Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Mike Sielski on why he wrote a book about ‘Rocky’

Rocky is the most famous sports-movie franchise of all time. Since the original debuted in 1976, it has spawned eight additional films in the Rocky Cinematic Universe. There’s even another Rocky movie titled I Play Rocky coming out in November. 

The story of an underdog boxer who gets a championship title shot endures as a pop-culture phenomenon. Few fictional characters are as closely associated with a city as Rocky Balboa is with Philadelphia. More people visit the Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art than the Liberty Bell.

A new book by Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Mike Sielski offers a behind-the-scenes look at the first Rocky film. Going the Distance: Stallone, Philly, and the Story of Rocky will be released on Nov. 10 and is now available for pre-order. We recently caught up with Sielski to discuss Going the Distance.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

What led you to write this?

Mike Sielski: “It was actually my agent’s suggestion. I was hunting around for topics and wasn’t coming up with anything. She pointed out that the fall of 2026 was going to mark the 50th anniversary of Rocky‘s release. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a really good idea. I think a lot of people feel like they know the story behind how Sylvester Stallone came to make the movie. But nobody’s written the definitive account of it. They all get their stories pieced together from interviews Stallone and other people have done over the years, or from documentaries and interview shows about how they made the movie. But nobody’s compiled all of that and maybe gone a layer or two deeper to tell the story about how Rocky came to be.”

Why should someone buy your book?

“I think anyone who has seen and appreciated the movie will love the book. I really think it’s the first and definitive telling of the story behind the making of the movie. It gets into (Sylvester) Stallone. It’s part biography of Stallone, part tale of the movie. There are anecdotes and narrative threads that have never been written about before.

“For instance, there’s an unsolved murder connected to Rocky that very few people know about and that I get into in the book. I was able to speak to Bill Conti, the composer of all the music for the movie. The movie was revolutionary in some ways. If you’re interested in a piece of sociological history and storytelling about Philadelphia, I think the book is a great look at what Philadelphia was back at that time. And it will inform you as to why the city is the way it is and why people here are the way we are. I think it’s just a fun read.”

“And if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.”
Coming Nov. 10, 2026. pic.twitter.com/vxduFh8nl2

— Mike Sielski (@MikeSielski) December 14, 2025

Is there a specific detail in your book that surprised you?

“The fact that Stallone and Carl Weathers did not get along all that well. I spoke to Carl Weathers’ former wife, and she went into some detail about the alpha-male energy crackling between them at the time of the auditions and in their relationship thereafter. .. So that was one detail that stood out to me was that there was some animosity, some rivalry there between those guys.”

What else surprised you?

“The details of Stallone’s trip from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to prepare to shoot the movie were really interesting to me. He decided to stop eating carbohydrates because he had read somewhere that carbohydrates increased and stoked brain activity. He wanted to make himself ‘dumber’ to be able to play Rocky Balboa. So he was eating a lot of shrimp and other shellfish, but he basically stopped eating bread. This is another cool detail. He thought this was working because, in the weeks leading up to filming, he had suddenly come to really like country music. He thought that was a sign that he was actually losing intelligence.”

How much cooperation did you receive from Sylvester Stallone?

“I didn’t sit down and speak to him. We exchanged emails, and I do have some insights from him in the book. He has his own memoir coming out later this year called The Steps. I imagine he wants more people to pay attention to that than to my book. But I did get emails from him. I was able to get his email address from a source and persuade him to answer some questions. I think readers are going to be really interested in the way he comes off when answering those questions. He did lend some insight. He did confirm some details. And this was one of the challenges of doing the book. I say this explicitly in the preface. There were a lot of details, a lot of things Stallone has said over the years that seemed too outlandish to be true. Then I went through and fact-checked a lot of them, and a lot of them were true.”

Which Rocky story proved false?

“Stallone has loved to tell a story over the years about Butkus, the bullmastiff who was in the movie and was his dog before the movie was made. He says he was so destitute that he had to sell Butkus to make money. So he’s standing outside this corner store with the dog, and whoever the dog shows affection to, he’ll sell the dog to that person. Then he gets the deal for Rocky. And of course, there are scenes for Butkus written into the script. So he’s got to get Butkus back somehow. He reaches back out to the guy who bought Butkus from him. To make a long story short, the guy tries to sell Butkus back to him for an exorbitant sum of money. Stallone doesn’t have that money. The compromise is that Stallone puts the guy in the movie. Stallone has been telling the story for years and years, and it really makes the guy sound like a jerk.”

What really happened?

“Well, the guy at the center of that story is named Jimmy Gambina. That’s not how it played out at all. Jimmy Gambina worked in Hollywood for years. He had been a boxing trainer. The story is completely different, and Jimmy has been living with it for close to 50 years, hearing this story get told over and over again about how he’s the guy who almost prevented Butkus from being in the movie. It’s not true at all. I talked to Jimmy Gambina at length about this.”

Could you give an example of a Rocky story you were able to verify?

“I was able to verify a number of details from Stallone’s childhood. He gave a long interview to Playboy magazine in 1978, which I was able to get my hands on. It’s a rare interview. I don’t even know if it’s online anymore. I actually found a copy of the Playboy edition on eBay and bought it.

“He goes into great detail about his high school years and his entry into drama and acting. He describes trying out for a play at Lincoln High School in Northeast Philadelphia. For a long while, I couldn’t find any evidence that this play even existed. But during my research, I came across some information related to Lincoln High School. An old yearbook and a couple of old documents actually verified that everything Stallone said about that story was true. So I’m able to verify how he got into acting in the first place.”

Switching topics, how do Philadelphia fans feel about LeBron James joining the 76ers?

“I think we’re still in the honeymoon phase. I wrote a column comparing LeBron joining the Sixers to Michael Jordan’s last two years in the NBA with the Washington Wizards. I reread When Nothing Else Matters by Michael Leahy, the book about Jordan’s two years in Washington. I drew some lessons from that book that could apply to the Sixers and LeBron this time around.

“Look, once the NBA season starts, there’ll be a wave of excitement again from Sixers fans. The town will be on fire for this team and what it might be able to do. But as soon as the Sixers lose a game or two, this is Philadelphia. There are going to be people worried that LeBron’s causing problems, or he’s too old, or Jaylen Brown isn’t fitting in. Is Joel Embiid healthy, and what is this doing to Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe? We’ve got lots of time for the panic to set in.”

Speaking of panic, how do fans feel about the Eagles?

“I think there’s a little bit of wait-and-see because of Sean Mannion’s presence as the new offensive coordinator. Generally, fans and media alike are curious about how the season will unfold and what it will mean for the franchise going forward. Because for all the debate and discussion he stokes on Twitter, on sports debate shows, and among fans and the media, Jalen Hurts, as successful as he’s been as an NFL quarterback, really is at a crossroads this season.

“The Eagles went out and got Sean Mannion for a reason. They think he’s a bright young mind, and they wanted to take their offense in a new direction. It’s entirely plausible that if this doesn’t go well, Jalen Hurts may not be the quarterback for the Eagles next season. So, there’s a spotlight on him.”