Football Wife: Coming of Age with the NFL as Mrs. Karl Kassulke

Midwest Book Review august 2011 Football Wife Jan Thatcher Adams Franklin Green Publishing footballwifethebook.com 9781936487042 $16.95 amazon.com There is an ever growing library of memoirs and biographies of professional football players. What is far more infrequent is a candid memoir penned by the wife of a professional football player. "Football Wife: Coming of Age with the NFL as Mrs. Karl Kassulke" is an exceptional example of just such an autobiography. Jan Adams sometimes brutally candid memoir is a superbly written account by an extraordinary woman in her own right. Adams had a twenty-five year career as a physician who in the 1990s accompanied Dr. Patch Adams on a tour through Russian hospitals orphanages nursing homes refugee camps and more. Perhaps her crowning professional achievement was founding Marias Children International a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing art supports and funding to more than 600 Russian orphans as well as similar projects in Mexico. But while her professional career was exemplary her marriage to Viking NFL player Karl Kassulke (whom she met playing powderpuff football) was not. "Football Wife" is a story that incorporates drug abuse alcoholism marital infidelity the impact of the cult of personality. It is also a personal history of a series of medical problems that began when Adams suffered a head injury in a traffic accident in 1985; spinal problems and a paralyzed leg in 2002; an undiagnosed severe illness in Russia in 2007 only to be followed by a diagnosis of cancer later that same year; reconstructive foot surgery in 2010; and the necessity of a pacemaker installed in 2011. In "Football Wife" the reader is informed of the good times and the bad times it is an remarkable account of struggle failure and ultimate redemption. A gripping read from beginning to end "Football Wife" is deftly written keenly insightful occasionally inspiring the singular life of a singular woman and especially recommended reading for anyone struggling with familial issues complicated by medical traumas and impacted by celebrity success and the siren call of hubris.Additional information - The compelling funny and poignant story of the unlikely marriage of a pro football player and an aspiring doctor. Jan Thatcher a wide-eyed Iowa freshman coed met Karl Kassulke in 1962 at Drake University in Des Moines Iowa where he was a football hero about to enter the world of NFL football. Told from Jans perspective Football Wife is set in a time when America was rapidly changing from conservative to free wheeling from closet alcoholism to an awakening to the consequences of alcohol abuse. All the while the sexual racial and womens revolutions were raging. A true story told with memories of love and compassion its cautionary message offers hope to anyone struggling with destructive issues in their relationships.