Lights meets Boyz n the Hood in this book about a football coach—also a cop on the gang beat—who pulls kids off the streets and puts them on the field with a combination of kindness and intimidation. In Breakdown (whose title alludes to a pregame psyche-up ritual), Bob Halloran gets inside the life-or-death struggles of student athletes from the Bloods, Crips, MS-13s, and Latin Kings in Chelsea, Massachusetts—the Boston area's cruelest city. While exploring the anger, fear, and violence of these young men, he follows the Chelsea Red Devils as they vie for a championship and the players try making football their way out. Meanwhile, tough-love coach James Atkins serves as a cop in the Chelsea Police Department’s Gang Unit, asking for his players’ blood, sweat, and tears on the field . . . and hoping their blood doesn’t spill off it. Will football be their way to a better life, or will street life forever haunt them?
