Greg Hansen : Dobyns' life with Hells Angels soon to be book, then movie

When I spoke with the former Sahuaro High School and UA football player a few weeks ago, I asked: True story or a twisted rumor?

"Your house burning down isn't a rumor," he said. "It's horrifying."

Dobyns chose not to talk about the August fire, which began at 3:30 on a Sunday morning and caused about $30,000 in damages. He would not say where he lived, nor confirm that his wife and two teenage children were at home during the Tucson fire.

"My family is fine," he said. "Maybe you can understand why I won't go into detail."

I understand that from 2001 to 2003, Jay Dobyns, a wide receiver of uncommon toughness in his UA days, 1980-83, infiltrated the Hells Angels as an undercover agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I understand the Hells Angels have made five known threats on his life. I understand he has periodically been on the run, moving from one state to another, in an attempt to protect his well-being.

But until he supplied me with an advance copy of his new book, "NO ANGEL: My Harrowing Undercover Journey To the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels," I didn't understand the degree of his penetration into such darkness.

It is such an absorbing drama that 20th Century Fox has purchased movie rights to Jay Dobyns' life story. And it won't be about that last-minute touchdown pass he caught to beat UCLA in 1983.

"I obviously want to sell books, but 'No Angel' is not for everybody," Dobyns says. "It's a rough story about a rough life, and sometimes it's told in rough terms. I don't want my friends mad at me because they bought it for their kids and later found it to be too aggressive. Consider yourself warned."

I read Dobyns' book in two days. It made me sick. It made me feel dirty, almost depressed, but I still couldn't put it down. It is not new turf; movies were made and books were written about the undercover work done by 1960s New York City policeman Frank Serpico and 1980s FBI agent Donnie Brasco. Dobyns' book/movie will become part of this disturbing serial.

The 340-page narrative nonfiction book, distributed by Crown Publishers of New York, will be available nationally Feb.10 (information: jaydobyns.com).

Until now, Tucson's sketch of Jay Dobyns, ex-Wildcat, has been brief.

He was a big part of those powerhouse Sahuaro teams of the late '70s. After initially enrolling at Arkansas, Dobyns returned home and became an over-the-middle, possession receiver for Larry Smith's teams that stunned No. 1 USC, undefeated Notre Dame.

Not soon after Dobyns graduated from Arizona, the rookie ATF officer was taken hostage and shot through the chest in the desert near Sahuarita. This is when the post-football picture of Dobyns began to come into focus.

"Getting cheered by 80,000 football fans was an incredible feeling," he writes, "but it didn't even register when compared to the rush of walking the line between life and death when no one was watching."

Long before he infiltrated the Hells Angels, Dobyns was a daredevil without a motorcycle. The rush he got from chasing bad guys became addictive.

His book doesn't leave out any of the sordid details. He became, he writes, a "unit of fear; a spoke in the wheel of violence." The book isn't as much about the Hells Angels as it is about Dobyns' evolution from crime-fighter to a trusted part of a twisted brotherhood.

The book's most compelling pieces are those that touch on Dobyns' periodic re-entries into civilian life. Can you imagine what it must have been like to spend two weeks in the presence of a career criminal whose idea of a good day is to drink 16 beers, beat up his girlfriend and arrange to buy $1,000 worth of illegal guns — and to then drive home to work in the yard and barbecue with your family and friends?

"The truth is, the Hells Angels were becoming my family," Dobyns writes. Sometimes he would lie in bed, unable to sleep, weeping about the turmoil created by his double life.

In the years since his penetration of the Hells Angels, Dobyns, 46, has become a motivational speaker for the ATF while simultaneously going public with criticisms about the bureau's inability to keep him and his family safe or to properly meet its financial obligations.

Much like Dobyns' spirit for adventure and his passion for risk, nothing is off-limits in "No Angel."

I absorbed the book. I can't wait for the movie.