Deceptive Speed: Eddie Lee Ivery’s Run Through Tech, Titletown, and Temptation

DECEPTIVE SPEED vividly tells the compelling, inspiring story of Eddie Lee Ivery’s journey from a tiny ramshackle home with no plumbing, to a prestigious engineering university, to an NFL storied franchise--where he played for the team’s venerated former superstar Bart Starr. After two devastating injuries to the same knee, how did Ivery will his way to a 9-year NFL career? How did he become homeless? How did he climb out of his self-destructive drug addiction? Ivery broke almost every Georgia Tech rushing record, including his spectacular NCAA-record-breaking single-game 356 yards. In 1979, the Green Bay Packers picked Ivery in the first round and expected him to help restore glory to Titletown. Living an exhilarating star athlete life, Ivery lied to and manipulated family and friends for years. The addiction program where he finally became clean began with a counselor saying, ＂Eddie Lee, we don’t care who you were before.＂ Only then did true recovery begin.

Jerry Gentry is a former hospice chaplain drawn to people who starkly and honestly describe their lives. He holds an MDiv in Pastoral Care and a PhD in Social Ethics from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Gentry writes about culture, religion, and politics, and is the author of GRADY BABY: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF ATLANTA’S GRADY HOSPITAL.