Bleachers (novel)

Bleachers is a book by American author John Grisham. The hardcover edition (ISBN 0-385-51161-2) was published on September 9, 2003 and the paperback (ISBN 0-440-24200-2) was published on June 22, 2004. The hardcover edition was published by Doubleday and the paperback edition by Dell.

The book focuses on whether or not the famous Eddie Rake, former coach of the Messina High School football team, was loved or hated by his former players.

Main characters

Neely Crenshaw (born 1969) is a fictional high school All-American quarterback, who was Messina's golden boy who was going to lead them to the state title.

"Number 19 was a high school all-American, a highly recruited quarterback with a golden arm, fast feet, plenty of size, maybe the greatest Messina ever produced", the book mentions in its opening pages. When Neely was younger, he was out playing football with his friends and a man was watching him. After the game the man came up to Neely and said "You're going to play football for the Spartans.

In 1987, trailing 31-0 at halftime to East Pike, crippled by a broken hand, and without the assistance of legendary head football coach Eddie Rake due to an incident in the locker room at half time, the gutsy quarterback rallied the Spartans to a 34-31 victory for Messina's first state championship in seven years.

The following season, his high school number was retired at Messina. No number had been retired since.

After graduation, Crenshaw received 31 scholarship...
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