Denver Broncos kicker Jason Elam drew on declassified battle reports from Afghanistan and Secret Service contact revelations about security operations for his debut novel, Monday Night Jihad, to be released next month by Tyndale House Publishers, he has told ESPN.

Co-authored with his pastor Steve Yohn, the book tells the story of a professional linebacker who returns to his former Special Ops life to try to stop a terrorist attack by Muslim radicals and was his "opportunity to cover my three passions: football, current events and my faith," Elam said.

Elam said that his novel, which also draws on personal experiences from missionary trips to the Middle East, was not intended to "demonize the other faith." " I know there'll be Muslim people who, without reading it, will feel I'm attacking them," he said. "That's the opposite of my intent. I think they'll even agree with how I went about this."

Elam told of how he was caught in the middle of a firefight once on a visit to Gaza. "It was like a movie. Guys with black masks fired AK-47s. ... I was holed up in the pastor's house for a weekend while the battle went on."

The rookie author said that he knew some people would "have issues" with his terrorist theme. "Since 9/11, it's almost something we don't want to think about," he told ESPN. But the reality is there are many radical Muslims in America. I feel I've come up with a nightmare scenario that we're going to have to deal with here."