One Moment Changes Everything: Book Description

Monday, August 13, 2007

Book Description

Born into poverty but blessed with stunning good looks, charisma, and unmatched athletic prowess, the Rogers siblings—Don, Reggie, and Jackie—illuminated Sacramento’s nightly skies throughout the 1980s. Their highlight-reel performances on area football fields and basketball courts garnered All-City, and later All-West Coast, All-Pac-10, and All-America honors.

The trio had the world at their feet.

Then, one moment—on June 27, 1986—changed our country and our way of life forever. Just one week after Len Bias’ fatal overdose, a single dose of cocaine killed Don Rogers, tearing his family apart at the seams and catalyzing an American public who demanded that the government attack the crack-cocaine epidemic, which Newsweek was calling, “the biggest story since Vietnam.”

Yet, as Don’ death sent seismic shocks throughout the nation, his family struggled to pick up the pieces after such epicentral devastation; and without Don’s guidance, the once indestructible Rogers family eroded into despair. After her brother died, Jackie Rogers—once the most promising female basketball player in California—turned her back on the hardwood forever. Then Reggie Rogers, without Don by his side, embarked upon a path of ill-fated decisions that would lead him to a hell ruled by his own personal demons.

Drug dealers, All-America athletes, crooked agents, the Mafia, racism, prison, a multibillion-dollar war, the changing face of a nation, and the love that kept one family together—One Moment Changes Everything examines a not-too-distant era when mainstream America and its star athletes, from coast to coast, were losing their careers, and their lives, to cocaine.

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Sean D. Harvey

Sean Harvey is a freelance writer and editor who battled Sacramento legends and future NFL stars Don and Reggie Rogers on the courts and fields of their rival high schools, before going on to coach their sister, Jackie, in summer basketball tournaments around Sacramento. Later, while Don and Reggie became college stars elsewhere on the West Coast, Harvey became a two-year varsity letterman wide receiver at San Jose State University. He spent five years working in New York, primarily as a manager for Authors and Artists Group, a Manhattan-based literary agency. Harvey resides in Berkeley, CA.

Quotes and Praise

"On [cocaine’s] casualty list you'll find the poor, the middle class, the rich and famous—hundreds, even thousands, per year dead. Who has not felt the heartache of hearing the news of a friend or family member, someone who had so much to live for but is now gone forever? . . . Len Bias and Don Rogers, gifted athletes who had so much more to achieve, [were] only two of the most recent fatalities. . . . All those in the sports world should understand what a real force for good they could be."
Ronald Reagan - 40th President of the United States

"If Don Rogers … could die a similar death as Len Bias’ just eight days later, you have to wonder how many people said, as Bias did, ‘Well, it won’t happen to me."
Michael Wilbon - The Washington Post

“Don Rogers was the most natural and instinctive player I’ve ever had in my 30 years of coaching; and his untimely death had a devastating impact on me. One Moment Changes Everything is an impressive and shocking chronicle of the life of Donnie Rogers.”
MARTY SCHOTTENHEIMER - Three-time NFL Head Coach of the Year

“One Moment Changes Everything provides an honest peek into the lives of the Rogers family, an unmatched collection of ‘can’t-miss’ talent that seemed to create every possible edge to escape the inner-city traps that claimed their neighbors. Author Sean Harvey digs beyond the headlines and news clips and reveals exactly what went wrong.”
CHRIS DE LUCA - Chicago Sun-Times

“Displaying a rich knowledge of the California sports scene that launched Don Rogers and an astonishing eye for detail, Sean Harvey tells a story that was begging to be told for nearly two decades. Through every page, I was struck by his insight into how the cocaine ‘80s fueled the Rogers tragedy. When I learned years ago about his passing so soon after the death of Len Bias, I thought of him as foolish. Harvey explains how the arrogance of the time was epidemic among those with money and how the repercussions of Rogers’ death went far beyond anything I’d imagined.”
MIKE DECOURCY - The Sporting News

"Don Rogers was as good as it gets. He was physical, explosive, athletic, and could influence a game like few players I have ever seen. His tragic death was a tremendous loss for all of us who admired him for the kind of person and player he was. His death brought home how fragile all of us are as human beings. I miss him, and I think about him everyday."
TERRY DONAHUE - former UCLA football coach and NFL general manager, and current football analyst

"One Moment Changes Everything, an amazing debut for writer Sean D. Harvey, is a remarkable story that reassesses the 'American Dream' of superstardom and success. Documenting the complexities of one African-American family who produced three star athletes - but with tragic effects - this book reminds us how the forces of race and class are powerfully intertwined and inescapable in America"
DWIGHT A. MCBRIDE - Leon Forrest Professor and Chair of African-American Studies at Northwestern University

"One Moment Changes Everything is about more than one family’s tragedy. It is a snapshot of time and place during a turning point in American sports and culture. Sean Harvey does an excellent job of chronicling the sad events of the Rogers’ family, and an even better job of placing them in the proper social context."
TIM KEOWN - Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine