You Ought to Do a Story About Me: Addiction an Unlikely Friendship and the Endless Quest for Redemption

About this book

This masterpiece of dogged and loving reporting will astonish you and touch your heart. The struggles and quest for redemption of football star Jackie Wallace make for a fall-from-grace tale thats both unsettling and uplifting.Walter Isaacson author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci The heartbreaking timeless and redemptive story of the transformative friendship binding a fallen-from-grace NFL player and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who meet on the streets of New Orleans offering a rare glimpse into the precarious world of homelessness and the lingering impact of systemic racism and poverty on the lives of NOLAs citizens. In 1990 while covering a story about homelessness for the New Orleans Times-Picayune Ted Jackson encountered a drug addict sleeping under a bridge. After snapping a photo Jackson woke the man. Pointing to the daily newspaper by his feet the homeless stranger looked the photojournalist in the eye and said You ought to do a story about me. When Ted asked why he was stunned by the answer. Because Ive played in three Super Bowls. That chance meeting was the start of Teds thirty-year relationship with Jackie Wallace a former NFL star who rose to the pinnacle of fame and fortune only to crash and lose it all. Getting to know Jackie Ted learned the details of his life and how he spiraled into the vortex of darkness that left him addicted and living on the streets of New Orleans. Ted chronicles Jackies life from his teenage years in New Orleans through college and the NFL to the end of his pro career and the untimely death of his motherdevastating events that led him into addiction and homelessness. Throughout Ted pays tribute to the enduring friendship he shares with this man he has come to know and also look at as an inspiration. But Ted is not nave; he speaks frankly about the vulnerability of such a relationship: Can a man like Jackie recover or is he destined to roam the streets until his end? Tragic and triumphant inspiring and unexpected You Ought to Do a Story About Me offers a rare glimpse into the precarious world of homelessness and the lingering impact of racism and poverty on the lives of NOLAs citizens. Lyrical and evocative Teds account is pure singular and ambitiousa timeless tale about loss redemption and hope in their multifarious forms. This book will melt your heart. The story of Jackie Wallace is an unforgettable tale of hope grace and the miracle of the human spirit. Ted Jackson writes with searing honesty and deep love for a troubled man who started as his subject and became his lifelong friend.Jonathan Eig bestselling author of Ali: A Life and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig