Mind and matter A life in math and football

How many other professional football players share John Urschel's obsession with the arcane formulas of vector calculus? With the authorial assistance of Louisa Thomas, Urschel recounts the unusual life course that made him simultaneously an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens and a PhD candidate in mathematics at MIT. To explain this exceptional trajectory, Urschel revisits formative moments in his childhood: joining his mother at the kitchen table to complete sudoku puzzles; accompanying his father to the office, where he first sees an unforgettable photograph of his dad in a university football uniform. Readers then follow Urschel through the academic and athletic rigors that expose the sharp contrasts and surprising connections between the two passions that shape his life one taxing his brain with proofs and calculations, the other toughening his muscles with gridiron competition. The candid narrative conveys both the intellectual excitement of mathematically formulating the irregularities of an asteroid's orbit and the physical trauma of sustaining a concussion in blocking a blitzing linebacker. A piquantly improbable memoir.--Bryce Christensen Copyright 2019 Booklist

Urschel, a former guard for the Baltimore Ravens, shares his lifelong attempts to reconcile math and football in his captivating memoir. Urschel recalls his childhood attraction to puzzles; they gave him a glimpse of a more logical and orderly world than the one in which he lived as the child of divorced parents. By middle school in Buffalo, N.Y., Urschel, bigger than many of his classmates, wanted to play football in order to fit in. While his lawyer mother encouraged him to develop his considerable intellectual abilities, his father, a surgeon, urged him to develop his football skills. In alternating chapters he recounts his pursuits in both: he enrolled at Penn State in 2010, where he played football and studied math. After graduating, he was drafted in 2014 by the Baltimore Ravens, with whom he played for three seasons; in 2016, he enrolled as a PhD candidate at MIT. Math, Urschel writes, "gives me a way of making sense of the world. It helps me see past the confusion of everyday life and glimpse the underlying structures of the universe." Urschel's brilliant memoir explores the challenges of making difficult choices and the rewards of following one's passions in life. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.