I write to recommend Joe Zagorski’s book, The 2003-Yard Odyssey: The Juice, The Electric Company, and an Epic Run For a Record. This book tells a story that had to be told but hadn’t been until now. It tells the story of Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson’s run to a record during the 1973 NFL season.

            Any book about Simpson faces scrutiny. The controversial nature of Simpson’s post-football years can’t be – frankly should not be – erased from public memory. Zagorski addresses that issue, briefly, early in the book. “This is a football book, first and foremost,” Zagorski wrote, “And it should be kept in that vein of thought.”

            Joe Zagorski is a fellow member of the Professional Football Researchers Association and an author of several books. He has been awarded the PFRA’s Ralph Hay Award for Lifetime Achievement for Pro Football Research and Historiography. A respected researcher, Zagorski is currently working on a biography of Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman Larry Little.

            For Odyssey, Zagorski delved deeply into how the Bills and Simpson generated the first-ever 2,000-plus yard season for a running back. In 1973, NFL teams played 14-game regular seasons. The Bills did not reach the playoffs that season.

Using a wide assortment of first-person recollections and contemporary accounts, Zagorski uses the words of the players to bring the reader to understand how it all happened. Prince among the interviews was Zagorski’s 2022 conversation with Simpson. That alone ensures that Odyssey will be a prime source for researchers in the future. The reader will see that Simpson discussed a variety of football topics, including the effort the other members of the Buffalo offense had to make for Simpson to surpass the 2,000-yard barrier. Yes, Simpson was a controversial interview subject. But the story could not have been so effectively told without his participation and, as noted above, Zagorski checks an historic box.

            Odyssey is well constructed, and the research is top-notch. Zagorski devotes a chapter to each offensive position group; the line’s center and guards, the tackles and tight ends, the receivers, quarterbacks and running backs. Zagorski even includes a chapter about Buffalo’s defense. Each game is reviewed and each one of Simpson’s 332 carries are noted by down, distance, yard line, the type of play and the result. Those statistics are not stuck in the back of the book. They are included in the chapter which reviews each game, making this an easier book to read. Too often in today’s world, important information is noted at the end of books. That makes it unlikely that some readers will ever see the data. In this book, those stats are right where the reader is. When Zagorski wrote that this is a football book, he was exactly correct. Even the hard-core fan will gain a better understanding of what happened in each game, rush by rush.

            It is a tribute to Zagorski that Marv Levy, a Buffalo Bills legend who was not involved with the Bills in 1973, wrote the forward for this book. Levy wrote, “I mean, where else would you rather be, than right here, right now, reading this great book about Buffalo’s great past?”

            That’s how I feel about this book. I remember watching the highlight shows in 1973 to see how Simpson did each week as his yardage piled up. I wondered at that time how any back and any team could run the ball so well against NFL defenses every week. I’ve read Odyssey and now I know the answer.

I recommend that you do the same.

 

Lee Elder

Executive Director

Professional Football Researchers Association