Snake: The Legendary Life of Ken Stabler Paperback – August 15, 2017

Great book! Freeman, with wonderful contributions from the Stabler family, gives football fans an excellent and insightful portrait of one of the most underrated players in NFL history. Kenny Stabler is often forgotten when we think about great quarterbacks. Mike Freeman explains why that is a big mistake. Stabler wasn't just a great quarterback-he exemplified a style of play and passion for the game that we often don't see anymore.For football fans, this is a great book. For Raider fans, this is a must-read. It's right up there with Peter Richmond's "Badasses".Go buy this book.

A very in depth view into the multi faceted life of Ken Stabler contains both the good times and tough times. This book was very interesting, well written and comprehensive in looking into Stabler’s life and putting it all together in this excellent biography.

Would love to give this 5 stars -- Snake is the reason I'm a pro football fan. Fact-checking in this book missed a few key points. There are contradiction when the same story is referenced in multiple places, and this happens for several stories. I'm not criticizing Snake's life -- that's part of what drew me to being a fan of his (and developing a taste for whiskey myself!). Loved Snake. What I am criticizing is the lack of thoroughness of the research. The worst one in my opinion is this:P. 22 The Italian Campaign:Sometime between 1926 and 1930 he (William Edgar Stabler) moved his family of two sons and three daughters to Foley, in Baldwin County. There the youngest son, Jimmy, was born. … Jimmy was Kenny’s grandfather.”Not possible. Snake was born Dec. 25, 1945. Yet, Leroy ‘Slim’ Stabler (Snake’s dad) was in Europe, including fighting in Anzio, from late November 1943 to mid-July 1944. If Jimmy was really Kenny’s grandfather, and was thus born in 1930 or later, there’s no way Jimmy would have a son old enough to enlist to fight in WWII in 1943. Hell, Jimmy himself wasn't old enough to enlist to fight in WWII. Jimmy has to be Snake's uncle.Rather, using Ancestry.com’s records, this appears to be the case:2 May 1923, Leroy Stabler was born in Alabama; his father was (William) Edgar Stabler (Snake's grandfather, born in 1894), his mother Marie Williams. Leroy’s wife was Myrtle Margaret Osborne Stabler. A 1923 birth for Snake’s dad makes a lot more sense.

This book deserves a 5 star rating because like other "look at me" athletes are all about show and that's all you see. This book covers everything from college football at Alabama, to partying to NFL, to more partying and collecting women like game balls and none if it is sugar coated. You wanna Snake, read this book and you'll damn near know him like a teammate without actually collecting a laundromat full of women's undergarments with him!! Snake taught teammates, children, family, coaches, and Raider fans, you can have fun playing the game by being who you are and not listen to all your critics. And at the same time, he was one of the most charitable men of his time with most his efforts going to kids charities. And even in Snakes death, he was still teaching by bringing further attention to CTE and it being a real thing and may have helped prolong some teammates lives. It's still true that the worst part of a snake is it's bite but his bite was a pass downfield because the sting the defense felt afterwards.

I waited a while for this book when I read I found it to be average. In Ken's autobiography he said Isabel was his first wife and Debby was his second. I find it interesting that he didn't mention his kids in his book and Freeman mentions it often in the new one. Miami never played Oakland in a super bowl as they are in the same conference and he just glanced over his Houston and new Orleans days and I found the book at points repetitive and dull. Stabler was a heck of a competitor and a great leader. What he did in his personal life was his businessI give three stars to this. Freeman skipped through to many parts to make it complete

I liked the read. Good history of the life of Stabler. He to me was one of the great. I really enjoyed the book.I wished now I would have gotten the hard copy rather then the paper back.

If you want a giant belly laugh, read this. Ken Stabler and The Raiders were one of a kind!

I found this book both informative and well written. While not a Raiders fan I grew up watching Stabler time after time make a play that would send the team I rooted for home in defeat. He truly was an amazing player and it is a disgrace to the Hall of Fame that they waited so long to induct him! There were many things I didn't know about Ken Stabler that I learned in this book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because I would have liked to seen more written about the many games he played in. The game that made him famous was largely overlooked in my opinion, but still a good read about the man himself.