By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez
It wasn’t long after writer Donald Badaczewski first met his friend John Nies more than 20 years ago, that he thought the life of the former NFL player-turned fashion model and actor, turned fitness guru, with all its adventures, successes and mishaps, would make a great book.
“It’s kind of funny to say, but it’s a Great American story,” said Badaczewski, whose recently published book “Punt: The True Story of John Nies” is available on Amazon.
“John is handsome and at one point he was going to be Batman,” Badaczewski said of his friend who seemed to lead a charmed life. Until life changed.
“It’s about what happens when that story gets turned on its head,” he said.
New Jersey-born Nies, owner of Nies Wellness (previously the Power Center), a group fitness and personal training program, attended Red Bank Catholic and Ocean Township high schools, was a sixth-round pick (154th overall) in the 1990 NFL draft out of University of Arizona to the Buffalo Bills where he played for one year as a punter. Along with his younger brother Eric, Nies subsequently modeled, acted and hosted ESPN programs.
When Nies was cut from the Bills, his life spiraled into a “dark adventure” peppered with orgies, black tar heroin, marijuana kingpins, NFL tryouts and auditions for the role of Batman.
But life changed for the better. After a paradigm-shifting experience with a Kung Fu Grandmaster, in early 2000 Nies created an intense personal and group fitness training business.
His trademark training style “East West Chi” is a fusion of Eastern health and wellness philosophies and more contemporary Western training techniques.
Badaczewski is also a musician and had written scripts before tackling the Nies story. “I did my best to try to write it for everyone,” he said of the new book, “breaking chapters into four quarters, like a football game. And for those who don’t love sports, I wanted to make it interesting for them, too.”
He warns the story includes mentions of sexual orgies, drugs and more. “It gets very dirty,” he laughed. “I won’t let my mother read it.” He likens the nonfiction story and its cover to a “little black book.”
“The book starts and ends in Jersey,” said Badaczewski, “from when John was a kid and a high school football coach notices he’s punting beautifully.”
Until now, when through his fitness training and speaking engagements Nies focuses on prevention of illness, discipline and overcoming addictions, anxieties and other afflictions.
“He has shed that skin and is ready to help,” Badaczewski said.
“The book is about breath,” Badaczewski said. “About finding and centering oneself and being able to navigate oneself through life.”
amazon.com/PUNTTrue-Story-John-Nies
The article originally appeared in the May 21 – 27, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
