After seventeen years as the team physician for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, Dr. Pierce Scranton describes the frenzied world of treating injured professional athletes while also coping with team owners, general managers, head coaches, and agents. Scranton examines the medical controversies surrounding the sport, conveys the excitement of walking the sidelines during a game, and describes the anguish of tending to a player who has been seriously injured. From the annual winter combine and draft day to the playoffs and the off-season operating table, Playing Hurt is an absorbing, behind-the-scenes look at medicine in the NFL.