Gerry Sandusky has spent a lifetime on the sidelines of the NFL.
The radio play-by-play voice of the Ravens grew up the son of an NFL football coach and has reported on the game for 26 years as a Baltimore broadcaster.
Now Sandusky is sharing those stories in a book that will be released next week. The book is titled "Forgotten Sundays: A Son's Story of Love, Loss and Life from the Sidelines of the NFL," and it's the first of Sandusky's career.
"Having grown up in the NFL, I've always wanted to share with people life outside of those three hours on Sunday," Sandusky said.
Sandusky's book details some of his experiences of watching and learning football through the eyes of his father. John Sandusky* *coached for 36 years and spent 13 as the offensive line coach for the Baltimore Colts. He also played seven seasons in the NFL.
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Sandusky shares stories throughout his father's life, including the five-year battle he had with Alzheimer's disease before he died in 2006.
The book also features a forward from Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh, who grew up in a football family of his own.
"He shares the fact that he and I have a unique bond in that we both grew up as coaches' sons. That's why it was so important to me for him to write the forward," Sandusky said. "It wasn't just the fact that he's a coach and a successful coach, but he's a coaches' son. Coaches' sons see the world differently. We take this journey with our fathers and we see the man outside of the spotlight, and we see the amount of work that goes into it."
In addition to recounting how his life was shaped by growing up in the NFL, Sandusky also writes about how his life was impacted in 2011 by the Penn State child molestation scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. He has no connection to the Penn State coach outside of having the same name, but that didn't stop him from facing ridicule.
Sandusky had to deal with hatred on social media and he grew accustomed to the nervous looks he received whenever he introduced himself. He even started introducing himself as "Gerry with a 'G.'"
People routinely suggested to Sandusky that he change name, but that was never an option for him.
"So many people were asking me, 'Why don't you just change your name?' It became such a point of trying to express to people that the value of a name is a stewardship in life of what the man before you has left you," Sandusky said.
"Knowing the life my father led, and knowing all of the things he stood for. There was no way I would ever change my name. Success isn't just defined by what you're willing to do, it's also defined by what you're not willing to do. That really created the book end by which the book was built."
"Forgotten Sundays" is currently available for purchase on Amazon.
