Honolulu Blues

“Sharp, funny, and relatable, this memoir is about navigating the ups and downs of life and football fandom with skill . . . An ideal book for sports fans.” —Foreword Reviews

The story of the Detroit Lions is the story of being human—carving your own path out of the ruts of the past and accepting that you don’t have to win to be worth rooting for.

The city of Detroit and its football team have been a punchline since the 1960s; the Same Old Lions seem to have losing baked into their DNA.

Joel Walkowski grew up a poor kid from the Midwest, cut from the same cloth as his loveable, eccentric father, Banjo Bob, who pushed forward down the field amidst his autism, alcoholism, and severe childhood trauma. They saw each other most clearly on Sundays, coming together as the twelfth man on the sidelines of a team whose history looks a lot like theirs: seasons full of promise upended by a penchant for falling short.

Born and raised to be an addict, Joel is hooked on Adderall by age seven and hops on the fast track to a life of alcoholism, homelessness, and worst of all, a career in stand-up comedy. He holds his head high because he, like his family and their beloved team, is supposed to lose. But as he learns from the Lions what his father couldn’t teach him, Joel charts a hard-won path to sobriety while caring for his dying dad, confronting the difference between failing and never having been set up to succeed.

In Honolulu Blues,Joel intertwines the fate of two losers—the Detroit Lions and himself—to explore the broader impact a city’s football team can have on its residents, proving that you can overcome anything if you can learn to love what disappoints you. A comedic play-by-play of historic gridiron failure marked by stunning almost wins and saw-it-coming losses, this book positions Lions lore as the backdrop for exploring themes of generational trauma, addiction, mental illness, and death.