Jason Peter is a former first-round NFL draft pick, having played five seasons with the Carolina Panthers. After injuries forced him to retire, Peter found work at ESPN where he hosts The Spread, a sports radio program.
He is the author of Hero of the Underground, a gritty memoir detailing his life post-NFL and his attempts to deal with a debilitating addiction to painkillers. Jason is now married and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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 Hero of the Underground
A Memoir St. Martin's Griffin
I wasn't afraid of death.How could I be? I lived under death's shadow every day. When you swallow sixty Vicodin, twenty sleeping pills, drink a bottle of vodka, and still survive, a certain sense of invulnerability stays with you. When you continually use drugs with the kind of reckless determination that I did, the limit to how much heroin or crack you can ingest is not defined by dollar amounts but by the amounts your body can withstand without experiencing a seizure or respiratory failure. I found myself contemplating death again. Only this time I wasn't going to leave it to chance. I was going to buy a gun, load the thing, place the barrel in my mouth, and blow my fucking brains out. And all of my problems would be solved. |
Hero of the Underground Jason tells his addiction story with an athlete's attitude and a junkie's single-minded obsessive clarity.
Praise for Jason Peter
"Jason Peter visited Florida State College at Jacksonville last March of 2015 and delivered two incredibly moving lectures to our students concerning his battle with drug addiction. He was incredibly humble and kind throughout his visit and took time to speak with students, answer questions, and view their projects. Our faculty couldn’t be happier with the outcome and deeply thank him for sharing his story with such raw honestly. Many thanks to the folks at Macmillan for another great year!"
- Florida State College at JacksonvillePraise for Hero of the Underground
“Riveting . . . the first page took me to the top of a roller coaster and dropped me straight down.”
—Peter King, SportsIllustrated.com
“Compelling brutality . . . it’s nasty. And well worth the read.”
—ESPN.com