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Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto (2014)

by Steve Almond(Favorite Author)

4.25 of 5 Votes: 6

ISBN

161219415X (ISBN13: 9781612194158)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Melville House

review 1: This may be the most important book I have read all year. If you play football, watch football, or simply know what football is, you should read this book. Written by someone who has been a lifelong fan of the NFL, this book takes an honest and serious look at the power of football in the lives of nearly every person in the country and asks important questions about how we look at and treat the game. Regardless of your current stance on football, this should be on your reading list.
review 2: Here in the thick of football season, this might not be a book that you want to read.But if you wait, you'll regret it.I know how this sounds. A nerd librarian writing about a book that is anti-football. I couldn't fulfill the stereotype any more than I am right now. You c... morean only wear so many pairs of glasses on chains simultaneously before it just doesn't make sense anymore. But author Steve Almond is a red-blooded American football fan. Or, at least, he WAS a football fan. And I guess I'm assuming about his blood.The true struggle of this book is that it's against football, but it's written by one of football's true fans. Almond talks about the fact that football still holds a lot of pleasures for fans, but the way the NFL runs, the health and safety of players, and HOLY COW, the health and safety of adolescents have made it impossible for Almond to enjoy football as it stands. He's like someone who really liked veal and then discovered how it's made. It still tastes good, but the emotional toll isn't worth it anymore.I encourage you to read this book. It might make you mad. If you're like me and have fond memories of Junior Seau, it's so heartbreaking. So devastating to learn about the mental health of NFL stars.If you're a parent, if your child plays or is considering it, if you sit on a school board, if you're an athletic director or a coach, I implore you to read this book, and to read it with an open mind and an open heart. You might react to it differently than I did, and you are within your rights to do so. But this information is out there, and if you choose to ignore all of this, you don't do so at your own peril. You do so at the risk of your child's welfare, brain activity, and emotional health over the rest of his life.~Peter less

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