Johnnie Callum was a half-grown boy when Donovan’s riders stamped his parents’ homestead flat and sent him running terrified into the night. He ran far and fast over the trackless range that was Donovan’s empire and fetched up in the hands of Josh Manders, a brutal sheepherder. Manders worked him hard and in six years came near to breaking Johnnie’s spirit. But not near enough. Finally, there came a day when Johnnie’s resentment took charge and his big, bony hands wrapped around Manders’ throat in an unshakable hold. Johnnie took Manders’ horse and then worked for Sam Stevens. But when Donovan was all set up to wipe out Stevens’ ranch Johnnie began to get gun-minded!

For the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters and ABC's college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation's most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Saunders discusses his troubled childhood, the traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2011, and the severe depression that nearly cost him his life. As Saunders writes, Playing Hurt is not an autobiography of a sports celebrity but a memoir of a man facing his own mental illness, and emerging better off for the effort. I will take you into the heart of my struggle with depression, including insights into some of its causes, its consequences, and its treatments.I invite you behind the facade of my apparently "perfect" life as a sportscaster, with a wonderful wife and two healthy, happy adult daughters. I have a lot to...