Don Yaeger is an American author and public speaker. He is an

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

- Certified Speaking Professional and eSpeakers-Certified Virtual Speaker. He has authored and co-authored 30 books, including 11 New York Times best-sellers. Yaeger graduated from Ball State University in 1984. He worked as a reporter for the

San Antonio Light The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of ...

from 1984 to 1985, as a reporter and Capitol Bureau Chief for the ''Dallas Morning News'' from 1986 to 1990, and as writer and Associate Editor for

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

from 1996 to 2008.

Writing

Yaeger co-authored the autobiography of Pro-Football Hall of Fame Chicago Bears running back

Walter Payton Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1953Although most sources at the time of his death gave Payton's birth year as 1954, reliable sources subsequently state he was born in 1953. – November 1, 1999) was an American football running back who played ...

''Never Die Easy''
He has co-authored with other notable sports figures such as former

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

head basketball coach John Wooden,

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Chicago Cubs Manager David Ross, former NFL

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

offensive tackle

Michael Oher Michael Jerome Oher (; né Williams Jr.; born May 28, 1986) is a former American football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football at t ...

, and Masters Tournament champion Bubba Watson. Yaeger co-authored, with former Duke University lacrosse head coach

Mike Pressler Mike Pressler (born February 27, 1960) is an American lacrosse coach. He has been the head coach of the Bryant Bulldogs since 2007. He served as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils for 16 seasons until he was forced to resign during the Duke l ...

''It's Not About The Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives it Shattered''
which accounts for events during the 2006

Duke lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Evans, Collin ...

. Yaeger co-authored, with

Brian Kilmeade Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, '' Fox & Friends'', and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade S ...

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

''George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution''''Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History''
an
''Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America's Destiny''

Publications

# ''Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed its Ideals for Football Glory'' (Simon & Schuster, 1993, with Douglas S Looney, ) # ''Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton'' (Villard, 2000, with Walter Payton, ) # ''Ya Gotta Believe: My Roller-Coaster Life As a Screwball Pitcher and Part-Time Father, and My Hope Filled Fight Against Brain Cancer'' (New American Library, 2004, with Tug McGraw, ) # ''It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Scandal and the Lives it Shattered'' (2007) # ''I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and Beyond'' (Gotham Books, 2011, with

, ) # ''Play it Like You Mean it: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World's Most Beautiful Game'' (Don Yaeger with

Rex Ryan Rex Ashley Ryan (born December 13, 1962) is an American former football coach and analyst. Ryan was formerly the head coach of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL), and also held various coaching position ...

, 2011, ) # ''Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went From Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur'' (Portfolio/Penguin, 2011, with Ryan Blair, ) # ''George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution'' (Sentinel, 2013, Don Yaeger with

, ) # ''Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History'' (Sentinel, 2015, Don Yaeger with

, ) #'' Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job?'' (2008) #''Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently'' #''Greatness : The 16 Characteristics of True Champions'' #''1% Better'' #''Best Seat in the House: 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son'' #''You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For'' (Don Yaeger with Kyle Carpenter, 2019) #''Banana Ball with Jesse Cole (''Dutton (May 16, 2023, ASIN: B0B9WPBY5K )

Media

Yaeger also hosts the "''Corporate Competitor Podcast''" which focuses on how successful business leaders learned lessons from sports. Guests have included former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, CEOs of Disney, Delta Airlines, Bank of America, Hendrick Motorsports, KPMG, FanDuel, Chick-fil-A, Insight Enterprises, TopGolf, Mayo Clinic, BET Media and Ritz Carlton.

Personal life

Don Yaeger resides in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife and two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaeger, Don Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people American sports journalists Ball State University alumni American political journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers